Browse English learning websites and select one or two good ones from which you can learn. Look for sites that cover all aspects of the English language -- listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Find sites that explain grammar and sentence construction with lot of real life examples and have interactive tests you can use to monitor your progress. Take up the tests and quizzes provided on websites, such as Learn 4 Good and Test my English. These will help you check your grammar and comprehension skills and identify areas in which you are deficient. Check if you need improvement in written or spoken English. Get feedback from your family and friends about how you speak English. If this is not possible, tape yourself speaking English and listen to the recording. Compare how you sound with the way people speak on television or radio and in movies. Find out if you need to improve your grammar, pronunciation and sentence formation, whether you need to sound more formal or informal and if people find it easy to understand when you communicate in English.
Determine the level of proficiency you require. Consider the reason you need to better your English: understand information from books and the Internet, take up a course that is delivered in English, enjoy English movies and television programs or improve your chances of employment. For example, learning English to take the Test Of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) will require greater skill than that required to communicate better with colleagues at work. Writing sales letters to prospective customers will need formal English skills, while managing kids at a day care center will call for knowledge of informal, colloquial language. Getting hired at a job will require a level of English higher than that needed to enjoy English movies.
Decide the specific learning goal you wish to achieve in concrete terms. If you find yourself unable to speak fluent English, saying "I will improve my spoken English" is vague, while "I will improve my ability to talk English with my colleagues by taking up a spoken English class and gain proficiency in three months" is more specific. In such a case, attending a classroom course is more beneficial because you can learn pronunciation and practice speaking with your instructor and course mates -- something which is not possible in an online class.
Choose a goal that is immediately achievable considering your current knowledge. For example, if you are a non-native speaker of English, being able to form coherent sentences will be a realistic and achievable goal; being able to write an article for a newsletter will have to come later. Set simple goals to do each of these every day: read one page of an English book, read an English newspaper, learn one new word, watch an English TV show, speak to someone who is a native speaker of English for 10 minutes in person or on the phone and write a diary of the day's happenings.