10 Business English Verbs to Talk About Tasks, Time, and Deadlines [593]

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In this episode, you will learn 10 useful English verbs for time management. These verbs help you talk about preparing for problems, choosing what matters most, writing quick notes, giving tasks to other people, staying with a plan, handling too much information, keeping time free, stopping an activity, and finishing important work.

This lesson is made for non-native English speakers who want to speak more clearly at work, in meetings, in study situations, or in daily life. You will learn how to use these verbs in real sentences, with simple explanations and practical examples.

Instead of saying only “I planned it,” “I did it,” or “I was busy,” you will learn more exact English for real situations. You will sound more organised, more confident, and more natural when you talk about your schedule, responsibilities, deadlines, and goals.

This episode is useful for English learners who want to improve their business English vocabulary, workplace English, productivity vocabulary, and English verbs for planning and time management.

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Transcript

Speaker: 0:09

Hi there. This is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English to help you to get a better language, to help you with your business, English skills, goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your to one lessons, well, you know Just get in touch www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson. And we'd be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. Okay, so what are we going to talk about in this particular podcast? Well, today we're going to talk about time and particularly time management. Of course, what could be easier? You would say yes. And I often wonder why people Why perhaps they can't turn up on time for a lesson, or they can't turn up on time for a meeting. As an Englishman, it's time is We get very upset when people don't turn up on time and we're left waiting. But some people in some jurisdictions or don't mind whether they're late or don't mind whether other people are late. But other people like to feel that their time is so it's a lost opportunity. So we're going to talk about verbs related to time management. And when you're doing staff own review in your company, time time again about somebody's Oh yes, you're really, really But time management could be Okay, so these are all verbs I'll give them to you one by one, and then we'll go through them and hopefully give you some examples that will explain the word, the expression a little better. Okay, here they are. To prioritize, to anticipate something, to schedule or schedule. Something you can say either To jot something down a little something, usually to somebody, Again, more informal. To be inundated. Inundated. To set something aside. To break off something. And finally to accomplish. Okay, so let's go through them one by one, the first to prioritize. Well, when we prioritize our It's to put it first or at the I like to make a little to do people still do it, even though I write it down on my notepad next to my laptop, and I see the things that I have to do every day. Okay. And I prioritize the difficult So if I get them done, I can yeah, that's okay, and makes the So to prioritize means to put things more important or more difficult up at the top of your to do list so that you can get them done. And everything else seems like a meaning so simple, so easy. So we can prioritize the meeting We can prioritize some family research or some preparation for presentation, whatever it is to or if not first, put it at the Okay. Next to anticipate something. Well, when you anticipate your expecting something to happen, But if you anticipate it and it does happen, then you are prepared. But if you're not prepared and bit of a problem. Okay. So to anticipate something is to have an expectation that it will happen. Let me give you an example. If you're preparing a business for that job interview, you questions you'll be asked. So often when I'm preparing prepare for job interviews, we they are likely to be asked. And the lucky thing is, in the modern world still the same questions are usually asked slightly different ways, but they still ask the same questions, so it's not so difficult to anticipate the questions that you might be asked. If you're going to do a business little bit more difficult what somebody will want to know product, or the cost or the So to anticipate those things can be a little bit more difficult. Or if you're going to meet anticipate or think ahead, well, So you will dress accordingly, whether it's formal or informal or casual, whatever that might be. So always when we're anticipating something, we're thinking ahead. We're planning ahead so that we don't get caught out or there's no surprises. I hate surprises, good or bad. I don't like surprises. So I like to anticipate what's I'd like to anticipate what the I don't have to anticipate that too much here because every time I look at my laptop, it tells me raining now, rain to stop, rain coming. So not so hard to anticipate the Okay to anticipate something Well, people get a little bit confused here about pronunciation. The two pronunciations, two pronounce this word to schedule Both of them are acceptable. Yeah. Some people prefer the to Some people prefer the to Okay, so whatever you choose one or the other, you can stick to that. So when you schedule something, you put it in your diary, you put it in your calendar, your Google calendar, you put it in your calendar, on your phone, wherever you list it or record it. It's a schedule. Okay, so you're talking on the phone to your friend and he asks you, what's your schedule like next week? Can you meet me for coffee? What's your schedule like later Can you put me in for a meeting? Yeah, sure. No problem. I'll. I'll put that in on my calendar now, and I'll see you about four o'clock. So when we schedule something or into our calendar where we've I'll schedule a meeting with the about my promotion or my salary conference call with those It might have to be changed, but can, um, change it if I need to. Or we can find a time that's And we often use that phrase when we're writing emails to people. Why don't we schedule a meeting I'm, I've scheduled a visit to catch up for coffee, dinner, Okay. How's your schedule looking? Yeah, It was a expression we Ah, it's not looking so bad. I've scheduled a few meetings later in the week, but, you know, it's the end of the summer, so people are still on holidays. So life is a little bit easier jot something down. As I said, this is quite To jot means to write down just to write a quick note or an letters, something that you will So the teacher might ask the meaning take a quick note of You'll find the exercises on So do exercise one, two, and You can skip exercise four, but do the rest or the remainder of those exercises. So you jot down quickly blah, blah, blah. Okay. Or if you're talking to somebody on your mobile or on a Zoom call, you might make quick notes on a notepad to jot down something that you must remember to do. Yeah. So you're sitting there while everybody's talking and you just remember, oh, I've got to go to the supermarket. So you write a note to yourself You jot it down quickly, or you ask at the end of the meeting So whoever's hosting the Zoom need to talk to you about. Anybody got any questions? And you look at your note that you've jotted down and you raise it then. Yeah. So excuse me, I need to ask Okay. So to jot something down means yourself as a, an aide memoire, memory a little bit of a jog. Yeah. So, so jot j o t and then give your memory a little bit of a jog. Next is a little bit more formal to delegate something and usually delegate something to somebody. Yeah. Delegation is one of those buzz Everybody wants to know, are you How do you delegate? You should delegate better. Okay, so to delegate something is to take some work that you have and get other people to do it. Okay. So it's a sign of good So you don't have to do You have to get other people to And delegating is one of the So you have some administration You have some people to contact, you have some marketing plans to write. So you call in your team and you delegate it to different people. You can contact him. Why don't you take those few clients or customers, get in touch with them, set up a few meetings. We need to talk to our Why don't you do that? So you delegate the work. Off you go. Sit down, put your feet up and Thinking outside the box. Okay, so delegate means to take of course, to monitor monitor it completed or done or actioned. Next to stick to something. Again, a little bit informal to If you're cooking and you don't meat will stick to the pan. So that's one way of looking at Not quite what we're talking To stick to something in terms sure you stick to your schedule. Okay. To so you don't spend too much time with one person, and then you're running late for the next meeting. And then you have to send an email to say, look, I'm really sorry I got held up or a bit delayed, and then the whole day falls apart. So if you've got a schedule, try So you spend your time with at yourself enough time between the next Zoom call or to get whatever meeting you have. Some people set up their week at the end of their one week, so on a Friday afternoon, they may spend their time organising their meetings for the following week, and they like to stick to that schedule. Okay. So to stick to it means not to make many changes or even any changes. We can stick to our plans. We're going to have a holiday at The weather doesn't look so it's the right thing to do, but Who knows, the weather might Or indeed, it's just a simple on a Saturday afternoon. Well, why don't we go and do a The weather's not so good, so we shopping center, we can grab a to the movies if you like. And people are going, mm, not so I don't know, is there anything Blah blah, blah. Well, look, why don't we just stick to this plan for the moment? And if somebody comes up with then we can review it. Okay, so usually when we're talking about stick, it's sticking to a plan, sticking to an arrangement. If you're playing a game of cards, uh, there may be an opportunity to change your cards as part of the rules of that game. And when somebody says, would cards, you know, I'll stick with That usually means that you've got a good hand, you're sticking with it. So if you're playing poker and you're looking around the table and somebody takes one card, somebody takes two cards and comes to your turn and the dealer says, well, one card, two cards. You say, no, I'll stick. So everybody looks at you and He's got a good card or he's got Perhaps he's bluffing. Okay. So to stick to something next to Now this is usually used in the Okay. When you are inundated, it means things to do, lots of calls to information, lots of emails that Typically when you go away on you've got a full inbox. Hopefully lots of those can be disregarded because of a time issue. So if they were sent to you at the beginning of your holidays, perhaps somebody has actioned them in your absence and therefore they don't need to be responded to. You might just need to read them for information purposes or indeed just put them into the bin. Okay. But if you're inundated means Yeah. So you ring your wife or she rings you, or you're in your partner and say, look, I'm going to be a little bit late this evening. I'm totally inundated with work. There's just a lot of things I need to to look after them so I can have a good weekend. Okay. So passive to be inundated, I am I was inundated last week, but things were a little better this week. Okay, so passive form to be Sometimes people are trying to They get it a little bit confused and they say, oh, inundated. Yeah. But it is inundated. Inundated means up to my eyes. The more informal way to be Yeah. It could be another way to, to look at it, but to be inundated, getting lots of requests, lots of, um, work, lots of, uh, routine stuff perhaps, or fresh inquiries. Whatever it is, you are up to Okay, so to set some time aside. So if we want to set time aside time out of our busy schedules So I'll set some time aside this the gym, or to go for a walk, or meet my friends. So we set time aside to catch up up on administration, emails, whatever it might be. You set aside time or you set hopefully you will achieve it. And that's all part of that time Some time management techniques hours a week where you have put a big line through them in nobody is allowed to put any And you can just sit back, And it's amazing how refreshing You look forward to those couple afternoon, or the couple of the first hour on a Monday to set aside time to think, time Okay. To break off something. Well, when we're talking about time, we might be running out of time. And if we're on a telephone call a little bit longer, you might that Zoom call, say, look, guys, I have to dash off to another another meeting, or I have to All of these different So you you break off and say, look, guys, can we catch up later? Can we pick up on this tomorrow? Um, sorry, but I just ran out of Okay, so to break off means to stop what you're doing, and then Okay, so it could be meeting It could be, uh, something to do with the, the, the kids or, uh, the family. Yeah. And say you're going to just get something done and come back And then finally to accomplish, time management because when you Okay, so at the end of the week, chair, put your feet on the desk accomplish this week? What was I successful in doing Have I achieved? Did I get through my to do list And as I said before, I have my to do list next to my laptop and most of the day, and I don't look at it at the end of the week, I look at it each day and I look for the ticks, and I also look for the little x's, something that has to be carried forward. But when I accomplish something, And when I've done it, you get Okay? So to accomplish the tasks that completion of a written paper or it doesn't matter how big or how that you can, again, pat back and take the plaudits, Okay, so verbs related to time you one more time. To prioritize means to put something at the top of the list, or near the top of the list to anticipate something, to expect something to happen, to schedule something, to put it into your schedule so it's there and you've allocated time for it to jot something down, to write a quick note, either to yourself or for somebody else, a quick email to delegate something to pass it on with the hope that somebody will do it for you as part of your desire to delegate more, to stick to something, to make sure you do it, to not to change your mind or to change your opinion or change your view. I'll stick to be inundated. To be inundated. Use it in the passive sense to To set aside something or to set something aside means to set time aside, to allow you to go out and catch up with some exercise or friends to break off. To break off something means to stop doing what you're doing because you've run out of time or you're over time and you want to try and catch up on the next meeting without delaying the whole day. Because if you're late for one, late for the next and has a And then finally, to accomplish, to do it, to have done it, to succeed. Okay, well, whatever you're doing and whatever, and however way you manage your time, well, I hope you're successful in that. And that's the end of this I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you've understood the expressions that we've used and the verbs connected with time management. As I said at the beginning, if do so on Very happy to hear from you. Very happy to get your suggestions as to what you might like me to include in future podcasts. Okay, well, time is running out. Thanks for listening to me. Join me again soon.