Missed deadlines, tight deadlines, impossible deadlines,
even worse, unknown deadlines.
Is all of that starting to make you feel a little stressed?
It definitely makes me feel a bit stressed thinking about it,
so let's change all of that.
This Confident English lesson today is going to do two things. Number one,
it's going to reduce your stress.
You're going to learn the vocabulary English speakers use when communicating on
deadlines and time management in English conversations.
This includes phrasal verbs, idioms, and collocations.
We use these phrasal verbs in idioms for quick, clear,
precise communication and to reduce the potential for
miscommunication.
Knowing this vocabulary is going to make it easier for you to have clear English
communication with your boss, your team,
your loved ones when there's a deadline,
consider tax filing, event planning, job application submissions,
homework, and project reports or deliverables.
The second thing this lesson is going to do in introducing this new vocabulary
is give you a clear step-by-step path to follow when having
conversations on deadlines.
This includes everything from determining timeframes, giving updates,
managing time, and negotiating deadlines.
Before we go there, if this is your first time here, welcome.
I'm Annemarie, an English confidence and fluency coach.
Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your
life and work in English.
If you'd love to get years of my Confident English lessons and free resources
for me, you can find that all at my Speak Confident English website.
While you're there,
you can also get my free fluency training called How to Get the Confidence
to Say What You Want in English. Now, two quick things before we get started.
First, I used the word collocation earlier.
If that word is unfamiliar to you, don't worry. It's totally okay.
It's a very jargon word.
A collocation is a group of words that English speakers use together
in a precise order, and we use those words together often.
I have quite a few other lessons that talk about collocations more in-depth.
I'll share a link to a few of those down in the notes below.
The second thing I want to share with you is I will be introducing a lot of new
vocabulary in this lesson and along the way I'll give you definitions as well.
If you'd like to see how to use this key vocabulary in additional
example sentences,
you can find those in this lesson at my Speak Confident English website.
I'll provide a transcript of this lesson so that you can see how I've used the
words in the sentences I'm going to share with you.
You'll also find the definitions and a second example sentence so you
can see it in context. Once you're there,
you'll also see that I've got a bonus for you.
I'll tell you more about it in just a moment,
but first I want to get to step one for this process.
We're going to follow today on talking about deadlines and time management.
This first step is focused on determining and understanding deadlines
Before working on any project,
it's crucial to be on the same page and to ensure that everyone involved
understands the scope of the project as well as the deliverables.
To be on the same page as others means to make sure that everyone
has the same information or the same understanding.
This is especially true if you're starting from scratch and
you don't have a lot of time.
To start from scratch means to start from zero.
There isn't a template to follow.
You have to start at the very beginning when you have those first
project-focused discussions, particularly on deadlines,
a great place to start is with a plan of action.
This allows you to ensure that you've brainstormed all the tasks in advance and
identified when those tasks need to be completed and by whom.
A plan of action is a plan with all the tasks
or action steps that will allow you to reach a certain goal or deliverable
and it can be easily tracked.
Creating this plan of action will ensure that you plan ahead for
any tasks that may require extra time or resources
to plan ahead means to plan or make arrangements for something while
in advance. Once you have that plan of action in place,
you can begin to set the deadlines for each deliverable and for the
overall project. To set a deadline, of course,
is to decide on the specific date and time by which something
must be completed and a deliverable is the specific product
or task to be achieved or completed. Of course,
in any conversation about deadlines, there's always a little bit of confusion,
so if you need to clarify in the middle of a discussion,
there are a few common questions English speakers used to do that.
I'll give you some examples.
Could you confirm whether this is a firm deadline or a date that we're
aiming for? If we don't complete X by this deadline,
how will it affect Y?
Is there flexibility with this deadline
compared to our other projects? Is this project more urgent?
Of course,
the answers to all of those questions will inform future decisions and help with
problem-solving. Once you've got your plan of action and your deadlines,
you can begin to delegate your tasks.
This means to assign specific tasks to individuals or teams.
We have two great options to do this. The first is the verb to head.
This means to be in the leading position or to direct something.
For example,
Amelia is heading this project and she'll provide further updates on Monday
or you might ask a question and say, Amelia, will you head this project?
A second gray option to use here is to be tasked with this means to be given
a task. For example,
I've been tasked with contacting parents for the fundraiser.
With all that vocabulary in mind for determining and understanding deadlines,
it is time to move on to step number two. In this process,
providing updates and checking in without a doubt,
this is an important part of ensuring that nothing gets missed.
You might, for example,
start a meeting with a few reminders or send out an email with upcoming
deadlines.
This is particularly important for any tasks you can't afford to delay.
If you can't afford to do something,
it means it's something that you can't or shouldn't do because it would lead to
significant consequences or problems. For example,
if you've been tasked with something and you hit a roadblock,
you can't afford to not tell anyone. Instead,
it's imperative that you let others know that you're running behind.
Schedule a roadblock is anything that is an obstacle,
something that prevents us from completing a task on time,
and if you're running behind schedule,
it means that something is taking much longer than was planned or
expected, and there's a delay in the process. Now,
even if everything is going exactly according to plan,
things are going smoothly. There are no delays, you're ahead of schedule.
It's important to communicate those updates as well.
It can be a motivator if things are ahead of schedule.
It means that they're getting done earlier than planned or earlier than
expected. So far with updates,
we've talked about running behind schedule and being ahead of schedule,
and of course if you are the lead on a project,
you're going to be the one who is most aware of any
looming deadlines and you may need to send out those gentle reminders to keep
others on track. If something is looming,
it means that it's coming up very soon and there's also this sense of
concern or worry.
Perhaps the deadline is coming up very quickly and you know there's still a
lot of work to be done. In that case,
we might describe it as a looming deadline,
and if you're encouraging others to stay on track,
you're encouraging them to stay focused on what needs to get done.
Before we move on to step number three,
let me pause just for a moment to check in because I know we have a lot of
vocabulary here.
My number one goal is that you don't learn new
vocabulary.
I want you to learn and remember vocabulary so that you can use it in
conversations. I always recommend taking a very step-by-step approach,
so you might focus on just three, four,
or five new vocabulary words and phrases that you learn in this lesson
today, and if you're not sure which ones,
I typically recommend that you either focus on vocabulary that you think is
really fun or interesting or vocabulary that you recognize.
Perhaps you've heard it often in conversations but you're not really sure how to
use it.
Those are examples of great words and phrases to start with,
and by the way, if you love learning vocabulary like this,
focusing on a specific topic and learning the vocabulary English speakers use on
that topic,
I have a free study guide I would love to share with you Inside my
Confident Women Community,
I create exclusive study guides on a new topic every month,
topics such as self-care, travel, family values, resilience,
and setting boundaries.
You can grab a free study guide on cultivating resilience over at my
website. Simply go to speakconfidentenglish.com/community.
And now step number three in our clear step-by-step process for deadlines,
manage your timeliness and priorities.
If you've ever had multiple projects,
then you've probably also experienced competing priorities.
A competing priority is when a goal or a timeline for one
project clashes with another or they overlap making it
really difficult to know what should you work on and when. If that happens,
it's important to communicate with your team.
Not doing so could lead to delays and increased
frustrations. In fact,
it's almost inevitable that there will be delays at some point in
time on a project, and when that happens,
it's important to know how to talk about it,
especially if something is going to be long overdue.
To be overdue means to be late or significantly delayed.
In communicating that delay and making sure that everyone is on the same page,
everyone's clear. There are a few key questions to answer. Number one,
which deliverable is late? Number two,
what is the expected date or time of completion?
And number three, what is the solution?
What can be done to reduce the negative impact of a delay or
shorten the length of that delay?
Here's what answering those three questions might sound like in a conversation,
I'm running out of time to complete the data analysis because the training took
longer than expected.
I need to send the completed analysis within the next two hours,
but I think I need until the end of the day.
I understand that this report is vital for understanding our clients,
and I apologize for delaying the marketing proposal,
so I'd like to request the team's help in putting this report together by the
end of the day. Would this be a possibility?
That example answered those three key questions.
What deliverable is delayed and why?
It also highlighted the updated expected timeframe
and it provided a solution or a request for assistance from
team members. In that example,
I used to be running out of time to be running out of something means that
you're rapidly losing that resource, whether its energy, money,
patience, or time. I also used the word vital.
This is a great synonym for something that is absolutely necessary
and important. Now of course,
when you provide an update like that and you offer your solution,
you request help.
There are times when everybody pulls together and you're able to
accomplish what you need within the deadline,
and of course there are other times when the deadline may need to be
pushed back. If you push something back, you delay it,
and that brings me to step number four, clarify,
negotiate and compromise in order to minimize any
negative impacts for delays and pushback. Deadlines,
it's important to keep an open line of communication.
This means to maintain a practice of open,
honest communication with others where everyone is able to express
themselves freely.
If you're a team leader and you want to create an atmosphere where there's an
open line of communication,
you'll want to encourage your team members that if they experience
delays, potential setbacks, roadblocks, and so on,
you want them to communicate that information at their earliest convenience
possible. At one's earliest,
convenience means as soon as you can.
The same thing is true if anyone on your team sees a potential
concern for the foreseeable future.
If you have a concern for the foreseeable future,
it means that that concern exists long into the future
or for as far as you can see into the future. Lastly,
when you have those open lines of communication and when you communicate with
full transparency,
it allows you to better draw lessons from those
delays that happened in the past and set expectations going forward
when you want to communicate those expectations. You might say,
going forward,
I'd like to ensure we invest more time and energy in our plan of action so
that we can better anticipate where delays may arise. Now,
there's some vocabulary I want to highlight here. First, full transparency.
This means to be completely open without hiding anything,
without having any secrets and going forward means
into the future or moving forward.
You now have a breadth of new vocabulary to help you
communicate clearly in English on deadlines and time management.
As I mentioned earlier, I know we have a lot of new vocabulary here,
so in addition to providing more example sentences with
this lesson over at my website, I also have a bonus for you.
I have a worksheet you can download to practice this vocabulary.
I know that without a doubt, the more you practice,
the more you repeat what you've learned,
the more likely you are to remember it and you're going to build automaticity
the ability to use the language you know automatically.
So to get that worksheet,
simply visit this lesson at my Speak Confident English.com website.
If you've enjoyed this lesson today,
I would love to know and you can tell me in a few very simple ways. Number one,
you can give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube. Number two,
you can subscribe to this channel so you never miss one of my Confident English
lessons. And number three, you can just share a quick comment down below.
Thank you so much for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you next time.