So sometimes in life you have a busy week
and you don't get a lot done, or maybe you just don't
feel like doing stuff and you don't get a lot done.
In this English lesson,
I'll teach you some phrases you can use
to talk about those types of situations.
This past week, I had a really busy week
and I also didn't feel like doing some things.
So I'm a little bit behind right now, and I thought, well,
that would make a good English lesson topic, wouldn't it?
So once again, in this English lesson,
I'll talk about phrases you can use
to talk about a busy week or to talk about a week
where you just didn't feel like doing things.
(bright music)
The first phrase I'm going to talk
about is the phrase stick to the plan.
Normally for me, I have a plan for the week.
For making these English lessons for YouTube,
I shoot the video on a certain day
and I send the files to Jenna on a certain day
and I try to stick to the plan.
When I'm really busy
or when I don't feel like doing anything,
I remind myself that I have a plan for a reason
so I try to stick to the plan.
Do you know what stick means,
like when one thing sticks to another,
it won't come off of it?
That's why we use the verb stick.
You want to stick to the plan
so you can get done what you need to get done.
When I'm really busy, I try to remind myself
that every little bit counts.
In English when you say that every little bit counts,
it means that even if you do a small amount of a job,
you are making progress.
You can use this phrase in your English learning.
If you have a day where you don't have
a lot of time to study English, you can think, hey,
every little bit counts.
Maybe I can just listen
to an English podcast while I'm driving my car to work.
Maybe I can find a time today where I can study a little bit
of English, because every little bit counts.
If you want to make progress doing something,
even a little tiny amount of work is really helpful.
Every little bit counts.
Another great English phrase for these kinds of situations
is the phrase one step at a time.
When you think about something
and you take it one step at a time,
it means you don't think about the 10 things you need to do.
You think about each individual step and in particular,
you think about the first step.
Sometimes it can be overwhelming
to think about all of the things you need to do,
but if you think about it
and you take one step at a time,
you only need to think about the first thing you need to do
and then once that's done, you can work on the next thing.
Sometimes it's good to look at something
and take one step at a time.
Sometimes we say that you just need
to take baby steps.
In English, when we say you need to take baby steps,
it means you need to take a step,
but you can just take a small one like you're a baby.
Sometimes when you look at the thing you need to do,
it can also be overwhelming, just that first step.
So within that first step, maybe you can take baby steps.
Here's a good example.
If I was going to try and learn a new language,
I would just take baby steps at first.
I wouldn't try to have a conversation
with a native speaker of that language in the first week.
Instead, I would take baby steps.
I would learn some vocabulary.
I would do some other little things.
I would do some tiny baby steps
before I did some bigger ones.
So sometimes it's good just to take a few baby steps
before you take a big adult size step
on the thing you're doing.
Sometimes I like to think about the English phrase
one day at a time when I'm really busy
or when I don't feel like doing something.
This is similar to just taking baby steps
or one step at a time, but one day at a time simply means
think about your day,
think about what you can actually get done
in that day and get that done.
Don't worry about that you have many things to do tomorrow
or on the weekend.
Just try to think, okay, one day at a time,
what do I need to get done today?
Let me get that done
and then I'll be happy one day at a time.
In English, sometimes when we describe
making progress on something,
we use the phrases bit by bit or little by little.
When you say that you're getting something done bit by bit,
it means you're getting little pieces of it done
and you're slowly making progress.
When you say you're getting something done
little by little, it means the same thing.
You're getting little pieces done.
Sometimes it's good to just work on something
and just get it done bit by bit or little by little.
It's nice to make small progress, and if you stick
with it throughout the day, I'm using the verb stick again,
if you stick with it, then little by little,
you get a lot done
and bit by bit you get a lot done, but sometimes,
it's good just to go little by little or bit by bit.
Sometimes when you procrastinate or when you leave things
to the last minute, you end up needing to double down.
There's a few English terms in there.
When you procrastinate or leave something to the last minute
means you do something else
instead of the work you're supposed to be doing.
When you double down,
it means you have to spend twice as much time
or you need to work twice as hard,
you have to work faster and more efficiently,
and for a longer period, you need to double down
because you didn't do the work when you should have done it.
So this does happen to me sometimes.
Earlier this week I procrastinated a bit
and now it's Friday and I have to double down.
I have to work extra long
and I gotta work extra hard in order to get stuff done
that I need to get done today.
Sometimes it can be a good idea
to just take a step back.
Instead of working on what you need to work on,
it's good to just take a step back
and look at the job that you have to do.
I do this every once in a while because I feel like
when you take a step back,
when you stop working and look at the work,
you can reflect on what's working
and reflect on what isn't working and maybe make a new plan.
So sometimes when you're busy
or when you don't feel like doing something,
it's good to just take a step back, think for a little bit,
make a new plan, and then get back at it.
Well, hey, thank you so much
for watching this English lesson
where I hope you learned some English phrases
that you can use when you're having a busy week
or when you're having a week where you don't feel like doing
the things you're supposed to be doing.
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