# Ep 4. How to talk about planning at work.

An episode of [Breakout Business English - Improve your vocabulary and confidence using English at work.](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1616739393), 24 Jul 2022, 22 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2022761/episodes/11019136-ep-4-how-to-talk-about-planning-at-work.mp3

Send us Fan Mail Whether you work for a small company, a large company, you're a student, or you're looking for your next job, planning is an essential part of our work days. Today we're going to look at some important vocabulary that we can use to communicate our ideas when planning out our days. We've got a bunch of vocabulary here, including two phrasal verbs and an idiom. Don't forget that I'm a full time English coach and tutor right here on iTalki so if you're interested in working together to improve the way that you communicate at work then please feel free to send me a message! Support the show Book a coaching session with me at: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to episode four of the Breakout Business English Podcast, helping you to communicate better at work.
[0:11] SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, my name is Chris, and I'm an online business English coach and tutor.
[0:19] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for stopping by.
[0:22] SPEAKER_00: And for today, we're going back to vocabulary.
[0:27] SPEAKER_00: In specific, we're going to be looking at some words that can be really useful when discussing and speaking about planning.
[0:36] SPEAKER_00: This is actually the vocabulary bank that I give to people right before we do my business English class all about planning.
[0:46] SPEAKER_00: So take a listen and see if there is anything new here for you.
[0:52] SPEAKER_00: Whether you are looking for a job, working for a multinational company, or a freelancer working for yourself, planning is an essential skill.
[1:04] SPEAKER_00: The ability to effectively plan how you will spend your time in order to get the most out of your day can make the difference between time well spent and time wasted.
[1:17] SPEAKER_00: So let's jump in and take a look at some vocabulary for planning.
[1:25] SPEAKER_00: Let's start off easy.
[1:27] SPEAKER_00: This is a word that you may know, but possibly not in this context.
[1:33] SPEAKER_00: This first word is flexible.
[1:37] SPEAKER_00: Flexible.
[1:49] SPEAKER_00: A garden hose, for instance, is flexible so that you can walk around corners with it and water your plants easily.
[1:59] SPEAKER_00: The cable that you use to plug in your laptop is flexible so that you can plug it in under the table or around the corner.
[2:08] SPEAKER_00: And of course, if I was flexible, I would be able to touch my toes.
[2:13] SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, I can't, but I'm working on it.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: So can you guess how we apply this to planning?
[2:24] SPEAKER_00: Well, if my schedule is flexible, then this means that I can change it.
[2:32] SPEAKER_00: If you are working to a deadline, then you could hand in a project in two weeks' time or in two months' time.
[2:40] SPEAKER_00: Both would be fine if it was a flexible deadline.
[2:45] SPEAKER_00: However, if you have a flight that leaves at 10 a.m.
[2:49] SPEAKER_00: tomorrow morning, then maybe your schedule is a little less flexible or even not flexible at all.
[3:00] SPEAKER_00: You can use the word inflexible to describe something which is difficult or impossible to change, but simply describing something as not flexible is very common too.
[3:14] SPEAKER_00: In a sentence you could say that my schedule is pretty flexible next week.
[3:20] SPEAKER_00: When would you like to meet?
[3:22] SPEAKER_00: My schedule is pretty flexible next week.
[3:26] SPEAKER_00: When would you like to meet?
[3:28] SPEAKER_00: Or I've got an important meeting so I can't be that flexible on Tuesday.
[3:35] SPEAKER_00: How about we meet at ten AM?
[3:38] SPEAKER_00: I've got an important meeting, so I can't be that flexible on Tuesday.
[3:44] SPEAKER_00: How about we meet at ten AM?
[3:49] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on to the word delegate.
[3:53] SPEAKER_00: Delegate.
[3:55] SPEAKER_00: Delegate is a verb not to be confused with the noun delegate, which is spelled the same but pronounced differently delegate.
[4:08] SPEAKER_00: A delegate is someone sent to represent others, usually at a conference.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: That's very specific.
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: However, as a verb, you will be happy to know that you can use this word in a lot more situations.
[4:27] SPEAKER_00: Delegate means that you give a task to someone, usually someone less senior.
[4:36] SPEAKER_00: If I had a lot of calls this morning, for instance, I could delegate this script writing to someone else.
[4:45] SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I could hire someone with a really cool voice to read it for me.
[4:51] SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I could delegate this recording to Morgan Freeman.
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: I'm sure he'd be interested in recording this podcast for me.
[5:02] SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at some examples.
[5:07] SPEAKER_00: I'm really busy this week.
[5:10] SPEAKER_00: Would it be possible to delegate that to someone else please?
[5:15] SPEAKER_00: I'm really busy this week.
[5:17] SPEAKER_00: Would it be possible to delegate that to someone else please?
[5:22] SPEAKER_00: Or delegation is an important part of my job.
[5:27] SPEAKER_00: I think I delegated several hours of work just last week.
[5:32] SPEAKER_00: Delegation is an important part of my job.
[5:36] SPEAKER_00: I think I delegated several hours of work just last week.
[5:41] SPEAKER_00: And one more I usually spend the first hour of my day delegating work to our team.
[5:51] SPEAKER_00: I usually spend the first hour of my day delegating work to our team.
[6:00] SPEAKER_00: Let's turn now to another word that can be either a noun or a verb, and that is budget, the word budget.
[6:13] SPEAKER_00: If you work in accounting, then you are almost certainly familiar with this word already.
[6:21] SPEAKER_00: A budget is the amount of money that has been made available for a specific purpose.
[6:29] SPEAKER_00: A company may divide the money that they are going to spend into several different budgets.
[6:36] SPEAKER_00: You may have a marketing budget, for instance, which includes all the money that you make available for advertising, or a research and development budget, which includes all of the money that you want to spend on developing new products.
[6:56] SPEAKER_00: As a verb, to budget means to decide exactly how much money you want to spend on something.
[7:04] SPEAKER_00: You may have this in your work life or indeed your personal life.
[7:11] SPEAKER_00: Many people budget so that they don't spend too much money from month to month.
[7:18] SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at some great native sounding examples.
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: I don't think the budget will cover that.
[7:28] SPEAKER_00: We'll have to find the money elsewhere.
[7:31] SPEAKER_00: I don't think the budget will cover that.
[7:34] SPEAKER_00: We'll have to find the money elsewhere.
[7:38] SPEAKER_00: Or as a verb, we need to budget carefully if we're going to make this investment last until the end of the year.
[7:48] SPEAKER_00: We need to budget carefully if we're going to make this investment last until the end of the year.
[7:56] SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look now at another noun and that is timeline.
[8:05] SPEAKER_00: This is a great word because you can break it down and separate it into two parts and really understand it better.
[8:16] SPEAKER_00: So if we look at the two parts of this word, we have time and line.
[8:25] SPEAKER_00: Well, time is certainly a word you know.
[8:29] SPEAKER_00: We all get twenty-four hours in the day, and if you're anything like me, you often wonder where they all go.
[8:38] SPEAKER_00: How about line?
[8:41] SPEAKER_00: Well, a line is an unbroken connection between two points.
[8:48] SPEAKER_00: Most often we think of lines being straight.
[8:53] SPEAKER_00: So imagine what you do with your time arranged neatly in order along a straight line and you have a timeline.
[9:06] SPEAKER_00: We see timelines in history textbooks all the time, chatting the events of important periods in history, for instance.
[9:17] SPEAKER_00: However, in planning we can use them to organize how we do something.
[9:24] SPEAKER_00: For instance, let's pretend that tomorrow I'm going on vacation.
[9:30] SPEAKER_00: My timeline might include waking up at 7 a.m., getting ready and leaving the house by 7 50 a.m.
[9:40] SPEAKER_00: to catch an 8 a.m.
[9:42] SPEAKER_00: train to the airport.
[9:44] SPEAKER_00: I must make sure I check in by 9 a.m.
[9:48] SPEAKER_00: because my flight leaves at 11 a.m.
[9:52] SPEAKER_00: In business planning, you might think about the different events that your team is working toward, or things that you hope to have achieved by a specific time in the future.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: Let's take a listen to some sentences to put this in context.
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: If we can keep to this timeline, we should be finished by March.
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: If we can keep to this timeline, we should be finished by March.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: And can you walk me through your timeline for this?
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: Can you walk me through your timeline for this?
[10:38] SPEAKER_00: I try to include an idiom in all of these vocabulary episodes, and idioms are always fun to learn.
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: Especially idioms that are easy to imagine and build a picture of in your head.
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: That can really help you to remember new vocabulary too.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: So today's idiom is to cut corners.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: Let's picture someone driving down the road.
[11:13] SPEAKER_00: The traffic is slowing down and they are coming to a junction, a big crossroads where two roads meet and connect with each other.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: The driver wants to turn right, but they are in a hurry.
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: They see that the traffic light is red, and there are lots of cars in front of them waiting to go, and he can't really wait anymore, so he turns off the road onto the sidewalk and drives over the nice piece of grass next to the road.
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: He skips the junction altogether, rolling over the grass and the sidewalk, scaring some passers by and drives onto the road again a couple of seconds later.
[12:06] SPEAKER_00: If you and I were waiting in that queue, I might turn to you and say something like, Did you see that guy?
[12:14] SPEAKER_00: He just cut the corner.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: He just cut the corner.
[12:21] SPEAKER_00: Cutting a corner means that you have taken the shortest and quickest route to somewhere, even if it meant that you didn't do it properly.
[12:33] SPEAKER_00: In business, we usually use this idiom to show that money or time has been saved, but the resulting product was not as good quality as it could be.
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: You might cut some corners when you're mowing the lawn on a hot day.
[12:54] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you didn't cut the parts that people can't really see, the bits round the side of the house or behind the shed.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: However, I hope no one cut any corners when they were building your car.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: That could be dangerous.
[13:15] SPEAKER_00: Here are some sentences for context.
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: We had to cut some corners to finish the project on time.
[13:25] SPEAKER_00: I think it's still quite good though.
[13:28] SPEAKER_00: We had to cut some corners to finish the project on time.
[13:34] SPEAKER_00: I think it's still quite good though.
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: And if you cut corners on this project, the client will definitely find out.
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: If you cut corners on this project, the client will definitely find out.
[13:52] SPEAKER_00: Okay, and let's move on to a couple of phrasal verbs to finish off.
[13:59] SPEAKER_00: Our first phrasal verb today is to count on, to count on.
[14:07] SPEAKER_00: To count on someone or something means to rely on or depend on someone or something.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: When it is important that someone does something for you, you might count on them.
[14:26] SPEAKER_00: So let's go back to our example of my vacation tomorrow, which isn't happening, but if it was, maybe I could count on you to drive me to the airport.
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: I really need to be there by 9 a.m.
[14:44] SPEAKER_00: I am counting on you to pick me up at 8.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you could count on a delivery arriving on time.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: If the delivery arrives late, well, you won't be able to finish this project.
[15:02] SPEAKER_00: So we really need it to arrive on time.
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: We are depending on it, we are relying on it, and we are counting on it.
[15:12] SPEAKER_00: Let's jump into a couple of examples.
[15:16] SPEAKER_00: I'm counting on you to make this project a success.
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: I'm counting on you to make this project a success.
[15:27] SPEAKER_00: Or I count on a lot of people every day to keep this company going.
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: I count on a lot of people every day to keep this company going.
[15:45] SPEAKER_00: Okay, and our second and last phrasal verb for today is to contract out.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: To contract out.
[15:58] SPEAKER_00: To contract out means to give some work to someone outside of the company.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: That word outside instead of inside, that's the same thing.
[16:12] SPEAKER_00: To contract out, outside, out of the company.
[16:17] SPEAKER_00: If we had someone inside the company who could do this, then great, we would ask them to do the work.
[16:25] SPEAKER_00: But when we contract out some work, maybe we don't have someone in the company who can do it, or maybe the people we have don't have time for some reason.
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we contract things out to find people with other skill sets, or indeed to save money.
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a graphic designer in your company and you just need to design one piece of marketing, well, maybe you will contract that out.
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: Let's have a look at some examples.
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: We contracted out the design of our new website.
[17:14] SPEAKER_00: We contracted out the design of our new website.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: And I think we should contract out some of the work on this new project.
[17:28] SPEAKER_00: I think we should contract out some of the work on this new project.
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so before we go, let's have a short quiz to see if you can remember the vocabulary from today's podcast.
[17:45] SPEAKER_00: Let's start with this question.
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: What verb can I use to describe how I keep a close eye on the money that I spend?
[17:57] SPEAKER_00: What verb can I use to describe how I keep a close eye on the money that I spend?
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: Any ideas?
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: Well, if I'm trying to keep my spending under a specific number, then I might budget.
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: And indeed if I'm budgeting, then I might use the noun a budget.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: Okay, how about this one?
[18:32] SPEAKER_00: If I'm the kind of person who can easily change the date or time of an appointment to suit a colleague, how can I describe my schedule?
[18:47] SPEAKER_00: If I'm the kind of person who can easily change the date or time of an appointment to suit and help out a colleague, how can I describe my schedule?
[19:02] SPEAKER_00: Well, if I can make those changes easily, then I would say that I have a very flexible schedule.
[19:12] SPEAKER_00: A very flexible schedule.
[19:18] SPEAKER_00: And hopefully you can remember our idiom from today.
[19:34] SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I don't have the budget to complete it to its highest potential, then we can say that I have what?
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: I have cut corners.
[19:51] SPEAKER_00: If I have cut some corners on the project, yes, maybe I saved time or money, but potentially the project is not as good as it could be.
[20:05] SPEAKER_00: That is almost it for today.
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: Just to remind you one more time that I am a full-time professional business English coach and tutor.
[20:16] SPEAKER_00: If you would like to talk more about planning, how you spend your time and grow your vocabulary and your ability to speak about different business English themes and topics, then feel free to head to www.breakoutbusinglish.com forward slash start, where you can read a little more about what it is that I do and book some of my time.
[20:49] SPEAKER_00: I'd love to meet you, get to know you, and work together to improve the way that you communicate in English.
[20:57] SPEAKER_00: So for today, thank you so much for your time.
[21:00] SPEAKER_00: I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you soon and take care.
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: See you soon.
[21:06] SPEAKER_00: Goodbye.
[21:22] SPEAKER_00: Just to remind you that I am a full-time professional business English coach and tutor.
[21:29] SPEAKER_00: If you would like to talk more about planning and how you spend your time, then send me a message.
[21:38] SPEAKER_00: I work right here on iTalkie.
[21:40] SPEAKER_00: So follow me here for more podcasts.
[21:44] SPEAKER_00: And of course, click on my profile and you can book some of my time.
[21:49] SPEAKER_00: I'd love to meet you and find out how we could work together to improve the way that you communicate in English.
[21:57] SPEAKER_00: Okay, everyone, thank you so much for your time, and I will see you in the next one.
[22:03] SPEAKER_00: Take care, everyone.
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: Bye.

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