This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 190.
It's crunch time. How to say you need to work hard in English.
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Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com connection hey there michelle how's it going hey lindsay it's good how are you fantastic fantastic so what are we talking about today on business english Yeah.
Well, would you say it's a busy time at All Ears English, Business English, IELTS?
Would you say it's a busy time right now?
It kind of feels like it's busy all the time.
But I guess this episode is coming out in December, end of November.
Yeah. I mean, Black Friday, exciting times.
And we're going to go into maybe a slightly slower time.
December is a good time to reflect as a business.
We reflect on our goals and we... Yeah, we do slow down a little bit, I guess.
And there's always kind of a lull in the set.
Like, you know, in that week before Christmas and New Year's, you just know, like, don't even like I mean, not as a company, but I mean, yeah, don't expect a response from another.
Yeah, exactly. A response from if you need to if you need something from somebody in outside of your company, don't expect a response.
Yeah, I'm going to be going to Florida with my in-laws and I'm excited because I've never been to the Everglades.
I've never really been to Florida. I'm not like a Florida goer.
I've never been to the Everglades. So we want to rent a boat and go around the Everglades.
Have you ever been? No, I haven't been to the Everglades, but I've been to Florida a lot.
Oh my gosh. I'm so excited because they say you can see gators and just all this crazy stuff.
I have wanted to go to Everglades National Park for a long time.
So... I'll be, I'll be there. So things are going to stay.
I actually might be in Florida too. That's funny.
Oh, fun. Sounds good. Maybe I'll, maybe I'll see you there in the Everglades among the gators.
So Lindsay, I mean, I, but at all, there's English.
Yeah, we do. I mean, it, There are definitely waves of, you know, really busy times.
Like I remember when we were doing the business English course that was busy.
There was a lot to do at crunch time. So yeah, crunch time.
But that's what we're talking about today is crunch time.
Not like not like you're crunching on something like you're eating it. we're gonna talk about crunches or something right no no no not that kind of crunch what could you yeah what if we had that on all there's english all right michelle jessica aubrey lindsay everyone down give me 10 push-ups you know no no no no no um i love it but first guys we want to make a request we would love to get a review from you you know maybe you're in a little bit of a lull you have a little extra time in december write us a review for business english michelle why do we want reviews from our listeners Oh, well, we love them.
I mean, really, for me, when I see those reviews, it really makes me feel so good because we get to hear what the show means to you.
And we, you know, Lindsay and I are here talking to each other.
So any interaction with listeners is our favorite.
I mean, we can talk to each other all day long, but if there's no one listening, we're It won't matter now.
It won't. It really, really won't matter.
So to hear from you guys what the show means also to sometimes get your questions right.
You can submit questions in your reviews.
Totally. Those are great. So it's just a way for us to interact with you.
And it really warms our hearts, really. Like sometimes Lindsay will send over a review and just say, hey, guys, you really have to check out this review.
And it makes us all so happy, the whole team.
So we really do read them. Yeah, guys, leave us a review right now for Business English.
Tell us what you think about the show. Write your episode question right there in your review, and we will be very happy to read it.
I love it. All right. Crunch time, Michelle.
Crunch time. All right. So, Lindsay, what is crunch time?
I mean, it basically refers to a period of time where things are just intense because there's a lot of work that we need to finish.
There's decisions we need to make. There are things that need to be done.
It's get it done time. Yes, yes, yes. And that actually reminds me of you got to work hard during this time, because if you're just hardly working, you're not going to get it done.
And guys, speaking of that, we have just a few episodes ago was episode 185 was working hard or hardly working.
So listen to that one, because that goes along with today.
Yeah. So this is a really useful expression, whether it's coming from leadership in a company to let people know, hey, things are going to be kind of intense for the next month or so, or whether it's like employees talking to each other.
Wouldn't you say, Michelle? Yeah. Definitely.
I mean, this is great for before a big project is due.
And the reason this came up, this also came up naturally.
You remember on for the business English course, I had my friend Carly.
Yeah. Yeah. So I was talking to Carly the other day on the phone and she was so she also she does choreography as well.
And she was talking about how she's doing choreography for a show that opens in a week.
And so in my head, I I immediately thought like, oh, wow.
So it's crunch time. But then she said, so it's crunch time before I said it.
And it just showed me I was like, yes, I got another episode.
I got it. It showed me that it's very natural expression.
Common one. Great for business. Yeah. Yeah.
I kind of like it when companies have, you know, maybe there's a season that's crunch time and then another season is a little more relaxed, a little more time to reflect, maybe do some like we like to do assessments.
We've done StrengthsFinder before. We like to learn about ourselves.
But that happens during times that are a little more relaxed.
So it's the ebb and flow of business that I think we like.
That's right. Well, I mean, this makes me when I think of crunch timing, the job I think of is accountants like tax accountants.
Oh, my gosh. Yes. Yes. I mean, I have friends who are accountants and you just can't talk to them, you know, for before, you know, April, like your friends work on the weekends.
So what is I'm a little confused about when crunch time is for accountants, because I know we all have taxes due April 15th.
But then for them, it must be, is it like January to April or what?
I have to ask her exactly. I have one friend in particular that I'm thinking of.
Um, yeah, she, um, I would say it's like, correct me if I'm wrong, if anybody is a tax accountant, but I would say it's about two months before and yeah, working nights, weekends.
It's just like, Oh, it's just terrible. And I'm just like, okay.
And you know, this is my good friend and I just feel like I'm saying goodbye for a while.
Um, That's funny. Yeah. I'm sure we have accountants listening here as our listeners, so they can let us know, maybe let us know in the Spotify questions, because you can actually ask questions now in Spotify, ask a follow-up question, but let's do a role play here.
What do you think? Okay. Let's do it. Well, it's a, this is just a, these are two examples actually.
Okay. Okay. Team it's crunch time. The project is due by 4 PM tomorrow.
Okay. So, yep. That's an important time.
We all got to work, right? Yeah. Um, This episode is brought to you by Indeed.
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Terms and conditions apply. Another one is they want us to decide by lunch.
It's crunch time. Yeah. Do you tend to feel pressure during crunch time?
Like, do you add extra pressure? I think so.
Yeah. Do you? Yeah, I would say, you know, deadlines are important and they're good to have, but sometimes they can be stressful for sure. yeah yeah do you think does your stress about it ever keep you from getting work done or are you just able to really focus yeah no i'm not that you know some people they're stressed and they procrastinate or something i don't do that i try to get organized i take action for sure thank goodness me too because that starts to take away my anxiety like yes if there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done I want to do it the second that I know it's there because otherwise it's sitting in my head.
Oh my gosh, totally. Yeah. So yeah. And just taking action.
We've talked about this on the podcast before.
If you have this big project and you're a little confused about how to do it, the best thing you can do is just start to create an outline of what you're going to do, make a calendar, make a spreadsheet, take some kind of tiny action to get yourself organized and work cadence.
And that will help you start to tackle it.
Makes a big difference. It definitely does.
It's that to do list. It's that satisfaction.
Do you ever sometimes we talk about, you know, how we each do a to do list.
Do you ever do something that you didn't actually put on your to do list and then you write it on your to do list just to check it?
I've done it before. I have. I can't say I haven't done that. yeah and then you're like oh look at me and it's like well you don't need to write it on the list because you just did it but it wasn't on the list but you want to you want to show yourself that you did yeah i'm a big whiteboard person so lately this i have so much to do on my personal personal side of my life as well as business so in the last few months i've bought these huge whiteboards and i will do that i'll like write something on there and cross it off that was never on there it's hilarious Yeah, it is funny.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was the only one.
Yeah, it's funny to admit that. But it's true.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are one of those like secret things that like people don't talk about.
But those habits that when you realize others do it is especially funny. we're also i mean i would like to know about our listeners because you know it's a big quality of american culture to be very you know pass it's a personality thing for sure but it's also like a cultural value of accomplishment to-do list tasks yeah completion right so i would love to know from our listeners you know what are their feelings towards you like completing a task versus like relationship building or something else.
You know, I think the U.S. work culture skews towards task based rather than relationship based completion of work, if that makes sense.
That's a whole other topic that we have to go into.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I wanted to also teach some expressions that aren't they're not synonyms, really, but they are dealing with it.
The words that you might use along with crunch time.
So what's the first one? Buckle down. This one, it makes sense.
It's in the same ballpark as we say, right?
So it's crunch time. So we have to buckle down and work.
Yeah. What does that mean? Buckle down? Yeah.
It just literally means focus in, like put your head down.
Do the work. This is the time. Do the work.
Buckle down. There's always a time. And when we were students, right?
College finals were always the time to buckle down.
You just had to do it. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's that moment. You got to do it. So yeah.
And another one is just get to work. We have to get to work.
It's crunch time. Yep. And focus. So guys, you might already know this one, but it's good to throw into a sentence.
Okay, after lunch, it's crunch time. So we have to focus.
So using that as a verb. And then the last one is roll up your sleeves to roll up one's sleeves.
You know, that's basically you're getting down and dirty with it.
You're like you're like putting in the hard work.
You got to roll up your sleeves. Yeah, I heard this used on a podcast that I listened to called Fixable.
It's on the TED Audio Collective. It's two women.
One of them is a Harvard Business School professor.
And she said something about an approach towards AI that we should take a more sleeves up approach to AI.
I thought that was an interesting use of that expression.
Roll up your sleeves. So what did that mean to you to roll up your sleeves?
Meaning instead of being afraid of AI and like, oh my God, it's going to take my job.
Roll up your sleeves and go try chat GPT, get to know it, experiment, and then learn about it and start to think about how you're going to exist with it.
Yeah. Not against it. Yeah. So it's a pro.
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so you could say it's crunch time.
So let's roll up our sleeves and finish this up.
Yeah. So as you can see, there's like different iterations of roll up your sleeves that people, native speakers will take in different directions, like a sleeves up approach or, but the basic one is roll up your sleeves.
Yeah. Okay. Michelle, our listeners love role plays.
Let's do it. All right. So we are on a deadline at work.
We work together. Okay. We really need to focus.
It's crunch time now. I know. I can't believe we have such a tight deadline.
I guess let's get to work. Yeah, we just have to buckle down and do it.
All right. Let's roll up our sleeves. It won't be so bad.
We got this. Okay. I like this. You got this.
We got this. That's good. Yeah, that's right.
That's all right. What did I say? All right.
You said we really need to focus. It's crunch time now.
And then you said, I know, I can't believe we have such a tight deadline.
I guess let's get to work. And you said you seem to be the more positive one in this conversation.
Do I? OK. Yeah. We just have to buckle down and do it.
Yeah. And then you said, all right, let's roll up our sleeves.
It won't be so bad. Yes. So, yeah, talking about a project that we're busy with.
I mean, this is this is really important for connection.
I mean, these are high tension moments where if you don't have that connection with someone, things could just kind of fall apart.
Yeah. And strategically, on the other side, you can use these to build that connection.
Right. So they do create a sense of like we're on the same team.
Let's roll up our sleeves. Let's, you know, let's dig in.
We didn't say dig in. That would be a bonus for today.
But that's another one. You know, let's buckle down.
We're doing this together. So there's a sense of like shared strain.
Like we're both strained, but we're strained under the same situation, which builds connection for sure.
Right. That's true. That's true. You're going through it together.
Going through it. Oh, another good expression for another day.
Going through it. You're going through it.
Yeah. All right, Michelle. Good stuff. Any final thoughts?
I mean, that is it. These create connection.
It's that simple, right? That's right. That's right.
So I think we should end it for today. And guys, good luck with crunch time if you're in one.
All right. Take care, Michelle. Bye. Bye.
Bye, guys. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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