This is the Business English Podcast, episode 355.
Chip away at productivity vocabulary.
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This is real business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
Hello Michelle, how's everything going with you today?
Everything is good over here.
How about you? Pretty good, pretty good.
So Michelle, do you tend to start a task only when you know that you can finish it in one go?
Like in one sitting, or are you always doing little pieces of a task?
And are you okay with that?
I think I'm probably the second.
I think I have to be a multitasker, but my brain wants to do things all at once.
So for example, when I'm episode planning, I really want to just focus on that.
And I don't want to get distracted.
So like, I'm not going to switch over from doing that.
Maybe, maybe on my work life, I do things all in one go and in my personal life with just things I have to do.
Yeah, then I do things in pieces or come back to things.
What about you? Interesting.
Yeah, this is a constant battle.
I have in my own head and with my partner too, because my partner is the person who can do things in pieces.
And you know, for example, I've been on the phone with the DMV.
I've shared a few times, at least 12 times, trying to figure out this mess.
I have with this car how to get a registration and a title in California.
I have called them probably 12 or 10 times.
I have tried to fill out applications online.
It's just not working out.
And it's so frustrating because my partner will just say, oh, just call on Monday.
No problem. I don't want to call on Monday.
I want to call today.
Get the answer and get it done.
You know, absolutely up the wall.
So I want to just just sweep the thing out and have it totally off my plate.
Because then because when I have little to -dos, it just it just feels cluttered in my mind.
Okay, so yeah, I mean, I think that what I realized, I was just thinking about this last night.
I have this to -do and that to -do and that to -do.
And I realized I'm always making these lists and then thinking, oh, I'll feel better when this is done.
And then I realized that it's never done.
So I know I was not stressed about it.
I don't know. That's a really good place to be.
That's a really good place to be, especially around the holidays.
Now we're getting into a very busy part of the season, part of the year.
So we have to eventually all get there.
I love it guys. I'm going to remind you to hit follow before we get into it.
Because today we're going to talk about an important phrase that encapsulates this idea.
Michelle, what is that phrase?
It is put a dent in something.
Love it. Alright, so hit the follow button now everyone to make sure you get our newest, latest, and greatest episodes.
Alright, alright Michelle.
So what does it mean?
Let's just come right out with it.
What does it mean put a dent in something?
It means to get started, to lessen the load a little bit, the amount of work that's necessary to do.
So when you think of a dent, I mean a literal dent is like in a car, right?
If you put a dent in something, it becomes smaller.
It doesn't take up as much space.
Yes, yes, I love that idea.
It can be used in other ways, right?
So we're going to focus on the idea of how it comes up in the business world.
This comes up for me a lot in business for projects.
Making some progress in something, right?
Exactly. Yeah, this is really good for business.
Very common expression.
So sounds like you use it a lot as well.
Yeah, very common expression, very human expression.
Let's give some examples.
Let me read the first example to get right to the context.
I'm going to work on the guest list, but can you take some time and put a dent in the agenda while I work on that?
So what am I asking you to do?
To start working on the agenda.
So while I'm doing this, can you get started on this so that it can be a little bit less on our shoulders later?
And I would say not just start, but get a good amount of it done.
Good chunk. It's a good chunk.
So it doesn't mean just lightly start.
I think once on the podcast, we talked about if you have a blank page, you should write an outline for the page and get started.
It's not just writing an outline.
It's actually really getting a significant chunk of the work done to it.
That's true. That's true.
Or well, so yeah, that makes sense with this next example.
Wow. I've been working all day on this project, but I don't think I've even put a dent in it.
Right. So it's like you step back from the project.
You can't even see what you've done.
There's no there's no dent and that's kind of a physical configuration in our minds as well.
Right. Yeah. Or I'm sorry, Michelle.
Go ahead. No, you go.
You go. Okay. I'm so glad we took extra time to put a dent in the report.
At least we don't have as much to do tomorrow.
Yeah, and sometimes that's very strategic.
You decide when you want to do the majority of the work and how you're going to feel on certain days, right?
Right. Yeah. I mean, this is all about productivity and some people like doing a little bit at a time and breaking things up and sometimes people work in larger chunk.
I know Lindsay, you've talked about time chunking before, right?
Yeah, you know that we record episodes, you know, it makes sense for us to record several episodes at once instead of meeting every day because there's a certain set up involved and there is so talk to us about that.
Yeah, there are certain it all there's English when there are certain tasks like recording or uploading files where it's repetitive.
We're doing kind of the same task.
It does make a lot of sense to do it all at one time.
But then when it comes to the podcasting is very creative work at the same time.
So that works but other kinds of creative work, critical thinking work, you know, having that chunk is good or maybe someone does does better at breaking it up because the idea needs space to develop in our minds, right?
It probably wouldn't work if you came up with a whole idea, then you immediately sat down and said, okay, I'm going to bang this out.
I'm going to get this done.
The idea needed space and air to develop over time throughout the week.
Yeah, interesting. Yeah, so you really got to think about what is best for certain tasks?
Yeah, I mean, why do you think talking about this or this expression is useful in the workplace?
Well, I think first of all, in American business culture and American culture, we are very task oriented, right?
So we are all about that task list, all about making progress, getting things done.
I think there's a business book called Getting Things Done or something like that.
There's a whole system of organizing files called Getting Things Done.
Yeah, so we is like a religion.
Really respect productivity in this culture.
So that's why it just shows you've made a significant amount of progress on something.
Right, right, right.
Exactly. True. I mean, so we're going to talk about some other ways you can discuss this after we take a little break.
Okay. All right, Michelle, we're back from our break.
So what are some other ways we might talk about productivity and productivity is that keyword today, right?
This is all about productivity.
Absolutely. So the first one is chip away.
So this is different than the dent, right?
Chipping away. Well, I mean, if you think of a car, right, a dent is a big, more of a problem than a chip in the paint, right?
So if you chip away, you're getting things done slowly over time.
The dent is deeper, right?
Yeah, and this is exactly what I talked about at the top of the show.
My opinion versus other people being okay with just chipping away at the task of getting a car registered.
Just a little call here and then next week do that and do that.
No, I don't want to do that, right?
I want to make a dent in it, but some people prefer to just chipping away.
So yeah, you could say let's start to chip away at this project.
Maybe we can meet once a week for the first month and then bump things up as time gets closer.
The problem with that though is then other priorities come in.
What we found, for example, when we build a course, which is a huge, huge undertaking for us here at Aller's English.
We need to be not solely focused on it because we can't be solely focused on it.
We do a lot of things here, but it needs to be a big focus.
We can't chip away at making a course.
We need to say, okay, for these four months, we're building this course.
We're going to release it on this date and that's it.
Of course, we keep publishing the podcast, but it needs to be a sole focus.
So we need to make a dent in things as opposed to chipping away.
Right, right. So exactly.
It all depends on your deadlines, what you're working on, who you're working with and how you make these decisions.
So the next one is scrape the surface.
So this is a little bit different, but you could say we've barely scraped the surface.
We have so much more to do.
So what does this one mean to you?
It's just indicating that we've done the bare minimum.
We've only just gotten started.
Right, right. And sometimes we use it when we actually have just gotten started, but sometimes we use it, you know, in the same way as I barely put a dent in it, you could say, we've been working on this, but we've barely scraped the surface.
Like there's just so much.
There's so much to do.
Maybe maybe you have done with this scrape the surface and even put a dent in it.
Maybe you have done a lot of work, but you're indicating the context of how much the actual entire piece of work is right.
How high is that mountain on your desk?
Exactly. Yeah. So I say to you, Oh my gosh, Michelle, we've done so much work today and you come back and say, yeah, unfortunately, we barely scrape the surface.
Yeah. That's always, oh, that's not a good context.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So and then finally, you could be a little more direct, you know, get it done or get this done.
So we just need to get this done.
We may need to work late tonight.
Yes, I love it. Michelle, what else do we need to know here before we get into a roleplay?
Anything, right? Yeah.
Well, just remember that putting a dent in something does not mean to finish it.
No, right. It just means that you've got a big chunk done.
So, yes, just a chunk.
I think it's just like you said with the car, you can see that chunk out of the car.
There's a dent in the car.
You could see the dent in your work.
It's just that you might have a lot more to do.
You may or may not, but I can see it's made some kind of impact.
It's pushed the needle forward as a good one to needle.
Yeah, that's a good one.
I love that one actually.
Okay. Roleplay time, Michelle.
So here we are staying late to work on a project.
Okay. All right. Here we go.
Man, I'm tired. Oh, I know.
We've been working so hard on this, but I feel like we've barely scratched the surface.
No. Well, if we just finish this section, I think we will have put a good dent in it.
I'll feel productive then.
Agreed. Then we can start to chip away at the meeting agenda for next month.
Good idea. Maybe we just get it done.
Then we don't have to deal with it later.
Okay. Let's order dinner then.
It's going to be a long night.
Yeah, that's the way I would tend to think.
Just go all all nighter and get the whole thing done and then you wake up the next morning.
You don't have to go back to it.
Feel good. I got that.
I definitely got that feeling.
I want that satisfaction for sure.
Yeah, even if it's crazy working through the night.
Oh my gosh, but I don't really stay up that late.
Do you Michelle? Do you work at 3 a .m.
or oh, no, no, not that late.
I mean if there's an emergency or something, I you know, but like no, no.
Thank you. All right, Michelle.
So what did we say in this role play here?
What did we say? All right.
So you said we've been working so hard on this, but I feel like we barely scratched the surface.
Yes, perfect. So we haven't really gotten made any kind of clear progress.
We can't really see it.
There's still so much to do.
Yep. And then I you said well, if we just finished this section, I think we'll have put a I think we will have put a good dent in it and I like that one.
We will have done something right the future.
Perfect tense. Love that.
So and then you said probably I wasn't expecting it, but you said then we start we can start to chip away at the meeting agenda for next month.
So maybe I thought I was home.
Yeah, totally going home.
I mean right going home.
Jeez and then I said and then you said good idea.
Maybe we just get it done and then you up to the intensity here Michelle.
Maybe we just don't want to have to deal with this.
Yeah. And this this could be another great episode here that our listeners should hit the follow button.
Maybe we do something.
We're saying this one.
We've done this one.
Well, we can definitely this one.
I remember we have done it do this.
Maybe we do that. Searching the search bar maybe for the word maybe for the word maybe and I think it was all knowledge English, but okay, it's interesting because we're using the present tense to make a plan for the future, right?
I didn't say maybe we'll just get it done.
I said maybe we just get it done in the present tense.
So that's that's beyond just the maybe think about the tense use there.
It's really interesting.
Yeah, yeah, it is. It is okay.
Yeah guys another episode to check out is episode 349 of the business English podcast.
That's amazing alliteration commit these sticky phrases to memory fun go and check that one out.
I think Aubrey and I did that one really interesting conversation about how alliteration can add snazio pizazz or let's say character to what you're saying people love alliteration.
They love it. They do.
They love it. So I'm not sure why just it's music to our ears Michelle.
It's music to our it is good.
So any take away today?
Where should we leave our listeners?
Yeah. I mean this is it's good to evaluate how you decide to chunk your time.
Do you like to put dents in something or do you like to chip away in it could be different depending on the project depending on how much you like the work how much time you have who you're working with how tired you are.
There's just so many things that could factor into your decision about how productive you are and then what time frame.
And I also think in awareness of the importance of productivity if you're working in a culture that values that just be aware of that.
Right. Yeah, like American business culture productivity is super important.
It may be less important in other parts of the world.
So just expecting to hear these phrases these words and kind of getting in there really important to know.
Alright, good stuff.
All right. This was fun Lindsay.
All right. Talk soon Michelle.
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