This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 168.
You need to listen to this episode yesterday.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you? I'm doing fantastic.
What's going on, Michelle? How you doing?
Oh, I'm good. Do you have anything that like you really, really need to get done?
Anything that maybe needed to be done yesterday?
Oh, it feels like everything. But when that is true, then nothing is true.
Nothing needs to get done. That's true.
Yeah, it feels like everything because we're actually going to be driving to the East Coast on Friday.
We're going to take a road trip. It's going to be a week of driving.
We're going to go visit some family in Michigan and then we're going to be on the East Coast for a month.
And so it feels like a lot of things need to be done by Friday.
Okay. All right. So that's good. I mean, so this episode is perfect for you then.
Today, we're going to talk about a unique way to talk about something being urgent.
And we're going to give you a few extras along the way.
So this is good. For business, but we're also going to talk about the feel of this expression and whether, you know, how it sounds when you use it.
Yeah. And how choosy do we, how often do we really want to use it?
Right, Michelle? Exactly. Exactly. So before we get into it, guys, we want to remind you to hit follow wherever you're listening to the Business English podcast.
Lindsay, why should they do that? Oh my gosh, because Business English is awesome, guys.
We've taken our style, which is a unique focus on connection, not perfection, human connection, and we're applying it to the workplace.
So we're bringing everything into a work context.
We know that many of you guys do need English for work, whether it's once a month, once a day, every day, all day.
We are here for you. So hit that follow button on Business English. absolutely all right so lindsay i said this to you already i said the expression but what it is is this needs or this needed to be done yesterday oh gosh michelle you're yelling at me well no i'm sorry lindsay lindsay would you ever say something needed to be done yesterday In a sarcastic, fun, emphatic way, yes, but probably not directed at a team member in that way, right?
I cannot imagine you ever saying something like that.
I'd be like, whoa. I would more likely say it to myself.
Right. Right. And I think that that, yes, we're going to talk about that.
So this is, so this is interesting. So, but okay, well, let's talk about what it means because our listeners might be saying, well, something needed to be done yesterday.
You're just talking about the past. Are we talking about literally something needed to be done?
I mean, what, what are we actually saying here?
Right. We're not saying, you know, the deadline was literally the day before we're saying, okay, we're behind on this and it's kind of a crisis.
Like there's kind of a fire that needs to be put out here.
Right. It's a problem. Yeah. Right. Exactly.
Exactly. It's, it's not necessarily literally yesterday.
It's just, we have to get going. It's like, go, go, go.
We're behind. Yeah. Do you ever hear, where is that from where they say like, Oh, to be on time is to be late. yeah i think it kind of makes me think of that i don't know where it's from but like yeah to be on top to be early is to be on time to be on time is to be late it kind of reminds me of that kind of feeling of like go go right right right right so i don't know who says that but it's related to like american business culture i guess you know like always being ahead of the game right this drive to always be ahead of the game yeah okay yeah what else so well we were already talking about who would say this i mean i would say if you aren't using this about yourself or in a joking way it's pretty rude um i can't i mean i guess if you had a terribly anxious nasty supervisor you might they might say this needs to be done yesterday i mean Although, I mean, I guess it just it really depends on the tone.
But if you're really using it in a genuine way, it's probably pretty rude.
What do you think? Yeah, I think it depends on the tone and has everything on business.
English depends on the context that you've already built.
You can get away with... Words become meaningless if there's not a context for them.
So if you've built a nice company culture, you can say this in a fun way.
This had to be done yesterday, guys. Let's just do it.
Let's band together and do this. That would be okay if you already have that company culture going.
But if you don't, then you become... The Devil Wears Prada.
I mean, like, I'm sorry to bring that up again, but in The Devil Wears Prada, she was a nasty boss, right?
I always think of that when I think about difficult scenarios.
The intern Anne Hathaway, right? She was really struggling.
And this is something she would have said, like, Andy, call my car.
It had to be done yesterday. Drop off my book.
All these things. And the poor intern's life was miserable, you know?
Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So it could be used for someone in that kind of power situation.
Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Guys, I want to direct you to two other episodes we have.
One is 166 was back to the drawing board starting over in English.
And then the other one was from a while back.
I wanted to mention it still was episode 104.
Is it urgent or important? Why it matters to life and business.
I remember when we did that one. That was really cool.
I think we brought in a matrix or something, a decision-making tool.
We didn't invent it, but we brought it in and shared it with you guys.
And that was really cool. So check that out.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. All right, Michelle, let's get into some real examples now.
Here we go. Okay. Oh my goodness, I'm so behind.
The chart needed to be done yesterday. Good, I like that.
I love that. Right, the beginning. All right, and here's another.
Guys, this is super important. Drop everything and work on it.
It needs to be done yesterday. And that's really interesting.
Um, that's how we know we're not talking about the date.
The due date was yesterday because in that case, you would say it needed to be done yesterday or by yesterday.
So it's so funny that you're saying that, that you picked up on that because I wrote for a couple examples that needed, and then I just realized, no, that doesn't, you wouldn't say, oh, that needed to be done yesterday.
I would say it needs to be done yesterday.
So guys, if you're listening, you know, back to the episode, if I said needed, yeah, need, would be more signifying that it's just urgent.
If you say, oh, it needed to be done yesterday, it's actually more literal.
Oh my gosh, I think our listeners are gonna love that.
That is a subtlety of English that you guys can pick up on at your level, moving to 99% fluency, you're ready for this, right?
Understand, go back, listen to the last 20 seconds here and understand the difference. right yes yeah yeah so in that first example i should have actually said that chart needs to be done yesterday yeah totally and then one more example can you meet now seriously this needs to be done yesterday totally and so in order to pull this off i think we need to be very emphatic on yesterday yesterday because if i say this needs to be done yesterday like it's more like that was the due date You know, maybe we actually should have finished this a month ago.
It's kind of more what we're sort of saying.
Right. Right. Right. This needs to be done yesterday.
Right. So very important, but very subtle.
Yeah, exactly. Right. It's just this idea to show that the present feels too late.
Even if we get it done, it's too late. So we're really behind.
I like the way you said that. It's very well said.
The present feels too late. Love it. Feels too late.
Yeah. um so how else can you express this though we're going to give two other ways what's the first one ASAP right I need to do this ASAP so let's just meet later so ace some people say ASAP right they'll actually say it or some people say ASAP what is it what are you more inclined to say now I'm curious mmm I don't speak it very much but ASAP I think I say it's harder to say that though no but I would say ASAP too but some people say ASAP yeah for sure and what is it what does it mean what does it it means as soon as possible yes for sure yeah I would tend to write this in an email more and I try not to do it too too much I do do it sometimes um but I try not to do it too too much I might say it.
Yeah. Yeah, true. I might say if I'm talking about myself, like I might say, oh, I'll get to this ASAP.
Yeah, that's a good way to do it. That's a good way to do it.
Yeah. Stat. I love this one. This one is just basically immediately, right?
This needs to be done stat. Yeah. This one, in my mind, I could be totally making this up.
So verify in your worlds, guys. But in my mind, this comes from the medical world.
I was gonna say that I knew you were gonna say that.
Yes, that's exactly what I think of the medical world.
Like when a when a test is urgent or something like that, or in the emergency room or something. yeah or if you watch any of the medical dramas which are a huge genre in american entertainment we really got into the good doctor i've talked about that on the show before he would always say stat but it's just it's like hospital speak emergency room speak yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly i don't i don't use that one have you have you seen that one coming into the business world michelle or do you use that in your daily life no i don't do that for sure like you don't have to be a medical worker to use it at work like you could bring it into your life right like for sure it just comes from the medical world i think Yeah, or it's just used more frequently there.
I don't know. But we both had the same feeling.
But what this comes back to is connection.
I mean, do you think sometimes people can forget about connection when they're feeling rushed or on a super tight deadline?
Or do you think sometimes connection kind of you know goes down the drain yeah i think that's why it's important to work on our leadership skills whether we're like in a leadership position or not our communication skills our leadership skills because then we can kind of fall back on frameworks that we've learned on how to manage time how to manage people so it doesn't come to deadlines and emotions that's what we want to try to avoid Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Because I think sometimes people can get nervous.
They may say things in a way that isn't helpful.
And it's easy for them, like everybody to kind of take that on that feeling.
But yeah, I want to teach it to you because that's how the That's life, right?
Sometimes, you know, we've talked about this before.
Sometimes we have episodes where it's like you are going to use these words every day.
Sometimes it's good to just know these because you will hear them, hopefully not too frequently, but you can either use it about yourself in a joking way or just know what somebody means.
If somebody says to you, oh, this needs to be done yesterday, don't get confused.
But I just want to say something. If you're not sure, you should always clarify. yeah i would clarify right just say okay so just i it sounds like this is extremely urgent should this be my number one priority today right something like that yeah okay so just ask questions when someone comes to you with that with that vibe It's obviously something important, but just make sure you're clear on how important is this thing, okay?
Love it. Yes. Yeah, definitely. All right, so let's do a role play.
So here I am talking to you about work we need to do.
We're working together. So here we go. Oh my gosh, Bella is really bothering me to get this packet done.
Well, what does it do? Well, it needs to be done yesterday.
Yikes, okay, I can help you. Really? Yes, let's work on it ASAP.
Is lunch okay? Yes. Great, because this needs to be done stat.
That's great. Supportive co-workers. Yes, thank you, Lindsay.
Happy to help, Michelle. So then here I said, what does it do?
And you said... It needs to be done yesterday.
Yesterday. Really giving that a little special oomph to make it clear.
You're not saying the deadline was yesterday.
You're not saying it needed to be done by yesterday or it needed to be done yesterday.
You're saying it needs to be done yesterday.
Oh, my gosh. We're freaking out here. and then you said yes let's work on it asap you could have also said asap asap totally uh and then i said yes and you said great because this needs to be done stat another place to put some emphasis right yeah that yeah a lot of emphasis going on here it's very urgent everyone's speaking quickly emphasis yes yeah what's the takeaway for our listeners today all right well guys you need to consider what you say and how you say it when deadlines arise um you know we Try and take a deep breath if you're feeling nervous about a deadline or you need to assign something.
Try and maintain that connection. And we can also do a follow-up on how to express these things in a softer way, like something is urgent, but how to do it in a way where we're not yelling at someone. i know and i feel like everything in our minds wants us to like follow that momentum of urgency but i almost feel like when someone comes to us and says this needs to be done yesterday it actually might behoove us to go take a little walk like a 10-minute walk get outside and clear our mind before we dive into the task because it could be more likely that we'll just make a big mess and have to redo it if we're not centered you know That's true.
That's a good point, Lindsay. So yes, stay centered.
Keep it calm, even if something needs to be done yesterday.
And then always, always ask for clarification if you're unsure.
Yeah. And, you know, unless you are actually working in a hospital or in some kind of life or death scenario, things are never, in my mind, things are never as urgent as people can make them sound, you know?
Yeah. Unless you are a rescue worker, which we're very grateful to you if you are, don't get us wrong.
But in many work contexts, if you work in marketing, the corporate world, I mean, let's keep things in context here, right?
And communicate well. Yeah, I agree with that.
That's a good point to leave our listeners on.
And guys, thank you so much for listening.
And yeah, we will talk to you soon. Sounds good, Michelle.
And guys, hit follow if you love our special style.
Good stuff. Michelle, talk soon. Bye. Bye.
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