📘 Part 3: Planning

This episode's vocabulary

Maintenance (noun) - the work needed to keep a road, building, machine, etc. in good condition.

Perspective (noun) - a particular way of considering something.

Fashion (noun) - a way of doing things.

Maneuver (noun) - a planned action that is intended to obtain an advantage.

Orderly (adj.) - well arranged or organized.

Industrious (adj.) - an industrious person works hard.

Fly by the seat of your pants (idiom) - to do something difficult without the necessary skill or experience.

Chaotic (adj.) - in a state of total confusion with no order.

Sequence (noun) - a series of related things or events, or the order in which they follow each other.

To overlook (verb) - to fail to notice or consider something or someone.

Helicopter parenting (noun) - a way of taking care of a child that involves a parent being very closely involved with their child's life, especially their education, and trying to control it too much.

Detrimental (adj.) - causing harm or damage.

Consequence (noun) - a result of a particular action or situation, often one that is bad or not convenient.

Capable (adj.) - able to do things effectively and skilfully, and to achieve results.

High-flying (adj.) - extremely successful.

Fulfilling (adj.) - making you feel happy and satisfied.

To schedule (verb) - to arrange that an event or activity will happen at a particular time.

Execute (verb) - to do or perform something, especially in a planned way.

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Questions and Answers

M: What things should be planned on a daily basis?

R: Well, you can maybe divide it up into two groups, like personal and work events. You need to know the order you'll go about your day from a sort of personal maintenance perspective, like when to wake up, have breakfast, brush your teeth, maybe the approximate time you should go to bed. And then alongside that work tasks are quite important, since you need to make money somehow. Usually, you'll need to complete things in a logical fashion. So if you're a teacher, then you need to plan and prepare material, use it and tidy up. So these things kind of go hand in hand in terms of daily planning.

M: Is planning important?

R: Oh, it's essential. But it's not the only thing. I suppose you could say is necessary but not sufficient. There has to be some sort of flexibility and room for maneuver whenever you come up against unexpected things. Oh, generally though, it helps to make life more efficient and provides a direction to go in.

M: What kind of people like planning?

R: I suppose if we speak in terms of personality, then orderly and industrious people probably prefer it. Although more broadly, people who are good at planning will prefer to do over people who are bad at it, which is ironic, really, because the people who are bad at it could probably afford to do it more often.

M: Why don't some people like to make plans?

R: Um, lots of people aren't sure what they want to achieve. So without a clearly defined goal, it's hard to make a plan. Others just prefer to fly by the seat of their pants and see what happens. That makes life chaotic. But I suppose it's more interesting for them, at least.

M: Are plans always necessary?

R: Well, some idea of what you're doing and how to get there is usually helpful. It doesn't have to be a step-by-step guide. But a loose plan is usually better for, well, better than no plan. I think the only exception might be if you're experimenting with what a little chaos might be like.

M: Should people make detailed plans?

R: Only to the extent that they're necessary. There's no point in having a plan so detailed you need it almost tattooed on your retinas to be able to follow it. And that kind of thing draws your focus. I think a plan with the main stages in the logical sequence is usually enough, maybe with some small but important details highlighted so you don't overlook them by mistake.

M: Should parents make important plans for children?

R: I imagine that depends on how we're defining the word important here. If it's about booking medical appointments and school events, then that's pretty much essential as kids can't quite do that themselves. At least not at that point. If we widen it to mean things like career, subjects to study at university, then that seems like excessive helicopter parenting. And I think that only has detrimental consequences, doesn't it?

M: When should children start to make plans for themselves?

R: When they're capable, not all planning skills or things to be planned are relevant or developed at the same time. I mean, like, I planned my route at home at the age of 10, for example, but I couldn't have planned out my career until much later. So I suppose when the age, the situation, the level of importance and brain development allow it. Some people are never ready to make any plans for themselves. So it's a very individual process.

M: Is it important to have a career plan?

R: If that's what you value, then yeah, although life isn't all about having a high-flying career as a doctor or a lawyer, for example. Not for everybody. Some people just want to become teachers and have quiet lives by the seat with their partner and children. And they consider that a fulfilling life. I don't think that requires a detailed plan from start to finish.

M: How do most people plan their future education and career?

R: Well, I think they know they want to do well and make money in a respected or fulfilling job. Though, what that is, and how they will get there, and what they need to do isn't well articulated by the vast majority of people. It's not just because people are bad at scheduling and sequencing things though. It's because life and other people are quite chaotic too, which makes it difficult to see far into the future.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your lovely answers, for your well-planned answers.

R: Well-planned and executed.

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Discussion

M: Yeah, well planned and well-executed.

R: And you execute plans. That's good collocation.

M: It is. We make plans. Then we execute plans, right. And plans could be detailed. You can have a rough plan, like a rough idea of what you're going to do. Or you can have a loose plan. Over to you, Rory.

R: A loose plan is just you have an idea of where you're going, but you don't know the specific details of everything.

M: So it's like a rough plan.

R: Um...

M: No?

R: Yeah, there are some more ideas.

M: Loose plan. Loose clothes. Yeah, loose like it's not...

R: Tight.

M: Tight. It's loose. If we don't plan, we have chaos. Chaos could be organized. You can have some organized chaos. Your life could be chaotic. Like for example, Rory's life is well organized. So he jots down everything he wants to do. He has this book with... What? Two years in advance planned? Every page is written down.

R: Yes.

M: With your plans and steps. So my life is chaotic. I have a book, but yeah, it's all over the place. So I have some chaos. Rory has some organized planned life. Maintenance perspective. Or personal maintenance perspective.

R: Yeah. That just means from the point of view of thinking about maintaining your person. Like personal maintenance is just like hygiene. Maybe shopping, making sure you get enough sleep, going to the gym, that kind of thing.

M: Yeah. body hair, face, teeth. Everything. Yeah, maintenance. You can say like I'm high maintenance, I'm low maintenance. So Rory's high maintenance. He needs to have his nose cleaned.

R: Hold on, it depends on what you mean. A high maintenance person usually describes someone who's quite needy, like, it's a description of personality.

M: But what about like if I need to do my nails, my face, my hair, I need to go to this like spa.

R: That just means you are very invested in how you look.

M: Don't I call it like high maintenance?

R: Only if you're maybe thinking about what other people have to go through in order to get you there. I don't think so.

M: Okay, so it's like, it takes a lot to maintain myself in this situation. You kind of like, to maintain the looks I have, right, to maintain the body I have. So I say okay, I'm high maintenance in this respect.

R: Yeah.

M: This respect, yeah. Okay. So there has to be some flexibility and room for maneuver.

R: Which sounds complicated, but it just means there has to be some, or there have to be some opportunities for you to deal with unexpected things.

M: Yeah. Yeah, planning is important. It's essential. Because the examiner asks Is blending important? So you go with essential. It's essential, but there has to be some flexibility and room for maneuver. Maneuver. Very nice word. Who usually likes planning? Orderly and industrious people.

R: Yeah. People who are orderly just, well, they like everything to be in a certain way and industrious people are usually hard workers. So if they want to work their hardest, then they usually need a plan and need to know where everything is.

M: Rory is very orderly and really industrious.

R: Not as industrious as I used to be.

M: Come on...

R: No, I used to work a lot more.

M: At this language school?

R: Yeah, the worst one in Moscow. You may have heard of it. You may have heard of it. It's called BKC International House. And if you want to imagine what it was like to live there, work there, then just picture hell.

M: Yeah, Rory actually lived there. Like from dusk till dawn he used to live there, inside the company. Did you have a bed? Or a couch you slept on?

R: I had a desk I slept on.

M: He slept on a desk in a classroom. Okay, moving on. So other people prefer to just fly by the seat of their pants. Oh, my God. This is an idiom. Yay.

R: It sounds complicated but it's not. If you fly by the seat of your pants. It just means that you react to things that happen to you and you don't really plan too far in advance.

M: Yeah, yeah. This idea was naturally used. And yeah, just great there. Could you give us some more examples? So, for example, why do people dislike making plans?

R: Because they prefer to fly by the seat of their pants.

M: Yes. And see what happens. So this is pretty much like me. Right? So I don't plan my life. Well, I should, perhaps. So I prefer to just fly by the seat of my pants. Yeah. So it makes life chaotic, but interesting, because, yeah, sometimes, well, often I have to think on my feet. So make decisions on the spot. Rory, are you writing down more plans for your life?

R: Yes. I just had an idea.

M: Okay, so during the recording, an idea popped up and...

R: I write it down so I don't forget.

M: Yeah. He's organizing his life during the recording. It's okay, we've had it before. So, yeah. Should people make detailed plans and Rory goes with "you need it almost tattooed on your retinas".

R: Yeah, but that's just a fancy way of saying you need to constantly look at it in order to follow it.

M: Nice. So use should have your detailed plan tattooed on your body. Yeah? What is a retina?

R: It's just part of your eye, it's the part of your eye that... I think it's the part of your eye that receives the light.

M: So from the inside?

R: Yeah. So it's like, so you always, but your eyes whenever you're using them. Though the idea though, is it's not a literal tattooing on your eyes, it just means that you constantly need to see something. And if you always want to see something then you need it tattooed on your retinas.

M: So it is a sad expression. It's an idiom? It's some kind of creative use of language?

R: Both.

M: Okay.

R: Isn't that what idioms usually are?

M: Once, you know, I said, like, oh, after making this, after completing this puzzle, I experienced a bouquet of feelings. And a bouquet of feelings, I thought, like, I'm using the language in a creative way. But okay, so I've just coined this phrase myself, like, nobody ever says it. So I was like Shakespeare, you know, like, creating the language on the spot, creating this unique Maria, I don't know, phrase. And they said like, no, just no, it's not band nine. So just no, don't do it. But this one is not the case. Right? So people actually say, like, you need it tattoed on your retina. To be tattoed on your retina, not on your arm, not in your nose.

R: Inside your eyes, so you can see it all the time.

M: Okay, right. Plans can have main stages. So the main stages in a logical sequence. Sequence - meaning order. Yeah. It's a topical vocabulary. Phrases about plans. I think Rory is thinking about his future, he's still taking notes in his "superbook", life book. Excessive helicopter parenting.

R: There is a topic-related vocabulary. Yeah, helicopter parenting is just when your parents are always monitoring what it is you're doing. They're always helping you and keeping you out of trouble. And making sure that nothing bad ever happens to you. Which is probably one of the worst ways to raise a child.

M: Did you have any excessive helicopter parenting?

R: I've had some helicopter parenting. I wasn't terribly thrilled about it. Although parents don't helicopter parent because they're evil. They do it because they think they're doing the right thing.

M: Can we say that my parents "helicoptered" me?

R: No, my parents were helicopter parents is the best way to describe it.

M: Yeah. So helicopter parents or helicopter parenting. Parenting - like raising a child. And this excessive (too much) helicopter parenting can have detrimental consequences. Detrimental is our favorite word.

R: Or things that cause, that damage you.

M: Yeah, damaging negative consequences or detrimental. We don't say negative, we don't say damaging. Detrimental is the keyword. Right. You talked about having a high-flying career as a doctor or a lawyer.

R: Yeah. A high-flying career just means that you have a, well, a really good career. For example, you might be a doctor in charge of a hospital. Or you might be a lawyer who's like, on the board of a law firm. And that's your life, my flying career.

M: Yeah, and there's no need to have to have a high flying career, to have a fulfilling life. Fulfilling - satisfying. Life that fulfills you. Fill you with joy and happiness. Like our podcast. It does feel you with joy and happiness, right? Okay.

R: Moving on.

M: Does it fill you with joy and happiness, Rory?

R: What feels me with joy and happiness is when we discuss the vocabulary. Come on.

M: Vocabulary, vocabulary. Rory is very focused today. First, he opened his life book, he started writing things down. So, it isn't well articulated by the vast majority of people. Articulated.

R: Yes. But it sounds complicated, but it's not. How well articulated your ideas are is just how clearly you understand them and are able to say them.

M: So the key phrase of this episode is going to be "it seems complicated, but it's not"?

R: Yes.

M: You've just said it like three times. It seems complicated.

R: But it's not.

M: But it's not. So the English language seems complicated, but it's not. IELTS speaking seems complicated, but it's not.

R: Well, most systems are like that. They look complicated, but they're not. You just need to know how they work.

M: Yeah, you see. Now you know how planning works. And how speaking part three about planning works.

R: It looks complicated, but it's not.

M: Thank you very much for listening. Bye-bye!

R: Bye!

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