📘 Part 3: Saving time

This episode's vocabulary

Planner (noun) - a document or software program that helps you plan something.

Schedule (noun) - a list of planned activities or things to be done showing the times or dates when they are intended to happen or be done.

Handy (adj.) - useful or convenient.

To neglect (verb) - to not give enough care or attention to people or things that are your responsibility.

Drain (noun) - something that makes you feel very tired.

Force multiplier (noun) - something that increases the effect of a force.

Intrinsically (adverb) - in a way that is an extremely important and basic characteristic of a person or thing.

Efficient (adj.) - working or operating quickly and effectively in an organized way.

Questions and Answers

M: What can schools do to help students learn time management?

R: Well, where I'm from, schools make extensive use of things like visual timetables for young children. And I think they give older students planners for them to write their schedules in. That's quite handy, since they can see examples and experiment with their own ways to plan their time.

M: Is it necessary for children to learn time management?

R: It's probably a good thing for everyone to know for things like work and studies, but it wouldn't be the most important thing or be about managing your time according to someone, at least according to someone else's vision. It's important to see how it can improve life in some circumstances, but not all.

M: Do people who can manage time well become successful more easily?

R: Surely, that depends on what sort of success we're on about here. If it's productivity, then managing time well can allow you to get more done. But people are not just producing machines. They have lives outside of that. So if people only focus on the productivity side of things and neglect relationships, they might be less successful in that area, and overall, probably.

M: Do you think parents should be responsible for teaching children to save time?

R: It's certainly an important set of people to have involved in the process, since parents are the ones who ideally spend the most time with children. I don't see why others can't be involved, though. Especially if it means involving other members of the family and them helping each other out, then they can learn how to do that at the same time.

M: Does technology help people save time?

R: It certainly can, though, it can also be a drain on time, energy and resources too. You can use the calendar app to organize your day efficiently, but if you lose access to it, then you could have serious issues trying to recall everything that you have on. Technology is more of a force multiplier than anything intrinsically good or bad.

M: What can people do to save time?

R: I mean, surely that depends on the situation again. Generally, they can avoid less efficient ways of doing things. So instead of going to the shops five times a day for five different things, they can go to all of them at one time and in some sort of route, if possible, to make it more efficient.

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your story!

Discussion

R: No worries. Shall we talk about the grammar and vocabulary?

M: So, dear listener, if Rory is band nine organized, Maria me is band one organized.

R: Do you think so?

M: Absolutely.

R: No.

M: Yeah...

R: I don't agree.

M: My life is a mess... I'm the definition of chaos and mess, Rory.

R: No, no, don't believe it.

M: So time management, we manage our time, and this is called time management, dear listener, okay? Students can use visual timetables. You know, when you put a timetable on the wall, it's visual, so young children understand what's going on, it's fun. Older students can use planners. Like Rory told us about his diary planner, his super notebook. So they can use planners to write their schedules or schedules. That's quite handy. Handy? Meaning useful. And they can experiment with their own ways to plan their time visually or not visually, using different technology apps. If the examiner asks you questions about children, you can say that actually it's good for everybody.

R: It is, yeah. Well, at least I think so.

M: Time management is about productivity. So when we manage our time well, we can get more productive and get things done.

R: But if you get things done, that just means that you do them.

M: But if we only focus on the productivity, then people can neglect the other things, like relationships.

R: But if you neglect something, it just means you don't look after it properly.

M: Parents can help out their children with time management, which means they help them, they assist, or they land a hand. It's funny if parents are absolutely disorganized and they teach their children how to be organized. Technology helps us save time or waste time. And Rory tells us that technology can be a drain on time, so it kind of takes our time away from us. It drains our time, energy and resources. So it kind of like a vacuum cleaner, sucks up all your energy and time and health. You know? When you do this, all this, like dumb scrolling, or what's it called? Doom... Doom, yeah, but it's dumb as well as stupid.

R: Oh, doom scrolling?

M: Doom scrolling. I think it should be a disease. Like addition to video games and doom scrolling, I suffer from Doom scrolling. Oh, poor you, you know? Oh yeah, here are some pills, you know?

R: I do too much doom scrolling.

M: Sniff this powder. Sniff this white powder. We can use a calendar app to organize our day efficiently. You know, when you are efficient, you do everything effectively. But if you lose access to this app, or you don't have the internet, that's it, your life is over, because you have to recall everything you have planned. And you know, our memory these days... You can't remember anything. So technology is more of a force multiplier. Rory, what did you mean, a force multiplier? What's this?

R: A force multiplier is just a tool that helps people do things more effectively. So for example, a gun is a force multiplier because you can, well, kill a lot more people with a gun than without. Or the Internet is a force multiplier because you don't have to research loads and loads of different sources in different places. They're all there.

M: And force multiplier is from physics, dear listener. It's a specialized term, a force multiplier, something that increases the effect of a force. So if you want to sound like an educated native speaker, you say technology is more of a force multiplier. And what a stupid question! What can people do to save time? Oh, and kind of, and Rory gives a stupid answer, well, it depends on the situation. Okay? And then, kind of like generally, we can avoid less efficient ways of doing something. Yeah, for example, when you write an IELTS essay and you scroll through your Instagram feed. Or you watch some series and write an IELTS essay. No, no, no, it's not an efficient way of writing an essay. And Rory gives an example. For example, instead of going to the shop five times a day, you can go once. So kind of, you create a list of things you need, and then you go once. Yeah, yeah, ideally, but usually you kind of, you have a list, and then you forgot something, and then your friends arrive, and a new shopping list pops up. Ah... Life happens, dear listener.

R: Never a dull moment.

M: Oh, yeah... Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to in our next episode! Bye!

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