Shadowing Practice: 5 Tips for Remote and Work From Home Professionals - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello there, good people of the world and fellow homebound workers.
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I'd like to share with you today five tips for working from home.
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Now, these come from over 20 years of a career primarily spent either working remotely or from home.
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I think over those 20 years, maybe one and a half or two years have actually been spent going into an office on a regular basis.
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You know, an eight to five type schedule, that sort of thing the rest have been spent working from client sites,
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working from home on some days of the week, and then more recently, predominantly working from a home office.
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In my case, with a global organization where I work with and have people working for me all around the world.
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So let's jump right into it.
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Tip number one, win the morning.
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I did a video on this a while ago.
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It was one of my first videos.
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Like three people watched it.
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So those three, thank you.
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Hopefully you found some degree of enlightenment.
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But basically what I would suggest if you're working from home, set up a morning routine and don't make it something where you're up,
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you know, 10 minutes before your first meeting
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and you're kind of rolling out of bed and starting your day off in a rush to get to the first thing.
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I personally like to get up pretty early.
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I get up around 5 15.
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I meditate in the morning.
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I have some time to think to kind of go through my calendar, go through what I want to accomplish that day,
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get myself mentally and physically organized, and then the kids wake up for school.
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I get them breakfast, get them out for the bus
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and have a little bit of time with them each morning
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but I have a fixed routine and I make sure
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that routine includes some time for me to get organized have some quiet focus time
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if it's not your jam you know you don't have to get up at 5
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but I would at least make sure you get up
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and give yourself enough time to have some quiet time have some focus time
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if nothing else be able to look through your calendar see
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what the day has in store for you you know look through your task list see what kind of items
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you want to reprioritize or move around and basically end
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that period with an idea of here's the you know one or two major things you want to accomplish that day.
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When you do start to get into your calls and your meetings you'll be more focused, you'll be more prepared, you'll be more kind of ready
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and in the flow of the day versus you know rolling out of bed
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and sort of rushing to get to your first meeting.
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Speaking of meetings and that sort of thing they're kind of the bane for remote workers.
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You know everyone I talk to one of their biggest complaints is I look at my calendar
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and the things just wall -to -wall you know
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Zoom or Teams meetings.
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I barely have time to go to the bathroom.
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That's the common complaint.
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That brings about tip number two, which is master your calendar.
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You could work for your Outlook
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or Google Calendar where the thing just barrages you every 30 minutes telling you you need to call into something, you need to do something,
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you need to be talking to someone, or worst case by two or three in the afternoon you're 15 minutes late for something
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because of all these other calls that ran over.
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Or alternatively, you can take control of your calendar
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and use it as a tool to help you focus and have a productive day.
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So what I mean by that is go in and schedule time for you where you have time for focused work.
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I block out my morning.
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Again, I go through that win the morning routine, get the kids off to school.
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I try and get a workout in, generally a run or something like that.
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And then I have my calendar open for meetings.
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I also block an hour for lunch each day.
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I, you know, usually don't sit there and have this elaborate one hour lunch, but I use that time to again kind of say,
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what did I do this morning?
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What's happening in the afternoon?
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Make sure I understand and I'm prepared for everything that's going on and have a little time to take a break.
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You know, I might go and take a walk.
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I might read a book for 10, 15 minutes.
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I might fart around the internet for 10 or 15 minutes, but I have that break in the middle of the day that's blocked,
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that's defined, that's scheduled.
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Similarly, I'll put my kids key activities in my calendar.
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You I don't necessarily put in what they are or anything.
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I don't specifically schedule the exact times.
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But if I've committed to taking my son to scouts
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or taking my daughter to dance or taking the kids to other sporting events,
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I'll block that time out and just put NA in the description in case anyone needs to read it or whatnot.
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And that way people aren't scheduling meetings.
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I'll try and put a 10 or 15 minute buffer
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so I don't have to take meetings in the car unless it's urgent.
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And that way when people go and try and book those, you know, if they're rude, they'll just stomp over it.
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If they're a reasonable human being, they'll say, hey, you know, the only time I can meet with you is 8 p .m.
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I noticed you have it blocked.
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Is there a way you can make an exception?
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And then we can have a conversation.
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But in that case, I'm in control of my time.
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And it's me that decides whether I want to give that time to somebody versus just letting them,
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you know, have access to 24 hours of my day each and every day.
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Similarly, if you can set up one of those little things where people are able to book your calendar that are external,
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you know, if you meet with a lot of clients, if you meet with a lot of customers,
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I think there's one tool called Calendry that everyone uses.
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Outlook or Microsoft now has a tool called Bookings,
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where essentially you can send somebody a link and they can go in and find the time that's available.
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You can set parameters.
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So, you know, I don't allow.. external meetings on Friday afternoons if I can help it and that sort of thing.
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And that saves you from those stupid email exchanges of, you know, hey, would you like to meet?
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I have, you know, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday from this time and Thursday from this time.
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Then you write back to me on, you know, Thursday morning and say, I'd like to meet Thursday afternoon and that time's already booked.
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And we spend 40 minutes going back and forth arguing about times.
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This way I send somebody a link, you know, it's up to the minute.
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It sucks all the data out of my calendar it has kind of my own rules set in there
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and it saves that back and forth.
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Third tip, get a dedicated space and keep it clean.
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And, you know, this may be feel like it's an easy tip for me to give living in the suburbs
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and actually having two dedicated workspaces.
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You know, if you're in an apartment in Manhattan or Tokyo or whatever, and you know, you're sort of taken aback saying,
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hey, I can barely afford space for myself, let alone a dedicated workspace.
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I think you can still
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put this tip into action and you don't necessarily need to have a whole room in your house.
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You don't necessarily have to have this big, fantastic, dedicated physical space.
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Even if you're working from your kitchen table, you know, create some ritual around converting that kitchen table into your workspace.
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So, you know, I've heard of people that'll put their laptop in a work bag every day.
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And then when they're ready to work, you know, they take their bag out, they put on the table, they take the laptop out.
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You know, some people have a little, you know, token or talisman they put on the desk.
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It could be a little vase with a fake flower.
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It could be a picture of, you know, something.
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But essentially what you're trying to do is create this mental trigger that, hey, I'm at work now.
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You know, I'm sitting in my space.
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Even if it was the kitchen table 15 minutes ago, it's now my office.
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I've got my work tools here.
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You know, I've got things laid out and I'm ready to be productive and I'm ready to start my day.
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If you do have a dedicated space, and again, that could be a, you know, a corner of your room and,
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you know, I've lived in apartments.
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I've worked on the kitchen table and that sort of thing
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or it could be a dedicated room try
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and keep it clean you know i will generally on sunday try
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and clean up my office
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that ends up being our you know receiving center for our
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home all the amazon junk gets in there i tend to have a few projects going
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and we'll leave some junk around but i'll try and clean
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that up so at least on monday morning
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when i come in the space is clean you know things are kind of serene
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and again it gets me into that mode of focusing on I'm starting the work week, I'm ready to be productive,
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I'm ready to shift from you know being at home
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and hanging out to still physically being at home but now being in the workplace.
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Fourth tip, if you're going to invest in anything for your home office, invest in a good chair.
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And I'm generally somebody that considers themselves a big dumb animal.
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I don't invest in tons of creature comforts.
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I you know would rather buy a camera or a laptop
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or something cool than buy a piece of furniture
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but a good ergonomic office chair makes a world of difference especially
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when you're working from home you tend to sit more you know
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if i'm working through a day probably the only time
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i get up other than going to lunch is you know to go get some water go use the facilities
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so you're spending a lot more time in
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that chair it's not a very healthy thing for your body
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and if you're sitting in a bad chair you know i started getting a sore back when i had a 50 dollar,
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you know, local office supply store special, that's just not good for you.
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It's not good for your health, it's not good for your comfort, and it makes working from home a lot less comfortable.
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A good ergonomic office chair new is going to cost you probably in excess of a thousand bucks.
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You know, for me that was a bit of a kick in the cojones just putting
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that much money out for a chair.
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But conversely, number one, it's good for your health.
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Number two, you're going to feel better and not feel sore and not,
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you know, get up like a creaky old man when you do get out of your chair.
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And number three, a good chair is going to last you 15 years.
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So you take that thousand bucks over the course of 15 years,
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you know, 70, 80 bucks a year doesn't look that bad in terms of the amount of comfort it brings you.
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You can also look on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
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Sometimes people will be selling good chairs.
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You know, if there's a local company that goes out of business, they may have a whole bunch of good office chairs that they're releasing.
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There are office supply stores that will sell used chairs and equipment from companies that have gone out of business.
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So there are some ways to cut costs, but you know, plan on spending a grand or more, get yourself a good chair,
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you know, don't get some gamer chair or the chair that's 50 bucks at,
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you know, the local office supply store because your back is going to hate you for doing that.
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And the final tip, and this is probably the one I struggle with the most, is close down your workday.
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So just like you have a ritual at the beginning of the day,
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you know, again, that could be opening up your laptop at the kitchen table, that could be walking into the lovely dedicated room within your home.
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You also need a way to mentally shut down and stop work.
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I've struggled with this quite a bit, particularly if you're on calls in the evening,
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if you're wrapping up a call around 7 30 and the whole family's waiting for you to have dinner,
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the temptation is to hit that hang up button and scoot into the kitchen and sit down and say, hey, I'm here.
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The problem with that is your brain is still at work.
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And this is where I've struggled.
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You know, you've got the whole family there, you're having dinner.
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For us, that's a very important thing is having that family dinner each evening.
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And, you know, yes, my big old butt is there at dinner, but my brain is still at work.
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It's trying to process that call.
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It's, you know, thinking about all the things that I haven't done yet and all that nonsense.
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So what I try and do, even if I have that late evening call and I'm, you know, rushing to get to dinner,
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is even if you just take five minutes, you know, I'll shut down all my work -related applications.
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You know, maybe I'll just kind of pace around my office for a couple or three minutes.
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Maybe I'll just close everything down, close my eyes, take a couple deep breaths.
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But have some ritual where you end the work day.
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You know, I think the one thing we miss by working from home is,
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you know, yes, the commute kind of sucked and driving back and forth, but it was a, you know,
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very concrete and fixed ritual where you would finish the work day, you would get in your car,
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get on the train or whatever and you would have
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that time to decompress and to kind of mentally file away the workday and prepare for your life at home.
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So to the extent you can duplicate that experience it'll make you more present for your family,
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you know, roommates, spouse, whoever lives in the apartment with you.
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If you live by yourself you know it'll let you shift those mental gears and let you engage in your hobbies,
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let you engage in some rest and relaxation and not essentially be working around the clock.
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I think one of the big dangers and it's become a little bit cliched, but this idea of, you know,
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sometimes working from home can turn into living at work.
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And if you don't have these rituals where you're able to shut down to end your workday, it's very easy to fall into the trap of,
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you know, oh, my laptop's 20 feet away.
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You know, let me just poke over there and see who emailed me.
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Or, you know, it's 10 in the morning or 10 at night and you can't sleep.
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You know, let me log on and do a few things. Or, you know, sure, I'll schedule
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that call with you know whatever other country at three in the morning
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and you know I'll do
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that three four times a week you end up just impacting your life to an unreasonable extent
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and that not only makes you a less optimized human
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but it also makes you a less effective worker
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so I'm not just saying you should you know sandbag
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and phone it in or quiet quit
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or whatever the cool term is these days taking care of yourself you know book ending
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that work day making sure you're taking time for yourself
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and time to open and close the workday properly will make you a more effective and more productive worker.
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So if you have any tips that you've come up with working from home, if you have any great ideas,
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you know, whether it's a practice that you engage in or a gadget or something, throw it in the comments.
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I am particularly interested since I am a consumer of these tips as somebody that works from home generally.
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Would appreciate that, appreciate you, you know, keep up the good hard work from home
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and hopefully these tips help make you a happier
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and more effective remote worker and wish you all the best in all your pursuits.
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Big Heavy, signing out.
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Peace.
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Ever wonder why every talking head on YouTube asks you to hit the like
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and subscribe button at the end of their video?
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You were right, because we're living in a computer simulation,
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and our benevolent robotic overlords get just a little bit of energy every time you hit that like.
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So do me, the rest of civilization, and our benevolent robotic overlords a favor.
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Match that subscribe, be kind to each other, keep living your simulated dreams.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “5 Tips for Remote and Work From Home Professionals”. This video has 216 sentences and 2920 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:58. The speaker talks fast, about 225 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| calendar noun | /ˈkæl.ən.də/ | Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years. |
| dedicate verb | /ˈdɛdɪˌkeɪt/ | To set apart for a deity or for religious purposes; consecrate. |
| ritual noun | /ˈɹɪt͡ʃ.u.əl/ | A rite; a repeated set of actions, especially in religious contexts. |
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| laptop noun | /ˈlæp.tɑp/ | A laptop computer. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
| buck noun | /ˈbʌk/ | A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret, salmonid, shad, skunk and kangaroo. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| essentially adverb | /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/ | In essence: by nature. |
| comfort noun | /ˈkʌm.fət/ | Contentment, ease. |
| engage verb | /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ | To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied. |
| invest verb | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. |
| mentally adverb | /ˈmɛntəli/ | In a mental manner; an idea thought out in one's mind, as opposed to an idea spoken orally. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| look through verb | To take a view of the contents of; search in, either with the eyes or by hand. | |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| shut down verb | To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily. | |
| call around verb | To make several phone calls, usually for the purpose of locating an item, comparing prices or inquiring about a topic. | |
| clean up verb | To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What's happening in the afternoon?
- I don't specifically schedule the exact times.
- Is there a way you can make an exception?
- You know, I'm sitting in my space.
- I've got my work tools here.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if they're rude, they'll just · If they're a reasonable human being, they'll say |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have actually been spent · have been spent · I've committed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been spent · have been spent |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might go · might read · might fart |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 84 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, similarly /ˈsɪm.ə.lə.li/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/, elaborate /ɪˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like calendar, dedicate, ritual.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.