Shadowing Practice: How to Make a Simple Weekly Plan in English | Slow & Simple English Podcast Ep. 04 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Slow and Simple English.
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Slow and Simple English.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Slow and Simple English podcast,
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where every conversation helps you learn.
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I'm Alex.
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Hello, Alex.
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Hello everyone.
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I'm Lisa.
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How are you today, Alex?
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I am feeling very organized today, Lisa.
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I just finished planning my whole week.
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whole week?
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It is only Sunday.
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Exactly.
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Sunday is the perfect day to plan.
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I know what I am doing every day this week.
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Work, exercise, cooking, rest.
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Everything is clear.
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That sounds very satisfying.
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Satisfying means it feels good, right?
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Yes.
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Satisfying means you feel happy and complete,
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Like everything is in order.
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I never feel that on Sunday.
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What do you feel on Sunday?
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Panic.
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Sunday night panic.
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I think about the whole week and I feel overwhelmed.
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Overwhelmed, that means too much at the same time.
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Too much to think about.
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Yes.
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Everything feels big and heavy.
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I don't know where to start.
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So I don't start.
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I just watch TV.
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And then Monday arrives and you are not ready.
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Monday always surprises me.
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Every single week.
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Lisa, that is exactly why we are doing today's topic.
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A topic to save me from Monday?
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Today we are talking about how to make a simple weekly plan.
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I need this more than any other episode.
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Let's start.
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But first, before we start,
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we have a small request.
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Yes.
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If you like our podcast,
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please click the like button and please subscribe to Slow
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and Simple English Podcast and share this episode with your friends and family who are learning English.
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Thank you so much.
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It helps us a lot.
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We love our listeners.
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Okay, let's make a plan.
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A real plan.
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Together.
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So, Lisa, let me ask you something.
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Do you use a planner,
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a diary, anything to organize your week?
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I bought a beautiful planner last January.
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Oh, that is great.
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Do you use it?
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I used it for four days.
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Then I forgot about it.
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It is still on my desk.
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Very clean.
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Very empty.
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I think many of our listeners know this feeling.
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Yes, I was very motivated in January.
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And then, life.
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This is very common.
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People start with big plans and complicated systems, and then they stop.
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Because it is too hard to keep.
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So what is the answer?
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Simple.
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The answer is simple.
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A weekly plan does not need to be perfect.
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It does not need to be beautiful.
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It just needs to work.
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Just needs to work.
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Okay.
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I like that.
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Today, I have five tips for making a weekly plan.
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A plan that is easy to start and easy to keep.
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Five tips.
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My empty planner is listening.
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Tip one.
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Choose one planning time each week.
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One specific time?
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Yes.
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The same time every week.
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You sit down, you look at the week ahead,
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you decide what needs to happen.
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Like a meeting with yourself.
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Exactly.
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A meeting with yourself.
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I love that phrase.
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And like any meeting, you need to schedule it.
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Put it in your calendar.
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What time do you do your planning, Alex?
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Sunday evening, after dinner, about 20 minutes.
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I make a cup of tea.
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I sit at my desk.
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I look at my week.
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20 minutes is not long.
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No. A weekly plan does not take a long time.
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15 to 20 minutes is enough.
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You are not writing a novel.
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You are just looking at seven days and deciding the important things.
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And if I miss my planning time?
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Then you do it the next morning.
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Monday morning is also okay.
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The important thing is consistency.
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Consistency means doing something regularly,
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again and again, not just once.
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Consistency.
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So I need to plan every week,
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not just when I feel motivated.
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Yes.
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Motivation comes and goes.
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Consistency stays.
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motivation comes and goes consistency stays that is a good sentence write
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that down okay
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so tip one choose one planning time every week same time
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every week a meeting with yourself my planning time will be
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sunday evening with tea like you perfect tip two write down your must-dos first Must-dos?
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What are those?
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Must-dos are the things you absolutely have to do that week.
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No choice.
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They must happen.
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Like work?
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Or a doctor's appointment?
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Exactly.
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Work, appointments, important deadlines.
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These are your must-dos.
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Write them first before anything else.
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Why first?
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Because they are fixed.
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They cannot move.
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When you see your must-dos,
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you can see how much time is left for everything else.
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Ah, so I write the fixed things first,
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and then the other things go around them.
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Yes.
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Think of it like putting big rocks in a jar first.
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If you put small things in first,
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the big rocks don't fit don't fit.
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Oh, I heard this idea before.
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Big rocks first, then small rocks fill the spaces.
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Exactly that idea.
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Your must-dos are the big rocks.
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Your other tasks are the small rocks.
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So if I have a work meeting on Tuesday,
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I write that first, and then I plan other things around it.
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Perfect.
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And here is one more thing.
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Be honest about your must-dos.
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Some people write 20 must-dos.
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That is too many.
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Much too many.
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A realistic week has maybe five to eight must-dos.
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Not 20.
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If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.
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If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.
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Another good sentence.
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Tip two, write your must-dos first.
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The big rocks go in first.
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Tip three, after your must-dos, add your want-to-dos.
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Want-to-dos?
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Things I want to do but don't have to?
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Yes.
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These are the things that make your week feel good.
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Not just productive, but enjoyable.
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Enjoyable means fun and pleasant.
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Like going for a walk,
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or calling a friend, or watching a movie on Friday night.
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Exactly.
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These things are important, too.
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Many people forget to put them in their plan.
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They only write work and duties.
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Duties are the things you must do.
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Responsibilities...
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So the plan becomes only serious things,
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and then the week feels heavy.
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Yes, heavy and joyless.
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Joyless means no joy, no happiness.
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And when your week feels joyless,
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you stop planning because planning feels like making a list of suffering.
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A list of suffering?
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That is exactly what my plans felt like before.
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So add the good things, right?
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Tuesday evening, watch one episode of my show.
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Saturday morning, go to the market, Sunday, cook something new.
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These are small things, but they give the week a good feeling.
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Yes, they give you something to look forward to.
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Look forward to means you feel excited about something coming in the future.
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I look forward to Saturday market.
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I look forward to Friday movie night.
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When you have things to look forward to,
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the week feels lighter, not heavy.
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Tip 3.
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Add the want-to-dos.
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Make the week light, not joyless.
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Tip 4.
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Don't plan every hour.
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Oh, I do this.
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I make a very detailed timetable.
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9 o'clock do this, 10 o'clock do the next thing.
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And what happens?
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By 10.30, everything is already wrong.
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Something took longer, or something new appeared.
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And then the whole timetable is broken.
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Yes.
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And when the plan breaks, how do you feel?
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Like I failed.
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Like I am bad at planning.
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But you didn't fail.
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The plan was just too rigid.
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Rigid means not flexible, no space to change.
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Rigid.
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Like a very tight schedule with no breathing room.
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Exactly.
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Breathing room.
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Space.
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A good weekly plan has breathing room.
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Instead of planning every hour planned by the day.
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Or by morning, afternoon, and evening.
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So instead of 9 o'clock emails,
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10 o'clock report, I write Monday morning work tasks.
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More general.
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Yes.
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More general.
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And if something takes longer, it is okay.
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Your morning block is flexible.
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You adjust.
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Adjust means you change slightly when needed.
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So the plan bends.
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It doesn't break.
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Exactly.
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A flexible plan bends.
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A rigid plan breaks.
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A flexible plan bends.
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A rigid plan breaks.
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I am writing this on my planner.
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The empty one.
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Good fill it with something today.
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Tip four, don't plan every hour.
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Leave breathing room.
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And tip five, do a quick review at the end of the week.
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A review like we do at the end of every podcast episode?
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Yes, exactly like that.
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At the end of the week,
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you look back, you ask yourself two simple questions.
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What are the questions?
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Question one.
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What went well this week?
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Question two.
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What can I do better next week?
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These are very simple questions.
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Simple is the point.
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You don't need to write a long reflection.
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Reflection means thinking deeply about what happened.
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Just two or three sentences is enough.
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What went well?
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What can be better?
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That's it?
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That's it.
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And And this review helps you learn from your week,
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not just live through it.
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There is a difference.
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Living through it means just surviving.
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Learning from it means growing.
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Beautiful.
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Yes.
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When you review your week,
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you become a better planner.
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Every week, a little better.
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So after a few months,
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I will be much better at this.
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Yes.
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And you will also feel more in control.
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In control means you are the one deciding your life,
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not life deciding for you.
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I want to feel in control.
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Right now, Monday decides for me.
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After tip five, you will decide for Monday.
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I will decide for Monday.
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I love that.
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Tip five, review your week,
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learn from it, then plan better next week.
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Okay, everyone, before we review,
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let's learn some useful words for talking about planning and time.
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Yes.
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Vocabulary for planning.
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I need these.
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First word, priority.
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Priority means the most important thing.
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The thing you do first.
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My priority this week is finishing my project.
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Good.
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Second word, deadline.
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A deadline is the last day or time to finish something.
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My deadline for the project is Friday.
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Perfect.
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Third word, schedule.
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A schedule is your plan with days and times.
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Your weekly plan is your schedule.
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I need a better schedule.
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Fourth word, flexible.
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We talked about this.
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Flexible means easy to change.
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Not rigid.
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My new plan will be flexible.
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And fifth word, balance.
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Balance means not too much of one thing.
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Work and rest.
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Duties and enjoyment.
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Equal and fair.
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I want better balance in my week.
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Less work stress.
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More good things.
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Everyone, practice these five words today.
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Priority, deadline, schedule, flexible, balance.
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Try to use them when you talk about your week.
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These words make me sound very professional.
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They make you sound organized.
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And you will be.
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Okay, let's review what we talked about today.
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Yes.
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Review time.
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My favorite part.
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Today we talked about how to make a simple weekly plan.
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Lisa, tip one.
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Tip one.
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Choose one planning time every week.
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Same time every week.
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A meeting with yourself.
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Tip two.
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Tip two.
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Write your must-dos first.
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The big rocks go in the jar first.
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Five to eight things, not twenty.
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Tip three?
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Tip three.
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Add your want-to-dos, the good things,
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things to look forward to.
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Make the week light, not joyless.
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Tip four?
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Tip four.
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Don't plan every hour.
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Leave breathing room.
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A flexible plan bends.
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A rigid plan breaks.
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And tip five?
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Tip five.
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Review your week.
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Ask two questions.
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What went well?
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What can be better?
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Excellent.
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You remembered everything perfectly.
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I am going to do all of this on Sunday evening with tea.
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And remember everyone, a perfect plan is not the goal.
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A useful plan is the goal.
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Simple, flexible, yours.
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Simple, flexible, yours.
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That is the whole idea.
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Well, that's all the time we have for today.
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Thank you so much for listening to Slow and Simple English Podcast.
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This episode came at the perfect time for me.
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I am planning my week tonight.
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I am happy to hear that, Lisa.
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Please subscribe to Slow and Simple English Podcast.
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And give this episode a like.
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It really helps us.
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And share it with a friend who is learning English,
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or a friend who also has an empty planner on their desk.
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Share it with them.
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They need it too.
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And we have a question for you today.
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Leave a comment below.
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Use this sentence This week,
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my number one priority is… Tell us your priority.
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In English, one sentence.
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You can do it.
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See you next time.
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Bye, everyone.
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Keep practicing your English.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
Practicing speaking with the Slow and Simple English Podcast episode on "How to Make a Simple Weekly Plan in English" offers valuable insights for English learners aiming to enhance their fluency. As Alex and Lisa discuss the importance of planning your week, you are invited to engage with relatable scenarios that many face. By listening to their conversation, you can improve your speaking skills and build confidence in using everyday phrases. This practice not only helps you internalize the language but also prepares you to articulate your thoughts clearly and effectively.
Furthermore, by shadowing their dialogue—repeating phrases simultaneously—you can improve your English pronunciation and overall communication skills. Shadow speak, which involves mimicking the speaker’s intonation and rhythm, enriches your learning experience. As you approximate their natural speech patterns, you’ll find yourself becoming more comfortable in everyday English conversations.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Throughout the podcast, Alex and Lisa utilize several key phrases and grammatical structures that learners can adopt:
- “I am feeling very organized today.” - This structure effectively uses the present continuous tense to express current feelings.
- “Sunday is the perfect day to plan.” - A simple but impactful statement using the present simple tense, which is frequently used to convey habits and facts.
- “Everything feels big and heavy.” - This metaphor illustrates the use of descriptive language, essential for expressing emotions and situations.
- “I don’t know where to start.” - A practical phrase that many learners can relate to; it encourages asking questions and seeking help, both crucial for language acquisition.
By incorporating these expressions into your own speech, you can sound more natural and fluent, making it easier to connect with others.
Common Pronunciation Traps
While listening to this episode, pay attention to certain words and phrases that may pose challenges:
- “Satisfying” - The 's' sound at the beginning and the ending 'ing' are often mispronounced; practice saying it slowly to master the rhythm.
- “Overwhelmed” - This word can be tricky due to its length and the silent 'h.' Break it down into smaller parts when practicing.
- “Plan” and “planning” - Focus on the vowel sounds to ensure clarity. These words are fundamental in everyday discussions about tasks and schedules.
By identifying and working on these pronunciation challenges, you will improve your English pronunciation significantly. Shadow speech techniques can be particularly helpful—repeat phrases after listening to them, mimicking the intonation and pacing.
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.
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