Learn the English Phrases TO GET ON TOP OF THINGS and TO STAY ON TOP OF THINGS

4,368 views ・ 2021-04-21

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In this English lesson I wanted to help you
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learn the English phrase, "Get on top of things."
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When you are busy in life sometimes you get behind.
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You know you have a lot of things to do
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and you don't have enough time to do them,
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and then you get behind.
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And that's not a good feeling.
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And then you need to get on top of things.
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The last couple of weeks, I was really, really busy
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and I kind of got a little bit behind
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on the farm, at school, with YouTube.
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But now as of today,
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I was able to get back on top of things.
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I spent a lot of time over the last few days
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getting back on top of things.
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So, when you get on top of things,
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it means you get caught up.
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It means you finish a whole bunch of work
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that you needed to get done
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so that you could just feel good again.
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Hey, there's two other phrases
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I wanted to teach you as well.
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"To be on top of things" or "To stay on top of things."
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So there's kind of two phrases here, right?
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Let me cover this one up.
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"To be on top of things" or "To stay on top of things."
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When you are able to stay on top of things,
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when you are on top of things,
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for me, at least, life feels really good.
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It means that I have everything done
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that I need to get done.
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By the end of each day,
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it's really nice for me to be on top of things, okay?
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As I go through my week,
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it's really nice to stay on top of things.
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I don't like being behind.
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I don't like knowing that there is a pile of work
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that I need to do in order to get back on top of things.
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So anyways, let's review these two phrases.
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When you need to get on top of things,
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it means you're a little bit behind in your work
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and you need to do extra work
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so that you can be on top of things.
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And it's always really nice to just stay on top of things.
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I can't even express how nice of a feeling that is
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when you finish your week, when it's Saturday afternoon
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and you were able to stay on top of things all week
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and you're just totally on top of everything in your life.
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It's a really good feeling.
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Hey, but let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Padma, and Padma says this,
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"To be top dog in life is everyone's dream
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"but sometimes it becomes a burden
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"or you are overwhelmed with that responsibility.
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"So being second banana sometimes may give you
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"some breathing room."
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And my response was this.
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"Exactly. I agree 100%.
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"Sometimes being in charge is very stressful."
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So thanks Padma for that comment.
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And I do agree with you 100%.
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In fact, I used to run a computer tech support company,
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as well as teach.
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So for a number of years, I was a part-time teacher
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and I also did tech support for a couple of schools.
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And I was really, really busy.
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But what I'm trying to say is this.
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When I was in charge of my own company, when I was top dog,
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it had a lot of responsibility.
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Now that I just teach full time and someone else is top dog,
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it's a lot easier.
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It's a lot easier in life to not be the top dog.
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I have less responsibilities.
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My boss, especially over this past year,
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has had far more responsibilities
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than just regular teachers,
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making decisions about COVID protocols at school,
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making decisions about how to communicate
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to all of the parents and students
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what we're doing as a school.
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Being top dog for the last year and a bit
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has not been easy for a lot of people.
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They've had to make some really tough and hard decisions.
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So Padma again, once again, I totally agree.
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Sometimes it's easier being second banana.
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Sometimes it's nice to not be the top dog.
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I would agree with that 100%.
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Hey, I did wanna mention something.
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A lot of you liked how beautiful my last video
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on my other channel was.
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Lots of daffodils, a few tulips, but in about 12 hours,
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we're supposed to get 5 to 10 centimeters of snow.
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If we do, I'll take a picture
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and I'll post it on both channels' community pages.
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