IELTS Speaking for Success - ⏰ Time, punctuality & routines (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: June 28, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://successwithielts.com/ Are you an early bird or a night owl? Rory explains why it's good form to be 'ahead of schedule' and when showing up early might 'throw a spanner in the works'. Listen for Band 9 idioms and phrasal verbs! Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, dear listener and welcome into AILD speaking part three, getting up early in general. Hmm, what a topic. If you are an early bird, if you are an early riser, I'm not, but Rory is, so he is the authority, an educated super native speaker with a band nine, ooh, and an early bird. Rory, hello. Hello, it's me. What time did you get up today, for example? I got up at 6 o'clock.

You see, the listener, he's crazy, he's crazy. I'm not crazy. I got up at like 10. Yeah, but like, do you not need to work into the evening? I don't need to do that. All right, okay. Do you? I don't know. No, I don't usually work in the evening.

So you're going to say, I don't usually work. Right, the listener. Are you ready? Let's get started. Do you know anyone who likes to get up early? Other than myself? Not really, unfortunately. I think it's a very unusual trait in people, but obviously they've found ways of managing their days that work for them.

Can you explain further? Yeah, these days, it seems the vast majority of people get up later in the day than me. And why shouldn't they? I probably have different hobbies or habits that require me to get up, and they don't have them. so why not have a lion? Why do people get up early? Lots of reasons.

But I think the big ones are mostly connected to work or being productive in some way. For example, they might work shifts or with people in different time zones and have to make an early start. It could even be something simple like working in a service industry, which needs to be up and running

so that the people who work more regular hours have something that's ready for them to use. And what evidence do you have for that? That's just simple observation really. Also, if you have lots of people doing an activity at a certain time, it seems logical to have things ready for them to make any process go more smoothly. What kinds of occasions require people to arrive early? Well, again, the list is pretty extensive.

By and large, even if workplaces have set hours, it's considered good form to arrive at least a little ahead of schedule, just to make a good impression. And if you show up early, then there's more of a chance to get settled in, regardless of what people are doing. You might even be able to leave early too. Has that always been true?

I think so, though obviously there are times and places where being punctual hasn't been as valued and still isn't, but generally people seem to favour that kind of behavior if they can. Why do some people like to stay up late? they might have gotten a bit carried away with whatever they're doing and gone past their usual bedtime. That happens if you're having a good time doing whatever it is you're doing, failing that it's also possible they just don't need to be up early,

like people who work with those from different time zones or people who work later in the day usually. Do you think that can change in the future? Oh, absolutely, especially with shift work. that rarely lasts forever. And people change their habits for all kinds of reasons. They might see that they get more done if they get up earlier, for example, and so they embrace that habit instead. Is it good to arrive early in any situation?

Well, maybe not in any situation, but the vast majority of them probably benefit from an early arrival. I suppose the exceptions might be extreme things, like if it's something like a surprise party, and you're the person who it's being thrown for some kind of phased operation where a spanner could be thrown into the works of people or things show up before the groundwork is late. But that's not often the case, though, is it? Do you think that will also be true in the future? Short of some radical change in how people live, it certainly seems to keep going on like that.

I can't even imagine anything that might derail things in such a way. Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify advertising. You're among fans. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive.

To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Right, you'll listen. You can go online and research the topic of getting up early, like benefits, drawbacks, that's nice reading, also useful for your essays. Okay? A very unusual trait.

Trait like character trait, like part of your character. Or your personality. Personality, yeah. And it's C2. Is it? Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, bad-nine moment. From the get-go, dear listener, bam, just Rory gives you a C-2 word, Ben-9. Trade, a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behavior.

For example, arrogance is his personality character trait. Being well organized. Yeah, being well organized is his character trait. Yeah, or his sense of humor is one of his traits. So a good sense of humor is one of his traits. So one of his characteristics. And you can say, well, yeah, I don't know anyone or blah, blah, blah. I think it's a very unusual trait in people.

It's a very unusual character trait. Yeah, if you enjoy getting up at freaking 6 a.m. Yeah, that's unusual. If you're a productive person. Yeah, I know only Rory who enjoys doing that. Begrudge people. Oh, la, la. But that just means that you hold it against them.

Hmm, for example. Well, if people are noisy, you might begrudge them that you don't like it. And you wish they didn't do it. But if we talk about getting up early, that only affects me. So why should I expect other people to do the same thing as me when it doesn't affect me? Yeah. Be grudge. Big grudge. That's an interesting verb.

Be grudge. Be grudge. To feel unhappy because someone has something that you think they do not deserve. Like lying in. But everybody deserves a lie in. I enjoy getting up early. I don't begrudge other people when they get up late. Most people enjoy getting up later in the day, and it's nice to have a lie-in.

So a lie-in means that you stay in bed later than usual. Like, have a lie-in. Stay in bed later than usual in the morning. So on the weekend, I usually have a lie-in. Oh, many people enjoy a nice. lie in on the weekend. Including me. What? On the weekend, you have a lie-in?

Really? Sometimes. Oh, wow. Like till 7 a.m. Right? I think I just turn off my alarm and see what happens with my body clock, to be honest. Oh, ooh. Nice.

Okay, what time did you get up last weekend? I honestly can't remember. What time was last weekend? What did I even do last weekend? Oh, okay, fine. Right, okay. Oh, okay. Okay, so last weekend I did actually have to be up early because I went to the gym at 7 o'clock in the morning.

But usually it's a lot later than that. Oh, God. You see, D'Lesson is crazy. He's seriously crazy. Well, I had a friend that wanted to go. It's not my fault. Oh, oh, nice. You're a good friend.

7 a.m. on the weekend to go to the gym. Dragging them to places. So, Dielessna, the major reasons are connected to work or family or family. or, I don't know, work. But usually people get up early because of work and more work. Because they want to be productive, right? Yeah. So they want to get things done.

People might work shifts. Work shifts is a nice phrase, which means like people work like night shifts, right? Or for example, like a day shift. A shift is, what is a shift? It's like a fixed period of hours that people have to work. So you might work a night shift. That would be from maybe 9 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening until 6 o'clock in the morning.

Yeah, usually kind of a night shift, a day shift. Doctors usually work shifts. So they work from 9 to 9 or from midnight till 6 a.m. like a night shift. Bus drivers also, right? And people might work shifts, but work shifts, not work in shifts. No, no, no, work shifts. So people might work shifts or people might be in different time zones.

So they make an early start. So people get up early or people make an early start. Or they have to make an early start. They have to. They don't want, but. They have to do it because of their work. Yeah, they might work in hospitals, in some industries. Maybe not as teachers.

I briefly thought about doing shifts as a teacher, but that's crazy. And I would much rather have a normal day. No, but teachers usually get up early because school starts at like, freaking, like 8am, 9 a.m. Yeah, that's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, some schools, they start like 3,000 or like 8. What's the need for this? Oh, I don't know, it's crazy. Or because, like, you are more productive in the morning, so school starts 7.30.

Not everybody is more productive in the morning. That's crazy to apply that to just like everybody. I am, but I'm not everybody. Like, other people are going to do what they want. Children should be, you know. 6.m. every day. And how many children do you have again? Yeah.

Off you go out of the house. Mama's got wine to enjoy. People should arrive early. Wait, you missed the answer to the previous question, Maria. Good grief. This is important. It's a survival skill for IELTS. If the examiner asks you what evidence you have and you just say,

just simple observation, really. So that means just by looking at people. People should arrive early. You say, by and large, like in general. In general. Yeah, in general. By and large. Workplaces have set hours.

So set hours. the hours are fixed. So you start at 9, you finish at 5. Set hours. And it's better to arrive ahead of schedule, a little ahead of schedule. So before you start working, for example. Just you arrive at 8.50, not at 9. You start at 9, you arrive a little ahead of schedule, schedule timetable.

so you arrive like 8 to 50 to make a good impression yeah to make people think positive things about you if you make a good impression you get settled in you get organized and then you start your work so you arrive before to get settled in to organize your stuff to get I know tea coffee go to the bathroom and people should be punctual so they should arrive on time And we say on time. Arrive on time. Not arrive in time. No, you can say like arrive in time, in time for something. Yeah, but if you arrive in time, it's like just in time. But if you arrive on time, it's like on schedule. Yeah.

Early. Sometimes people run late. So if they're late, they run late. It's not a good idea to run late, to be late. Many people stay up late. So they go to bed after midnight. Another good phrase is pull an all-nighter. Yeah, I think it was one of the first idioms we ever talked about on the podcast.

All those years ago. It's nice to paraphrase the examiner's words. So the examiner asks, why do people stay up late? You say, oh, many people pull an all-nighter because, pull an all-nighter. Stay-up all night. Actually, it does mean stay up all night. So you kind of don't go to sleep because of work or study.

Usually people pull an all-nighter to study for an exam. And you can say like, oh, some people pull an all-nighter to study for an exam or to get ready for a presentation at work. So people stay up late. People get carried away with serious, with TikTok. talk with Instagram, so get carried away with. But that just means they overly focus on something because they're having so much fun. Maybe you get carried away with playing video games.

God knows I do. Yeah, kind of you start doing it and then you forget, like, yourself, you forget everything and you end up doing it for like five hours, six hours, and boom, morning, it's morning. Hello? So people get carried away with whatever they're doing. and it's past their bedtime. Right, so 5 a.m. in the morning. Oops.

Accident. Many people benefit from an early arrival. So it's beneficial. It's good to arrive earlier. But not in any situation. If, and then you can give examples, like if it's a surprise party, or if you're cooking something,

and then people arrive earlier and you're not ready. If it's a date, for example, I don't know, at home, you're just in the shower. Yes, that's probably not the best of times. Yeah. It's like in the movies, you know, like Bridget Jones, for example. Like she's getting her dinner ready. She's cooking and like the guy arrives like one hour and a half earlier. So, yeah.

And like people could show up earlier, right? So they arrive early or they show up before the date time. They show up. So it's not a good idea to show up early in every situation. When you talk about the future, you should use likely to. It's likely to change. It's unlikely to change. So probably it will change.

It's likely to change. Or probably it won't change. It's unlikely to change in the future. So people are likely to get up earlier in the future Or they are unlikely to get up early in the future Right, dear listener, have we motivated you to get up early? They're probably thinking of going back to bed After all the vocabulary we threw out them

Yeah, go to bed, sleep well, you know, it's important, sleep is important Yeah, you can just like, you know, switch on our podcast You missed an idea maybe Did you talk about throw a spanner in the works? No, come to bed, it's crazy. No, it's not. If you throw a spanner in the works,

then you mess up someone's plan, or you mess up an e-plan. For example. Not being properly organized, could throw a spanner in the works. Rory, you've started using those idioms, you know, it's just crazy. Yeah, it's an idiom,

so put or throw a spanner in the works. Hmm. To do something that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding. So, something through a spanner, spanner in the works. So if a person arrives earlier, shows up earlier, this could put or throw

a spanner in the works. Can kind of ruin a plan. Rory could you give us another example? Talking about idioms through a spanner and Maria's plan to end the episode. There we go. Right, dear listener, thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next

episode. Bye-hoo. Bye. Do you know anyone who likes to get up early? Other than myself, not really, unfortunately. I think it's a very unusual trait in people, but obviously they've found ways of managing their days that work for them. Can you explain further?

Yeah, these days, it seems the vast majority of people get up later in the day than me. And why shouldn't they? I probably have different hobbies or, habits that require me to get up and they don't have them, so why not have a lion? Why do people get up early? Lots of reasons. But I think the big ones are mostly connected to work or being productive in some way. For example, they might work shifts or with people in different time zones and have to make an early start. It could even be something simple like working in a service industry,

which needs to be up and running so that the people who work more regular, hours have something that's ready for them to use. And what evidence do you have for that? That's just simple observation, really. Also, if you have lots of people doing an activity at a certain time, it seems logical to have things ready for them to make any process go more smoothly. What kinds of occasions require people to arrive early? Well, again, the list is pretty extensive.

By and large, even if workplaces have set hours, it's considered good form to arrive at least a little ahead of schedule, just to make a good impression. And if you show up early, then there's more of a chance to get settled in, regardless of what people are doing. You might even be able to leave early too. Has that always been true? I think so, though obviously there are times and places where being punctual hasn't been as valued and still isn't, but generally people seem to favour that kind of behavior if they can.

Why do some people like to stay up late? Well, they might have gotten a bit carried away with whatever they're doing and gone past their usual bedtime. That happens if you're having a good time doing whatever it is you're doing, failing that it's also possible they just don't need to be up early, like people who work with those from different time zones or people who work later in the day usually. Do you think that can change in the future? Oh, absolutely, especially with shift work. that rarely lasts forever.

And people change their habits for all kinds of reasons. They might see that they get more done if they get up earlier, for example, and so they embrace that habit instead. Is it good to arrive early in any situation? Well, maybe not in any situation, but the vast majority of them probably benefit from an early arrival. I suppose the exceptions might be extreme things, like if it's something like a surprise party,

and you're the person who it's being thrown for some kind of phased operation where a spanner could be thrown into the works of people or things show up before the groundwork is late. But that's not often the case, though, is it? Do you think that will also be true in the future? Short of some radical change in how people live, it certainly seems to keep going on like that. I can't even imagine anything that might derail things in such a way. You know, I'm going to be. You know,

Thank you.