Time & Productivity — Part 3
The Celpip Plus team
Written and reviewed against the official CELPIP scoring criteria
What you'll learn: the phrasal verbs that describe how time and tasks slip, stack up, or get handled — "put off," "catch up on," "fall behind" — so your spoken and written English about productivity sounds fluent.
Why phrasal verbs fit productivity topics so well
Time management is talked about almost entirely through phrasal verbs in everyday English — you rarely hear "postpone," you hear "put off." CELPIP Speaking rewards this kind of natural phrasing, and Listening passages about workplace routines use these forms constantly, so recognizing and using them actively pays off twice.
Time & productivity phrasal verbs
| Collocation | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| put off (a task) | delay or postpone something | I keep putting off my taxes until the deadline. |
| catch up on (work) | complete work that has piled up | I spent the weekend catching up on emails. |
| keep up with (deadlines) | stay level with an ongoing demand | It's hard to keep up with deadlines during exam season. |
| fall behind (schedule) | become slower than planned | The project fell behind schedule after the delay. |
| carry on (with a task) | continue doing something | Let's carry on with the meeting after the break. |
| wind down | relax and slow activity, often before rest | I like to wind down with a book before bed. |
| get around to (something) | eventually find time for a task | I finally got around to organizing my files. |
| cut down on (distractions) | reduce something, here interruptions | Turning off notifications helps me cut down on distractions. |
| speed up (a process) | make something happen faster | New software helped speed up our workflow. |
| slow down | reduce pace, often to avoid burnout | You should slow down before you burn out completely. |
| take on (more work) | accept additional responsibility | She agreed to take on more work this quarter. |
| squeeze in (a meeting) | fit something into a busy schedule | I managed to squeeze in a quick call before lunch. |
Worked example — CELPIP Speaking Task 3 (describing a routine)
Prompt: Describe a typical busy day in your work life.
My mornings usually start with trying to catch up on emails from the night before, since I often fall behind schedule if I don't clear them early. Then I try to carry on with my main project without letting myself put off the harder tasks — that's always tempting. By midday, I sometimes have to squeeze in an extra meeting that wasn't originally planned, which means I need to speed up whatever I'm working on to keep up with everything else. In the evening, I try to cut down on screen time and just wind down properly. Honestly, I used to take on far too much work at once, but I've learned to slow down and finally get around to things at a healthier pace.
Common mistakes
- Using put off and take on with the wrong tense consistency in a single narrative — keep verb tenses aligned when telling a routine.
- Confusing catch up on (complete backlog) with keep up with (stay level, ongoing) — one is reactive, the other is continuous.
- Saying "fall back" instead of the correct collocation fall behind (schedule) for productivity contexts.
- Forgetting the object after squeeze in — it needs something specific ("squeeze in a call"), not used alone.
Recap
You've now collected twelve productivity phrasal verbs, from put off to get around to, that describe the rhythm of a busy schedule naturally. Part 4 moves to formal, written-register phrases for discussing time management and productivity in CELPIP Writing Task 2.