In progress

In progress

Today’s English expression is “in progress.” When something is “in progress,” it has started, but it has not finished. We were talking earlier about what happens to your digital life when you die. Most of the data we generate, the emails, the files, the messages, whatever—these have no value to anyone in the future. I just looked at the last ten emails I got and I can guarantee nobody else wants to read them.

But some things may have value. I gave several examples of data that may have value to your heirs or relatives, and one of those examples is if you had a book in progress. In progress, in this case, means that the book has been started but not finished.

Most of us are not authors. But it’s common for older people to begin to collect their memories in online documents, to record their experiences in life. Some of these will turn into published memoirs, but many of these will simply live on within a family. But wouldn’t it be a shame if a person died with a book in progress, and nobody could access the draft?

Okay, on to happier topics. Are you someone who likes to have a lot of work in progress, or do you like to finish one thing before starting another? If you follow the “Agile” method in business, you know that one big rule is to limit your work in progress. That means, start something, finish it, and only then start something else. It’s not good to have a lot of work in progress; it’s not good to have a lot of things that have been started but not finished. In many fields, that’s distracting and limits your productivity.

But if you’re an artist, you might think differently. I marvel when I read descriptions of paintings from famous artists and I see that the painting took, say , ten years to complete. Obviously, a painter didn’t devote every day to a painting for ten years. But creative people often have a lot of work in progress. Often , creative people will set something aside, work on it bit by bit, over long periods of time. That means they have a lot of work in progress. They have a lot of work that has been started but not yet finished.

When I go to baseball games, I always like to get there before the first pitch. I like to get there before the game starts. I’m always frustrated if I arrive and the game is in progress. I want to see the beginning! If I get there and the game is in progress, that means the game has started already. I don’t like missing even a single inning.

Have you ever been invited to just a portion of a meeting? It’s kind of awkward. They invite you, but they say, you can’t come until a certain time. You’re important enough for this part, but not for that part. Whatever, we deal with it, right? Still, it’s awkward to walk into a meeting in progress. They say, Jeff, why don’t you come at about 10:15? Okay, fine, so I show up at 10:15, the meeting is in progress. It has already started. Everyone already has their seats, there’s already some momentum, I don’t want to interrupt. I walk in, everyone turns and looks at me. I’d prefer to come in during a break. But sometimes, I have to walk into a meeting in progress, a meeting that has started but not yet finished.

JR’s song of the week

Today’s song of the week is “Chasing Stars” by Alesso, Marshmello, and James Bay. This one is just a guitar, vocals, and just a bit of extra melody in there. I was expecting something different when I pressed “play.” I liked this song. James Bay told an interviewer it was about reminiscing about a time you had with another person where it felt like it was the two of you against the world.

Great song, JR, “Chasing Stars” by Alesso, Marshmello, and James Bay. JR, by the way, has seen both Alesso and Marshmello live, just FYI.

See you next time!

And that brings us to the end of today’s Plain English for July 14, 2022. Happy Bastille Day, the national day in France. On July 14, 1789, revolutionaries seized control of the Bastille, a prison controlled by the monarchy, sparking the French Revolution.

This is a good time to remind you that French is one of the languages we support in our transcripts. If you haven’t been on the web site to see the transcripts, we highlight about 100 words per lesson. And then we translate those 100 words and phrases into French. So you can hover your mouse over the word and instantly see the definition in French.

The great thing about that is, you can see the definition of a difficult word without breaking your momentum. One thing that frustrates me about reading or listening in Spanish is having to stop and look up a word. But on Plain English, when you see a complicated word, just hover over it and it shows you the definition in French. And it’s always the right definition! Our professional translators make sure you’re seeing the correct definition for the context.

And it’s not only French. That’s just the example I chose to give here on Bastille Day. We also support Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Chinese, Italian, Polish, and Turkish. Do Poland and Italy have an equivalent to Bastille Day? I’ll take that as homework. But your homework should be to check out Plain English Plus+ at PlainEnglish.com/Plus if you’re interested in the instant translations built right into our Plain English transcripts. Check it out at PlainEnglish.com/Plus. We’ll see you back here on Monday with “How to plan a digital death.”