Advanced English Vocabulary – Daily Routine Flashcards
Word 1: A morning person (noun)
Meaning: Someone who finds it easy and/or enjoyable to wake up early in the morning.
Synonyms: An early riser; An early bird (both nouns)
Antonyms: A night owl; A night person (all nouns)
Example Sentence: I’d love to be a morning person, but I’m actually more of a night owl.
Word 2: Get something out of the way (phrasal verb)
Meaning: To finish a task that is either difficult or unpleasant.
Synonyms: To finish something; To tackle something head on; To take care of something; To break the back of something (all phrasal verbs)
Antonyms: To let something hang over one (phrasal verb)
Example Sentence: When I know I’ve got something difficult to do, I like to get it out of the way as early as possible, because then I can relax and enjoy the day
Word 3: Procrastinator (noun)
Meaning: A person who avoids necessary tasks and wastes time rather than completing the tasks.
Put something off
Word Family: Procrastination (noun); To procrastinate (verb)
Synonyms: A dawdler; A dilly-dallier (both nouns, slightly old-fashioned)
Antonyms: A man/woman of action (noun); Self-disciplined (adjective)
Collocations: A chronic procrastinator
Example Sentence: I used to be a chronic procrastinator, but recently I’ve been controlling myself a lot better and getting tasks out of the way much earlier.
Word 4: Fit something in (phrasal verb)
my schedule
Meaning: To find the time in the day to do something.
Synonyms: To squeeze something in; To make time for something; To find time for something (all phrasal verbs)
Antonyms: To run out of time (phrasal verb)
Collocations: To try to fit something in; To struggle to fit something in Example Sentence: I’d like to find the time to exercise every day, but I really struggle to fit it into
Word 5: (Take) a nap (noun)
Meaning: Have a short sleep in the middle of the day.
Synonyms: Have a (quick) snooze; Grab 40 winks (both verbs)
Antonyms: Power through; Push on (both verbs)
Collocations: A power nap; A well-earned nap; An afternoon nap; Put a baby down for their nap; A post-lunch nap
Example Sentence: I try to fit in a nap in the afternoon, but often I just have to power through.
Word 6: Pull an all-nighter (phrasal verb)
Meaning: Working or studying all through the night, usually to meet a deadline.
Synonyms: Burn the midnight oil; To stay up all night working/studying (both verbs)
Antonyms: Go to bed on time; Go to bed at a reasonable hour (both verbs)
Example Sentence: I usually try to get everything out of the way before bedtime, but occasionally I do have to pull an all-nighter.
Word 7: Multitask (verb)
Meaning: To do several tasks at the same time.
Word Family: Multitasker (noun, person); Multitasking (noun, action)
Synonyms: Juggle several things at once; Balance a number of things; Do
things simultaneously (all verbs)
Antonyms: Focus on one thing (verb)
Collocations: To be good/bad at multitasking; The ability to multitask; To
be able to multitask
Example Sentence: I’m not very good at multitasking so I generally tend to
focus on one thing and try to finish it before moving onto the next one.
Word 8: Prioritize (verb)
Meaning: To consider one task more important than another, and/or do one
task before another.
Word Family: Prioritization (noun, act of deciding which task is important);
Priority (noun, the task that is important)
Synonyms: To arrange something in order of importance (phrasal verb)
Collocations: To learn to prioritize; To prioritize one’s time; To prioritize the
needs of someone; To prioritize one’s goals; Something is someone’s first
priority
Example Sentence: I find that if I prioritize tasks that don’t have a deadline,
I still manage to fit in the tasks that do have a deadline as well. That way, I
am able to finish everything
Word 9: Crawl out of bed (phrasal verb)
Meaning: To find it difficult to wake up and get out of bed in the morning.
Synonyms: To struggle to wake up; To drag oneself out of bed; To force
oneself to get up (all verbs)
Antonyms: To attack the day; To bounce out of bed (both verbs)
Example Sentence: Some people are able to bounce out of bed and attack
the day, but as a night-owl, I always end up crawling out of bed and hating
the world!
Word 10: Frame of mind (noun)
Meaning: A person’s mental attitude at a particular time – neutral meaning.
Synonyms: Mindset; Mood (both nouns)
Collocations: Positive frame of mind; Negative frame of mind; The right
frame of mind to do something; The wrong frame of mind to do something;
A better/worse/happier frame of mind
Example Sentence: I find that spending ten minutes in the morning
meditating always puts me in a positive frame of mind.
