In today’s complex business world, where time is money and extensive projects involve a number of individuals, teams or companies, the timing of every step of the project is vital to success. To help ourselves keep on track with our projects, we all need a good ‘raspored’. The question is how to choose the right English word, a different one for a different context?
The word ‘agenda’, most commonly used in business meetings, is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be discussed. We’re having a meeting this afternoon, do you know what’s on the agenda? More generally, it means a plan: What is on your agenda today? (i.e. What is on your to-do list? Or what are you planning to do today?)
A timetable or schedule is an organised list, usually set out in the form of a table, providing information about a sequence of activities and the time at which these activities are planned to take place. Schedules are the basis of every project, and it is important to adhere to, stick to or keep to the schedule. Even though you might have a busy schedule or work to a very tight schedule, when your boss asks Are you on schedule? or Are you on track?, you do not want to say No, I’m behind schedule (meaning your schedule is delayed). What you want to say is I’m on track (you are on the schedule), or Actually, I’m ahead of schedule (you have finished a stage of your work before the given deadline). If things are not going as planned, you might want to reschedule an activity or appointment. You might want to schedule it in or pencil it in for another time, if you find another time slot. Timetables are normally used to coordinate the participants, location and activities of a school, university or a conference, for example: According to the conference timetable, Dr Philips is giving his talk at the Green Hall at 11:30. Timetables are also extremely useful in transport, for planning our journey correctly and arriving to our desired destination on time and in time for something we plan to do. E.g. If my bus timetable is correct, and the bus is on schedule, it will be at the station in 5 minutes. If I hurry up, I will be at the station just in time to catch the bus.
