Blame the English major in me, but at any given time some spoken or written tic causes me to cringe. For a while, it was really common for me to hear people say "I'm wanting to" instead of "I want to." To my relief, that seems to have faded.

The two phrases that I hear so often now, perhaps because they're so common in business settings, are “at the end of the day” and “the reality is.” I'll be in a meeting and hear both phrases used multiple times, everyone one-upping each other with each successive "at the end of the day" or "the reality is," each successive occurrence marching us closer to the true end of the day and some greater version of reality.

When someone drops an "at the end of the day" on you, the presumption, whether explicit or not, is that whatever you've said is not bottom line enough. You haven't been seeing the big picture, you've been in the weeds.

Something similar occurs when someone hurls "the reality is" at you, but it feels worse, doesn't it? What have you been doing, dealing in unreality?

At the end of the day it doesn't matter. But the reality is it does matter. At the end of the day. Not before then. At lunch, just after dinner, but before the day has ended, it doesn't matter. But later, closer to 10pm in your time zone, maybe after you've brushed your teeth and you're about to end your day, then, and just then, it matters a lot.