work-deadline

Your boss has asked you and a coworker to do a project that will take a few weeks to complete. You're talking with your coworker about it. You think it's a good idea to get started soon, so you suggest that to your coworker.

We should get started on that sooner rather than later, don't you think?

 don't you think?

Use this question to ask for an agreement from a listener. People use this expression when:

• they're making a suggestion:

  You should ask the professor for help, don't you think?

• they want to state their opinion, but they don't feel confident enough to just directly say it
• they want the listeners to feel included in the statement

  Wow. I love this place. It's great, don't you think?

• they want the listener to admit that something is true:

  You're too old for that, don't you think?

get started on (something)

The phrase "get started" simply means "start".

You use "get started on ___" to talk about work that needs to be done:

Do you want me to get started on the salad?

A: Can you pull together a list of all of our clients in that region for the past two years?

B: Of course. I'll get started on that right away!

Just use "start" to talk about ongoing actions:

I need to start exercising.

(do something) sooner rather than later

This phrase means to do something soon, and not wait. You use it like this:

I think we should talk to an accountant sooner rather than later.

If you're going to break it off with him, you ought to do it sooner rather than later.