Requiring others to define relative words is just as important as asking them to explain specific pieces of jargon.  Relative words are nonspecific, descriptive words that only have meaning in relation to something else. 

-Michael C. Donaldson, Negotiating for Dummies

Assuming you weren't absent during the "how to use a thesaurus" unit in elementary school, you're certainly well (and perhaps painfully) aware that we have tons of words in our language that mean essentially the same thing.  "Soon" and "shortly," "ASAP" and "any minute now," they all indicate that you won't have to wait too much longer for whatever it is you're waiting for.  While this wealth of words is part of what gives a language its beauty and nuance, having to know and understand all of these extra vocabulary words is one challenge of communication that we've all had to master.

Once we move past that, we run into another challenge: so many of our words are relative words - as Michael C. Donaldson points out, they are words that don't actually mean anything on their own.  "Soon" might mean 10 minutes to one person, while to someone else, it might mean 10 days.  Even to the same person, it can mean different things in different situations - if you're waiting for an ambulance to arrive, you probably have different expectations for when "soon" is than when you're waiting for an important letter in the mail.

These relative words can cause problems for us, especially in terms of missed expectations.  We may have hammered out an agreement with a client or finished a meeting with our team where we set action plans, only to find shortly thereafter that no one seems to be on the same page.  When this happens, often the culprit is relative words.  So take the very simple tip from Mr. Donaldson to heart - avoid relative words in your own communications whenever possible, and ask others to clarify what they mean if they are using them.  A little extra ProTip, though: be careful not to accidentally sound confrontational when you do so.  It's easy for, "well, so what exactly do you mean by quickly?" to sound sarcastic.  Instead, preface it, "I want to make sure we're all on the same page.  In terms of a ballpark number of days, how long do you think that will be?"  If you give the reason for your question first, you'll avoid ruffling any feathers.