Deadlines Suck! Journalism Staff Tells All
We all deal with deadlines in our own unique way. Many people take the somewhat detrimental route that is procrastination. I have a confession to make; I am one of those people. When I get to the crux of the problem, it is that I am stuck in the never ending, unyielding loop that is perfectionism. I want so badly for my assignments (especially those that have to do with writing) to be things that I can be proud of and that I can confidently stand behind. So, I invariably put off working on my assignments until the night before they are due because of the pressure I put on myself. There have been too many late nights and crying jags to count because of my endless ride on the conveyor belt of procrastination. Procrastination seems almost impossible to shake but I will try my hardest to be rid of it, regardless.
Senior and co-editor of the yearbook, Emily Cox, said, “I try to work ahead because I never know what I have going on. I try to have everything done a week before, so the week of the deadline I can go and perfect everything.” To get her creative juices flowing, Emily revealed that she turns to “deep or sad songs” in order to write motivational texts for the yearbook. Senior and co-editor of the yearbook Jaycee White admits that she is a “big procrastinator.” “Once the [creative] juice kicks in, I’m ready to go. I can get it done really fast.” When asked what motivates her, she responded with, “Music. Country music, like Brad Paisley and George Strait; the old-school guys.” Music seems to be the key to motivation among the journalism staff, myself included.
Sophomore Katie Grice states that she has to “get in the zone” when dealing with deadlines. “I do have a bunch of late-night thoughts about it. I’ll be thinking about it and I get ideas about it. It’s like one of those things where it’s like at the moment you can’t think of anything, but then when you’re, like, thinking about it at a different time you know what you want to do.” Creativity ebbs and flows and, for some, it is impossible to complete an assignment in a timely manner because they are waiting for that right idea or angle. There are a few people who simply toe the line that lies between procrastination and good time-management. Balance is definitely a virtue. There are quite a few people who can miraculously achieve balance in many aspects of life, including time-management. Sophomore Keily Brown is one of these people. “I try to get everything done as soon as possible so I’m not super stressed out. It’s very stressful though because I really like being on the newspaper staff but it takes a lot of effort.” We, procrastinators, have something to learn from non-procrastinators. In the end, putting off work that needs to be done causes an inordinate amount of stress. Especially considering that the assignment could have been completed days before the actual date that it was due. Unfortunately, it seems like procrastination turns into an almost unbreakable habit after some time. For health and sanity of mind, I implore you to not join the club of procrastination. Life is not about stress, after all.