Monday, October 23, 2006
Workaday Woes
The roller coaster of life is no more apparent than when you're in school. Finals and midterms come and go and bring with them the ebb and flow of work. Graduate school, and journalism classes in particular, are representative of that trend.
Procrastination runs rampant in j-schools, partially because all journalists are that way (even though we may deny it). The truth is, nothing gets you going like a deadline. I had two such deadlines last week (two 1,500 word profiles - one for each class), and boy was it crazy. I had nearly one interview a day for the past two weeks trying to not only get these stories done, but prep for the ones coming up.
But, as always, after a big build-up, there is always a letdown. Thursday (when I have both my classes) was a big sigh of relief, and led into an extremely unproductive (at least academically) weekend. Unfortunately, I do still have things due this week (a rewrite of one of the profiles and a pitch letter for my 2,500 word final piece), and my head is just spinning.
I don't know if this happens to everyone, but I know I experienced this roller coaster long before I even got into journalism. Even in those joke EAD classes in college, where was the work load except for midterms and finals? This is different, however, since it takes a lot more time to research, interview, organize and write than it does to study a book or two. Will I ever learn to not procrastinate? I'm trying.
That said, I'm on the rebound from a weekend of wedding planning (see posts below), and need to get back in the game. Two days until my rewrite is due; three until the pitch letter.
Let's get writing, peoples!
Procrastination runs rampant in j-schools, partially because all journalists are that way (even though we may deny it). The truth is, nothing gets you going like a deadline. I had two such deadlines last week (two 1,500 word profiles - one for each class), and boy was it crazy. I had nearly one interview a day for the past two weeks trying to not only get these stories done, but prep for the ones coming up.
But, as always, after a big build-up, there is always a letdown. Thursday (when I have both my classes) was a big sigh of relief, and led into an extremely unproductive (at least academically) weekend. Unfortunately, I do still have things due this week (a rewrite of one of the profiles and a pitch letter for my 2,500 word final piece), and my head is just spinning.
I don't know if this happens to everyone, but I know I experienced this roller coaster long before I even got into journalism. Even in those joke EAD classes in college, where was the work load except for midterms and finals? This is different, however, since it takes a lot more time to research, interview, organize and write than it does to study a book or two. Will I ever learn to not procrastinate? I'm trying.
That said, I'm on the rebound from a weekend of wedding planning (see posts below), and need to get back in the game. Two days until my rewrite is due; three until the pitch letter.
Let's get writing, peoples!
# posted by ange : 10:45 AM
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