Lesson #2: Get it done, procrastination is always lingering.

"Procrastination is opportunity's assassin."  -Victor Kiam

Procrastination is a typical part of any work place or pretty much anywhere where you're expected to do work. In a news production, production isn't the only thing that is going on. Even though it seems copaectic that a little procrastination would happen, it will usually end up coming back to guilt you with burden when you least expect it, will completely kill an oppurtunity, or in some manner surprisingly workout for the best.


This past week we had our work session, which consist of two days during the week where we stay after school after an already long day of school which feels like an eternity, and work on the layouts of the paper which usually give us a 14-15 hour day at school. We were all in for a surprise of how much we had underestimated the amount of work we had, simply in all because we all kind of procrastinated. It's typical that most people would procrastinate, it seems as almost as if it's embedded into human nature now due to technology being such a distraction and our attentions spans completely being obliterated by this so-called age of access (slight exaggeration). Since we had switched to the new format were completely blinded to the amount of work we had. This was the form of procrastination in the newsroom that tends to come back to bite back.


With procrastination comes lost opportunities. Sometimes we procrastinate on a story and find out we lost a good source, or we procrastinate on making an advertisement call and find out that they don't want to advertise, this is the type of procrastination that completely kills an opportunity. This happens a lot less in a smaller publication like ours, but I definitely could probably guess that this is a much bigger problem in bigger publications. The reason why this one seems most important is typically because we could have completely avoided it if we had thought it through which usually just puts a damper on the day anyway and we have to go back to the drawing board. 


The last type of procrastination is one of the luckiest things that happens in the newsroom but it somehow always works out in a funny way. Whenever procrastination works out for the best, it always happens on something that was going to be cut or with a little discussion could easily be cut if you truly wanted it to. Of course this would never happen for a giant feature story or a bigger assignment, but it still always somehow works out for the best.


Overall, procrastination is a big part of the newsroom. Then again, it's a big part of human nature as well, we tend to put things of for the last minute. The fact of the matter is, if you get your work done ahead of time, you'll easily be rewarded in the long run. This is true with anything in life since procrastination is opportunities assassin.