BLOG: A professional procrastinator’s realization

I have a confession to make; I don’t know how to deal with change.

I like to make it seem like I know what I’m doing and that I can go with the flow, but to be honest, it’s really hard for me to wrap my mind around change, no matter how big or small it is.

I take that back — I can deal with minor changes. For example, I have no problem being forced to change my outfit if I misplace a pair of pants. That has actually happened recently. I am also very adept at dealing with getting lost or going to friend A’s house instead of friend B.

It’s the medium to large sized changes that are hard to cope with, like paying the cable bill a week early or realizing I’m going to be making $10 less this month than I planned. It’s also hard to deal with changes in schedules, and that is something I’ve had a hard time with at the Volante.

Last semester we worked on a schedule where we were constantly planning one week ahead. This semester, we’re working two weeks in advance and for some reason I just can’t grasp that concept. You would think it would be easy to get reporters, as well as myself, to take story assignments further in advance, but it’s weirdly hard to do. It’s like people, including myself, don’t want extra time because they’re frankly not going to use it.

I’ll admit that I’m a professional procrastinator. Some of my best articles, printed in the Volante and elsewhere, have been written moments before the deadline. I’m not saying it’s a good thing; it’s just something that has happened over the years.

I assume that’s how my reporters operate, and it’s something we need to work on collectively to change. I’m going to work hard to meet my deadlines, so I hope my writers will too. Change can be good and it’s something I’m just going to have to put my big girl panties on and deal with.