Orlando Sentinel’s Top 20
At the end of a workshop on "Managing Your Time, Your Stories, Yourself" at The Orlando Sentinel this week, I asked participants to give me their personal favorite time management technique. Here’s their list:
1. Make a to-do list in order of importance with deadlines for up to a week ahead. (Note: Keeping a list was the single most popular approach cited by Sentinel reporters and editors.)
2. Note-taking: Fold pages and mark key items as you write them.
3. Write nut graf first and build story off those three sentences to organize better.
4. Configure Microsoft Outlook to highlight items sent to you and only you in red.
5. Clear routine junk.
6. Look at next day’s schedule before you leave for the night.
7. Don’t work late unless absolutely necessary.
8. Write tomorrow’s tasks every afternoon in Palm Pilot.
9. Bite off small chunks.
10. One list at a time -- avoid scraps of paper or using more than one notebook.
11. Get sources to do some legwork.
12. Week ahead note in computer: Day-by-day account of stories to work on, interviews and appointments, when and where and what you will be doing.
13. Use a timer.
14. Turn in first draft to editor, ask him/her to get to it ASAP so you know where you have to concentrate next efforts.
15. Set a timer. Work straight through until buzzer goes off.
16. Use message reminder in Outlook.
17. Write as you go. Write what you already know.
18. Keep detailed electronic to-do list. Cut finished items from "to-do" section and put in "done" section.
19. Build a file for each big story you are writing or following through the system.
20. Don’t keep delaying. One source died before I called him.
