By Ashley Collins

Procrastination is a barrier for many writers. There’s the story, the deadline, the headline and maybe a sub-headline, that can leave you stuck.

Imagine covering a story about a family who discovered that their great-grandfather is still living. Where do you go from there? You start writing, right?  Wrong. You interview, you do your research and you make contact with the family. Today is Monday. Your editor wants it in Wednesday at 12 P.M. to be in Thursday’s headline. You have two days to break a story. Then what?

So, you get started. Let’s start with the headline. You can’t figure it out, so you wait. Take a break, think about it. Mind you it’s 3 P.M. and you don’t touch your computer again until 6 P.M. You have some phone calls to make. So, you call the family. You set-up times to interview the next morning. Fast-forward, your interviews are complete. It’s Tuesday at 5 P.M. in the evening. What are you going to do?

You take your time. Why? Because your procrastinating, you pretend you have all the time in world, knowing you don’t but you do. In an article written in The Atlantic by Meghan McArdle she wrote, “Forced into a challenge we’re not prepared for, we often engage ‘self-handicapping’: deliberately doing things that set us up for failure.”

Journalists are said to be the worst procrastinators. Why? Because, well, there’s just so much going on. Your editor sends you three stories to cover, an assignment editor keeps calling and you have this long list of to-dos that you have to prioritize. So, how do journalists do it? They don’t do anything, they just write. You naturally write on deadline because you have to. Writing is a form of art and it’s your job.

Honestly, it’s fair to say that all journalists procrastinate. At this very moment while you’re reading this you’re thinking about that time you skated across thin ice to meet your deadline. It’s okay, you got it done, right?

McArdle said, “If you’ve spent most of your life cruising ahead on natural ability, doing what came easily and quickly, every word you write becomes a test of just how much ability you have, every article a referendum on how good a writer you are.” Meeting deadlines and writing is critical in a journalist’s career, you know when to get something done. Right.

You get distracted, it’s natural even amongst the best of them like Mike Royko and John Kass. They too procrastinate, right? But you know what sets them apart, they turn in that article Wednesday at 12 P.M. You put down that Iced Coffee with a shot of espresso and your story flows. You type effortlessly, answering the question of, “How this family discovered their great-grandfather and how they plan to move forward?” Your 800-word article is complete. Your headline reads, “Hey great-grandfather is that really you?”

They met their deadline and so did you.

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