It’s the one day out of the week that we’re not producing a paper. Does that mean we get the day off? Hell no.
More than any other day, Thursday is packed with managerial duties. I’ve spent a good portion of my morning (when I wasn’t in class – and, okay, even while I was in class) working on tasks to help my staff. I’ve been making phone calls, sending emails, and sifting through buckets of materials in the hopes of finding some gems to give my writers. I’ve had a meeting with one writer already. My to-do list overflows.
I must put together a packet for my writers about finding strong sources. Sometime this month, I should have a section meeting with every member of my staff (bribery in the form of foodstuffs might this moving). As stories roll in, I have to begin editing them immediately so that production can be as streamlined as possible. I’ve got to go through a file of each of my writers’ articles and highlight their strengths and weaknesses.
And those are just the general things. I have a lunch interview at 1:30. Three calls, two emails, six copies, and four outlines to make. I still need to finish poring through the scientific reports for my next science column – lest we forget, I am both a writer and an editor – and, if the time arises, I need to clean up the increasingly grimy mugs and thermoses, the vessels of my caffeine addiction. If I’m lucky, I might even get to flip my calendar to the right month or print out another mildly offensive comic about Oxford commas (who knew there were so many such comics?).
So while it’s not a production day, it’s still plenty busy. The office may be a little quieter, but as far as I’m concerned, that only serves to feed the madness.