Michael Schwartz, the manager of
editorial training for
Cox Newspapers and
COXnet,
at times was a bit self-help-ish and You Can Do It! Sunday morning in
his session, called "The Three Habits of Highly Effective Journalists."
Then again, many of the sessions at these sorts of things tend to be
in-theory and general and inspirational, and this one was more
refreshingly straightforward and how-to.
The good news, he said: "This is not genetic. Anybody can get better at this."
Excellent.
Here, then, are five tips that seemed particularly useful:
1.) Don't put a big piece of paper on top of a small piece of paper.
2.) Don't take unopened mail back to your desk.
3.) Piles are bad. Piles are very, VERY bad.
4.) Schedule phone calls as if they were actual physical appointments.
5.) Prioritize tasks –- not EVERYTHING you need to get done has to get done RIGHT NOW! –- and then write them down. Getting stuff on paper helps.
