Hi!
The holiday weekend marked the end of my third week. Although it was a shorter one, an important lesson was still learned: time management is everything.
I was assigned a story and started the usual process of researching the topic and reaching out to people for interviews. I realized that the beginning of my assignment was moving slower than my previous ones and I had more time on my hands. Instead of slacking off and doing nothing, I reached out to the editor to let him know the situation. I simply said that my story wouldn't pick up the pace until later in the week so in the meantime I could start something new or chip in on other stuff. After that, I was given a couple things to work on and my problem was solved.
This might seem like a simple situation, but I think it is important to note that there will be times where things aren't as fast-paced as usual. The other staff members are busy with a lot of other things so if you don't check in and update them on what you're doing, they might assume you have enough work or are almost done with your current task. Speaking up not only allows you to tell them how your assignment is progressing, but it also shows initiative because you are wanting to be productive and do work. This also relates to some of my previous posts in which I mention that communication is very important. If you don't feel comfortable telling someone what's going on, you could find yourself stuck with nothing to do which will only end up hurting your experience.
Working on multiple assignments also allowed me to get better at multi-tasking and scheduling which is a great professional skill to have. Employers like knowing that you can handle more than one thing at a time. Once you have those skills, you'll be able to contribute a lot more which means more clips to put on your resume!