I have finally figured out time management! I managed to take on even more activities/responsibilities this year, yet I still don't feel overwhelmed, and I'm keeping up with readings and class work better than ever. I have a tiny bit of catch-up reading to do for Contemporary Issues in Media Communication, but I'm keeping up for the most part, have some time to catch up this weekend, and I'm at least getting a bit of a head start on my term paper for that class (I'm planning on using a topic similar to what I use for my position paper in PR Writing).

I really should have finished my story for the Cardinal tonight, but I got a good start on it and have some time tomorrow to finish in time for the deadline.

Speaking of the Cardinal, tomorrow's the first deadline. We moved deadlines up to Wednesdays this year, and section editors will send stories with their edits in by Thursday. I've already gone in and set up the layout in Quark, and I looked up all of the scores for the scoreboard in the sports section. One of the copy editors is a graphic design major, and we have one or two other computer-savvy people willing to help with the layout. That should save a lot of time when we're editing stories. I'm meeting with the managing editor and copy editors tomorrow to go through this weekend, and I'm going to ask Travis to get the ads done tomorrow or Thursday. The only things that should slow us down will be that I don't quite remember all the guidelines and nobody else knows them (I doubt this will be a big issue), and very few of our staff writers have any experience writing in AP style. I'm still really confident in this issue though, and we at least have good, dedicated photographers!

Overall, I feel very accomplished today. I even sent emails to try to arrange my October and November volunteer opportunities. I refuse to slack off with Mentors this year. I refuse to slack off with anything, really. I love this school, and I don't want to let any part of it down. This is my last year to soak in all things SMU, and I intend to get it right.

So far, so good.