STAFFER TAKEOVER: Take Your YBK Productivity to a New Level

This blog post was submitted and written by a fellow yearbooker. 

Almost all yearbookers would agree that meeting deadlines is an essential part of success. Deadlines can be tricky, especially when you’re working with a lot of material in a little time. Deadlines can be easier said than done, and we’ve all experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed by work. Here are a few tips — from a yearbooker at Foothill High School — to make meeting deadlines a little easier.

1. Utilize your time 

What does utilizing your time really mean? Utilizing your time is not just being aware of your deadline. It’s planning, brainstorming, allowing yourself to have room to correct mistakes and creating your spread to the best of your ability. 

For example, if we have three weeks to put a whole basketball spread together, how would we responsibly utilize our time to set ourselves up for success? Let’s break it down. We’d have to make a layout, take pictures during a basketball game, identify the players in our photos, interview our players, and insert captions. That’s a lot of work for one spread! It’s best to start planning as soon as possible to take advantage of all your time. Preparation is necessary in case your schedule changes. Preparing layouts — with colors and fonts chosen — shows you how much space you’re working with to fill with content. Create a realistic plan that you and your staff can follow. 

2. Communication

Life gets complicated when you’re working with other people’s schedules. Maybe the event you were supposed to take photos of got canceled, computers are glitching or your editor is out sick. There are many factors that can mess up our plans. Sometimes no matter how much we plan, things will still go wrong. So how do we prepare for those unpredictable hurdles to make sure we don’t fall behind on deadlines? Communicate. Asking for help and sharing your thoughts is never a bad thing. If there’s a hurdle that’s prolonging your submission, then share with your adviser and staff. Sometimes no matter how much we plan, things will still go wrong. Your staff will work with you, not against you. The best way to get the ball rolling on meeting deadlines is to ask your peers and adviser for help. Communicating and asking for guidance will save you from stress and time. 

3. Prepare for anything

To lower your chances of missed deadlines, you can overprepare. While you can’t control others, you can be proactive for yourself. For example, if your adviser needs six images for the spread, someone overly prepared will take twenty. Being realistic, half of those photos will be blurry, a bad angle or boring shots. With more options, you’ll have what you need for the spread and extra photos could be used somewhere else in the book to save time on other spreads. Learning how to think ahead and overprepare as much as possible will help you meet deadlines.

Author: JJ Barnhart // Yearbook Staffer at Foothill High School, Henderson, NV

Want to share your yearbook experience, tips or tricks? Learn more at herff.ly/ybkinfluencer