Creating an Editorial Calendar
Yearbooks are about what happened this year to your student body and in the school in general. It’s a book that helps preserve the memories of your entire school of students for an entire year. While this may almost seem like an impossible task, using an editorial calendar can make the impossible a reality.
Finding the Right One for You
There are many different programs and websites that can help you to create an editorial calendar, but knowing what you need is the first step in finding the right one for you. Start with a list of what you need, such as assignments for students, staff, or instructors. You would need to add things like deadlines and responsibilities. You need to plan for what you need. By knowing exactly what you want to put into your editorial calendar, such as assignments for students or goals and deadlines that need to be done, you can help not only your students make better use of their time, but also help yourself. You would also want to use an editorial calendar that can be shared with your staff and students. This way, if things change, everyone knows about it.
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End to the Beginning
If you input your final deadline first and work backward, it may help you to be able to see what it is that needs to be completed, step by step, in that time frame to achieve those goals. You need to know the date of the last day that you can go over everything and do your final editing. You also want to be able to schedule in breaks or celebrations for meeting a goal on time. Being part of the yearbook staff and creating this collection of memories should be more than just work; it should also be an enjoyable experience for your students. So making sure that they do not get too overworked trying to meet goals should, in and of itself, be one of your goals. By working from the end of the year, when everything is due to the publisher, toward the beginning of the year, it should help you to be able to manage not only your time better, but also that of your students and staff.
Stress Is Not Your Friend
Although using an editorial calendar may not be less work, it should make your life easier by helping you to complete your goals on time. Think of it as a stress reducer. By using an editorial calendar, you can help to reduce the stress of worrying if everything will be completed on time. An editorial calendar allows you to concentrate on each goal you have set for your students or staff and its timely completion. If last minute changes happen, the calendar will allow you to instantly see how these changes will affect the timeline for the goals you set. By breaking down each goal into smaller, more manageable steps, you can make your life and the lives of your students and staff that much easier.