One of the hardest parts of my job is keeping up with the little things while I’m attending to the big things — the big things being story planning, making sure we have photos to go with stories, writing, copy editing and getting the paper out in a timely fashion. Examples of little things are keeping my desk tidy, replying to emails, planning further down the line and checking voice messages. Right now I have 54 new messages on my office phone I  need to attend do. I prefer email over voice mail, so I figure if someone really  has an emergency or wants me to know something, they’ll email me or text me on my cell. I will get to these 54 messages some day … but in order for them to stop increasing, I’m asking anyone who wants to leave me a message to write down their thoughts on a piece of paper, roll it up and put it in a bottle. I like receiving actual mail — it’s so very old school — so the thought of opening all these bottles every day sounds delightful!