I should start with a little about myself, before I continue with a lot about myself. I am a second-year English student, currently not in Cambridge and representative of a subpar sleep schedule. Now, what is the Vulture Editor? This is the editor of the magazine section of Varsity (the one you are on right now!). I manage all Vulture section editors (lifestyle, arts, film and tv, fashion, music and theatre), work on the print edition and ensure that articles are up and ready on time. Now let me give you a glimpse into a routine Thursday, the day before our fortnightly print edition comes out.

“Two things, however, are constant: my breakfast, and the fact that I’m the Vulture Editor...”

10:00am: I might have a lot to do, but waking up early is not my forte. Maybe let me sleep until 10:30am?

10:30am: Alright, time to read a bit. Before I do that though, I check my phone. Having deleted Instagram in an act of self-preservation, I quickly check the good old Facebook and teams. Teams? Yup, all of the Varsity interactions occur via Microsoft Teams, which means it has become one of my most used apps. This is either my time to answer some questions or take my book and read for around 30 mins.

11:00am: Get up, breakfast (bagel with fried egg), coffee. Get ready (we try), sit down and work.

12:00pm: I like to start my day with a lecture to get me ~into the zone~. After an hour or so I might hop onto some essay work.

2:00pm: From this point on, it really does vary! However, since it is Thursday, the print edition is almost done and only has to be proofread and adjusted to sort out formatting issues. Small side-track: I usually edit my pages on Sunday and Monday. That means, I take an article from around two sections and set these on InDesign. It takes about five hours to edit the articles and in addition I set the Vulture cover. Creating the cover is a long process, requiring continuous communication with one of our fantastic illustrators, with whom I share ideas and collaborate to fulfil our vision for the issue. Yet, as it is the Thursday of the print week, this should already be done.

4:00pm: Lunch. I probably also water my plants, which, equally tends to be my favourite pastime when I need a quick essay/lecture/reading break.

4:30pm: I try to go for a quick walk to enjoy the nice weather, or simply to get some fresh air. I use this time to call my parents, who are at home in Berlin, or listen to some music.

5:00pm: Back and ready to work. I might continue working on my essay, do some work for Practical Criticism, or anything else that desperately needs to be done.

7:00pm: Here, we usually go one of two ways: either I muster up some energy to workout (an increasingly rare occurrence), or I take my work to bed. Reading for essays, writing essays can be done in a comfortable horizontal position – a statement I stand for.

8:30pm: My boyfriend comes home, we cook dinner. Pasta, rice or potatoes? The possibilities are endless. Recently we made vegetable lasagne, although that ended up being done at 11:00pm so I wouldn’t recommend. If lazy, a takeaway might have to be ordered.

10:00-11:00pm: This is usually the hour where I manage to do absolutely nothing.

11:00pm: Oops, I realise I have not scheduled any articles for the online edition. The Deputy Vulture Editor and the Vulture Editor share this responsibility, so sometimes it is my turn to schedule on Monday, sometimes on Thursday. Assuming today it is my duty, what I do is go through each section and preview the formatting, sources etc. of each article. If it is of the standard we expect, I schedule it for midnight and if not, I shift the article around until it is! This will take a bit of time, especially on print days where we aim for a higher output. Close to midnight I am done, ready to see the article pop up on the website at 00:00.

00:00-2:00am: Another instance of temporal abyss. Sometimes I get another burst of energy to get work done, coming up with genius ideas that my 12:00pm self would never have been able to comprehend, sometimes this is simply my time to read. (Recent favourite: The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner)

2:00am: Ok, time to go to bed – which means getting ready, staring at myself in the mirror and contemplating life, writing my daily journal, getting everything ready for my 11:00am class the next day, cleaning the kitchen. Ah yes, 3am it is.

Of course, my days vary. As I mentioned, a print-Thursday is drastically different from a non-print one, and days with supervisions actually force me to wake up earlier. Two things, however, are constant: my breakfast, and the fact that as a Vulture Editor, I am constantly on Teams, answering questions, sorting out issues, making sure that Vulture runs smoothly.

While this seems like a big time commitment, it equally allows me to think about more than just what I am studying. Now, let me fall back into my temporal void that is 1am and get ready for another day of writing, editing and periodically watering my plants…