I have a problem with AC’s Assignments or as they were more formally known, C4Cs” My problem is that I feel pressured to claim them; especially when I see a topic that is even the slightest bit interesting to me. For a while I didn’t even bother looking at the assignments available.
I used to think of assignments as way to keep ideas coming for those times when no ideas come at all. Now I consider the whole thing one big pressure cooker.
What usually happens is I scan through the listing of assignments (or C4Cs) and if a title catches my eye I read the rest of the information. Inevitably I see how much time is left to write and submit the article and it’s all downhill from there.
If there is a week or more left on the due date then I instantly feel pressured to claim the assignment because if I don’t it will be snagged up by someone else. And for sure that will be THE one that could possibly skyrocket me to AC fame!
If there’s only a couple of days left to claim the assignment, or worse only one day, then I am almost certain to compulsively claim the assignment. Again, my brain is convinced that there will be dire consequences if I do not claim the assignment before someone else does.
What really gets my goat is that after I claim the assignment I start thinking rationally about the topic and realize I am either really not interested in the topic or don’t know as much about the topic as I thought I did.
Of course releasing the claim is a whole other bag of guilt bombs what with the warning pop-up and everything.
I did it again this week. I claimed 2 assignments that I was surely positive, positively sure that I could write 2 really good articles. Now after attempting a few times to actually write the articles Irealized I have no desire to write about the topic at all. I chickened out and released the calls. And yes I feel guilty about it.
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