This semester was above all a wake-up call. I have coasted throughout most of high school, had a failed run at a university, worked for a while, and finally decided to go back to school and make something of myself. Unfortunately, I did not truly appreciate the fact that good habits would not just "come to me" because I needed them to. Habits, like all things, require self-discipline and patience, 2 things that are absolutely required after your motivation has already expired. They form after repeating it multiple times; falling back on old ways is a given. How long it takes to come back from a relapse is the essence of being a good student, and a well-rounded person in general.
In addition, I learned the importance of socializing. For most of my life, it's been a struggle, and I think it has contributed to me being a deadbeat. One thing I really appreciated about Durgam College over UofT is that there were multiple group projects, which meant I was forced to interact with others. In the end, though, this proved to be exactly what I needed, and that it is a lot harder to goof off when you are not just responsible for yourself but also the grades of your peers. In addition, having friends is a necessary part of being a healthy human being.
As for the course itself, I truly appreciate that someone had the foresight to include communications in the STEM-related fields. A lot of students have brilliant minds when it comes to their area of study but ignore almost everything else, either out of lack of foresight or even ignorance. Far from being "useless" I think COMM is excellent preparation for the working world and will probably have as much of an effect on our performance and employment as what we learned in say programming or mathematics. It is very satisfying to be understood, as well as fully understanding others. It makes for a happier life and more effective working. Thank you very much, Dave, for the classes, and sorry for not being the best student I could have been.
Friday, April 12, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
The Importance of Professionalism
Like many things in life, no one is born knowing how to write professionally and in a dignified manner. Yes, you do learn how to write in grade school, but often times it is inadequate or the focus is only on writing essays and other academic papers. When the student graduates and goes out into the working world, they would at least know how to compose a formal text, but perhaps they don't really have the knowledge to write for specific formal settings. Luckily, here at Durham College in Canada where I study, the creators of my program were smart enough to realize -- perhaps from the experiences of their alumni -- that it should include a communications course. The language you should use doesn't just come in an "informal" or "formal" variant, but rather there are dozens of different forms each one with its own intricacies that will give you the best results. For example, giving someone bad news can be a delicate situation. For someone with no training, their instincts are to write from their own perspective, to explain things as they see it and how it relates to themselves. However, on the flip side, the reader's own instincts is also to view things from their own POV. As such, astute writers would use this to their advantage and switch their tone and message to largely focus on the reader. In addition, there are also some handy methods to use for when you want to "land the blow" so to say. In other situations, knowing how to be concise and say your message efficiently is equally as important. Just as tricky as "bad news" though is persuasion since humans by default aren't really looking to be persuaded of anything. The act of persuasion inherently involves entering into someone's space and trying to grab their attention away from whatever they were doing or planning on doing. It requires the same expertise learned by years of psychology and study as bad news messages. However, once you can perfect the techniques, doors will open to you that have never been open to you before.
Friday, March 8, 2019
Teamwork: Learning from the past and moving forward
To give a little bit of background, I was not a social kid for most of my life. Of course, I had my friends and acquaintances here and there, but I wasn't exactly "first pick" when it came to invitations, dodgeball teams, and group works. As such, over time I developed the habit of hanging out in the background, overhearing and occasionally laughing along but never drawing attention to myself. These habits eventually found their way to my school work; whenever I was in a team, I basically only ever asked, "what should I do?" and see who among the other group members would be the most assertive before the leader was unofficially chosen and had my full backing. I pitched in ideas from time to time, but overall I was the one who simply did what was told and as such, I ended up with the most mundane tasks. Over time, I realized that it's probably better if I wasn't the world's number one follower -- I had to be a leader! At least, that is what all the adults were always telling me anyway. As such, I attempted to push around my weight more and wanted to be the one who told everyone what was going to get done, by who, and how. Being shy as I am, it took me a while to get to that point, as well as an awkward transition, but I got the job done. Of course, it didn't work in all teams since a lot of people were also taught to be a leader. As I grew older, I realized that it's not always about being the leader all the time, but rather my role in a group or team depended heavily on the context.
Ignoring the leader/follower labels, I realized the importance of building a rapport with the group members first, brainstorming ideas and getting to know them better, before settling down to a structure or flow. Some groups have rigid roles and timetables, others are more laissez-faire but everyone gets the job done by doing what they want to do the most. Other groups, on the other hand, were simply lazy, and our work was usually very bad. On another occasion, the team was always plagued with fighting as there was more than one person who wanted to be president, CEO, and chairman -- the work was also poor. Outside of school and in the world of 'minimum wage', similar dynamics also existed. Having good compatibility or at least tolerance with one another, setting goals, promoting fairness in terms of workload & expectations, but also pushing people (metaphorically) when it was appropriate were all critical in maintaining a well-oiled unit. People are complex and come in many different shapes, colors, ideas, experiences, etc. But, to be honest, if everyone at least tries to get along and have something to work towards, it is actually not that hard to get a pretty good squad going.
On that note, one of the most common types of disagreements involves values and identity. (Dingwall, Labrie, McLennon, & Underwood, 2015, p. 121). It happens when not everyone in the organization sees eye to eye. It can't be helped in many situations so it is important to know the skills necessary for managing this. The best advice is for you to learn through experience, to see what works in which contexts and scenarios. Though it is probably best to follow the majority opinion, it is imperative to avoid anything that will unnecessarily offend the ideological minorities on the team. In addition, it is also important to respect people's differences since the essence of what a person is are their experiences. Having everyone be on the same page and showing empathy are all important keeping the team intact.
Dingwall, J.R., Labrie, C., McLennon, T.K., & Underwood, L. (2015). Interpersonal communication in the professional environment: Professional communications OER. Olds, AB: Campus Alberta.
Ignoring the leader/follower labels, I realized the importance of building a rapport with the group members first, brainstorming ideas and getting to know them better, before settling down to a structure or flow. Some groups have rigid roles and timetables, others are more laissez-faire but everyone gets the job done by doing what they want to do the most. Other groups, on the other hand, were simply lazy, and our work was usually very bad. On another occasion, the team was always plagued with fighting as there was more than one person who wanted to be president, CEO, and chairman -- the work was also poor. Outside of school and in the world of 'minimum wage', similar dynamics also existed. Having good compatibility or at least tolerance with one another, setting goals, promoting fairness in terms of workload & expectations, but also pushing people (metaphorically) when it was appropriate were all critical in maintaining a well-oiled unit. People are complex and come in many different shapes, colors, ideas, experiences, etc. But, to be honest, if everyone at least tries to get along and have something to work towards, it is actually not that hard to get a pretty good squad going.
On that note, one of the most common types of disagreements involves values and identity. (Dingwall, Labrie, McLennon, & Underwood, 2015, p. 121). It happens when not everyone in the organization sees eye to eye. It can't be helped in many situations so it is important to know the skills necessary for managing this. The best advice is for you to learn through experience, to see what works in which contexts and scenarios. Though it is probably best to follow the majority opinion, it is imperative to avoid anything that will unnecessarily offend the ideological minorities on the team. In addition, it is also important to respect people's differences since the essence of what a person is are their experiences. Having everyone be on the same page and showing empathy are all important keeping the team intact.
Dingwall, J.R., Labrie, C., McLennon, T.K., & Underwood, L. (2015). Interpersonal communication in the professional environment: Professional communications OER. Olds, AB: Campus Alberta.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Study Skills: Finding balance and productivity
Welcome everyone, today we are going to talk about a subject which is near and dear to me. For you see, this touches upon something that most people - myself included - have encountered at least once in their life, perhaps many times. I am of course talking about studying, getting work done on time, and staying on top of your responsibilities. Throughout my life I have had many moments where I am excelling in my courses, treading water, or falling behind. Over the years and through some research, I have collected what I believe are the best practices in doing work not just in school but for life in general.
First off, I would stress the importance of organization. Many people might know that there are a collection of assignments and projects due in the near-, medium-, and long-term, but this feeling is inexact and you can often find due-dates catching you by surprise. The mind is a poor replacement for a calendar since there are too many things your brain needs to keep track of in general; the "RAM" section of your brain is busy enough. Not recording dates can cause anxiety since you might always have that lingering feeling that you are missing something. The alternative is worse, feeling that the date is always "away" which is why it keeps surprising you. By keeping all sorts of dates recorded in an easily accessible space, your brain could be freed up and focus more on doing rather than worrying about what needs to get done.
Another important thing that is, unfortunately, one of the first things to get sacrificed is sleep. Sure, there might be situations where you might need a slightly shorter sleep, but repeatedly doing this will cause havoc upon your energy and memory since sleep is an important part in regulating both. One common cause of sleep deprivation is using bright devices on the bed which would cause your brain to believe it is still day which delays the release of sleep hormones. Even with a blue light filter, your brain will still associate your bed with activity rather than winding down. As a wise man once said, the bed should only be used for sleeping... and sleeping.
Something that I learned in SALS that really helped me is knowing when to do things (something I still need a little bit of work on). Our natural instinct is to avoid doing hard things, hence one might be tempted to do what is easy first and leave the un-appetizing things for last. This is actually entirely backward and it will result in you losing steam quickly since it seems that your work keeps getting even more boring and challenging as you go along. In essence, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to get further away every page. In addition, you might choose to "end it for the day" and relegate the hardest thing for tomorrow... only for you to relegate it again tomorrow.
One last thing I would like to touch upon for the night is dividing work into digestible chunks. Touching upon the previous point, if something seems challenging at first, so challenging that you don't even want to do it, it is best to cut it up into pieces. It's kind of like trying to eat a whole burger at once - you're supposed to take bites out of it first. For example, if you have to do a very long complicated paper that takes weeks to do, it would be best to first only think about the topic at hand. Brainstorm ideas, see what you are comfortable with, and explore each idea to see how much you can write about it. In another example, if you need to read a book that seems impossibly large, start off slow. If you tell yourself, "I only need to read two pages a day" your brain will not add so much aversion to it and you will probably just get it over with. Read a page every day until it becomes a habit and then you up the ante to 3 pages, then 4, then 6, and before you know it, you've already read a whole chapter.
There are many things I have not covered here, but the above tips and tricks are a good springboard. Everyone is different and perhaps not all study skills will have the same effect on all people. After you have applied a few of them, see if you can improve the techniques, create new ones, or even research some on your own time. Keep it up, perfect the method, and eventually what once seemed impossible not only becomes possible, but easy.
First off, I would stress the importance of organization. Many people might know that there are a collection of assignments and projects due in the near-, medium-, and long-term, but this feeling is inexact and you can often find due-dates catching you by surprise. The mind is a poor replacement for a calendar since there are too many things your brain needs to keep track of in general; the "RAM" section of your brain is busy enough. Not recording dates can cause anxiety since you might always have that lingering feeling that you are missing something. The alternative is worse, feeling that the date is always "away" which is why it keeps surprising you. By keeping all sorts of dates recorded in an easily accessible space, your brain could be freed up and focus more on doing rather than worrying about what needs to get done.
Another important thing that is, unfortunately, one of the first things to get sacrificed is sleep. Sure, there might be situations where you might need a slightly shorter sleep, but repeatedly doing this will cause havoc upon your energy and memory since sleep is an important part in regulating both. One common cause of sleep deprivation is using bright devices on the bed which would cause your brain to believe it is still day which delays the release of sleep hormones. Even with a blue light filter, your brain will still associate your bed with activity rather than winding down. As a wise man once said, the bed should only be used for sleeping... and sleeping.
Something that I learned in SALS that really helped me is knowing when to do things (something I still need a little bit of work on). Our natural instinct is to avoid doing hard things, hence one might be tempted to do what is easy first and leave the un-appetizing things for last. This is actually entirely backward and it will result in you losing steam quickly since it seems that your work keeps getting even more boring and challenging as you go along. In essence, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to get further away every page. In addition, you might choose to "end it for the day" and relegate the hardest thing for tomorrow... only for you to relegate it again tomorrow.
One last thing I would like to touch upon for the night is dividing work into digestible chunks. Touching upon the previous point, if something seems challenging at first, so challenging that you don't even want to do it, it is best to cut it up into pieces. It's kind of like trying to eat a whole burger at once - you're supposed to take bites out of it first. For example, if you have to do a very long complicated paper that takes weeks to do, it would be best to first only think about the topic at hand. Brainstorm ideas, see what you are comfortable with, and explore each idea to see how much you can write about it. In another example, if you need to read a book that seems impossibly large, start off slow. If you tell yourself, "I only need to read two pages a day" your brain will not add so much aversion to it and you will probably just get it over with. Read a page every day until it becomes a habit and then you up the ante to 3 pages, then 4, then 6, and before you know it, you've already read a whole chapter.
There are many things I have not covered here, but the above tips and tricks are a good springboard. Everyone is different and perhaps not all study skills will have the same effect on all people. After you have applied a few of them, see if you can improve the techniques, create new ones, or even research some on your own time. Keep it up, perfect the method, and eventually what once seemed impossible not only becomes possible, but easy.
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