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Hey Daniels. Today on Saturdays with Shal I wanted to add to my mini series on Time Management. I started with sleep, moved up to time management and now part III of The Shal Mini-Series (Shal that’s not a thing) is on getting involved! Yes it sounds cheesy, yes it sounds lame, but I truly mean this. Since I always refer to my own personal experiences here it goes: I’m in my fourth year of university and this is the first year I’ve ever been involved with my student union. Ever been involved with anything with the university really (except sports and intramurals, but lets be honest we saw that coming). FOUR YEARS! I hate myself for taking that long. This has been the most fun year I’ve had so far! (Sidenote: I was totally going to say funnest but thats not a word… I think?).
Back to getting involved, well what can I do Shal? You can start by many things that don’t even require you leaving the comfort of your own bed. Go like and follow our AVSSU page on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter! This assures you stay up to date with events, contests, and announcements. If you're not a social media person keep up with our website! Which I’m assuming the only way you can see this is because you are on those, so yayy step one done! Next, apply for the AVSSU social commitee! Check Facebook for more info. Then, come to our events, starting with Destressor Week. I’ve heard from some students that they almost feel overwhelmed with how many events we at AVSSU throw. What? This is a great thing! We are catering to everyone’s interests, schedule, and time. Come to as many as you can. They really only take 1 or two hours of your time. Bring your friends so “you’re all in this together”, not a High School Musical reference. The amount of people you will meet is very important. Research by Denis Coleman et. al states that "companionship in shared leisure activity appears to provide effective relief for people as they deal with excesses of daily life stresses." (Coleman, 1993). Additionally, Coleman states that, "leisure activities influence healthy by promoting positive moods. [They] help overcome loneliness and thus contribute to people's well-being." Take it from this guy, leisure activities and getting involved will help overcome your stresses. So get involved with some events! I don’t want you guys to be like me where I’m just realizing at the end of my undergrad experience that I missed out on stuff. Start at the start! You’ll probably thank me later (or boo me off the stage). Thats all for this week, Daniels. Keep it classy out there. "Danny Danny Danny…." “oui oui oui.” I hope that gets stuck in your head for the rest of your Saturday, here with me for Saturdays with Shal. As promised from a couple weeks back I wanted to talk about healthy time management. Time management was definitely my personal success from 1st year to 2nd year university. My overall GPA between those years jumped more than 15% as a result! So yes, first years that may or may not be struggling, there is still hope for you. The very first step in successful time management is the most obvious, make a plan to make plans. What do I mean by this? Take some time at the start or end of your week and actually plan out your weekly schedule. All of the experts from top universities in North America (i.e. Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, University of Chicago, and the list goes on), say the same thing: effective time management starts with weekly planning. Decide your priorities in terms of due dates and tests. My personal rule is studying for a midterm a week in advance (if my test is on Thursday, I start studying the Thursday before and do about one chapter, etc. per day.) Next is work smarter, not harder. Even though you may tell yourself you did good by putting 20 hours into your studio project (jeepers I hope not at once), this isn’t always a good thing. Maybe your workflow isn’t as efficient or effective as you think it is, so you could try assessing this to see ways you might improve. I get a lot of 1st years ask me if studio gets harder, and I say yes it does… but you get better at studio, so it feels like it stays the same (upper years don’t kill me if you disagree). And my final piece of advice (again, I’m being backed up by all the below resources), is TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF. That probably didn’t need to be in caps, but yes it’s true. When you make your weekly planner, leave open the possibility for friends and family. And finally, slightly off topic but I need to stress this for everyone here at Daniels, but mostly at my first years… "Almost 90 per cent of students say they feel overwhelmed by their workload, more than 50 per cent say they feel hopeless and 63 per cent say they feel very lonely.” This was taken from a University of Calgary survey of almost 40,000 students. What I’m trying to iterate is that YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS! University can be so overwhelming, and if you get to that point where you can’t take it anymore and really need to talk to someone, please check out my previous post on our availability of Health & Wellness resources. Or you can contact me at shalice.coutu@mail.utoronto.ca and I’ll let you know which resources are available. Take care out there Daniels, have a good rest of your weekend. Keep it classy friends. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/time.html http://web.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Student/studyskills/time_manage.pdf http://wellness.uchicago.edu/page/smart-tips http://cw.huhs.harvard.edu/tools/index.html http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/keci/students-report-stress-is-hurting-academic-performance/149517477
Bonjour! It is I, Shal, for Saturdays With Shal. Usually I write something lighthearted but on a more serious note today I wanted to talk about personal support offered here at Daniels, so personal advising and mental health. As the end of the semester starts wrapping up it’s becoming a stressful time of year for us students (come on Shal, it’s always stressful). If you’re wondering who to contact for support, here are your options:
-Drop-in appointments: Every Wednesday, 2-4pm, at Office of Registrar 230 College. Unless it’s an emergency (in which case call numbers below), please start here. The faculty is super helpful and caring and will guide you in the right direction of professional help, etc. -Embedded Psychologist: Every Friday, by morning appointment. Dr. Amber Cohen is located at Koffler Student Services, you can call at 416-978-8030 and identify as a Daniels student to book. -Emergency Contact numbers (24 hour): -Good 2 Talk Student Line 1-866-925-5454 -Drug & Alcohol Helpline 1-800-565-8603 -Ontario Mental Health HelpLine 1-866-531-2600 -Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Care Centre 416-323-6040 And lastly, if you are unsure where to start or who to contact, please don’t hesitate to contact me and ask. As I am not a certified health professional I’m not allowed to give you advice but I can give you the right resources to get help. Contact me at shalice.coutu@mail.utoronto.ca. Any conversations held are strictly confidential. Check out www.safety.utoronto.ca for more info. That is it for this week, and I encourage you to stay healthy with tips from previous Saturdays. Keep it classy, Daniels.  Hey! Welcome to part II of “Get Your Butt in Gear” (physically) with me, Shal, for Saturdays with Shal. Last Saturday I talked about ways that you can get involved with U of T for intramurals or our facilities for working out (did I mention Hart House has a gym too). But I probably should’ve started with the basics: how much exercise someone our age needs to get everyday as stated by the Heart and Stroke Foundation (Link below). According to the experts, we need 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week (wow thats a tongue twister). And no I’m not talking about aggressively flipping through Netflix. Try something that includes a little bit of everything from the triple threat category:
-Endurance activities: Are continuous activities such as walking, cycling and tennis. I’m assuming you do a lot of walking whether you commute or not, studio is literally in the corner of campus. Endurance is especially beneficial for your heart, lungs and circulatory system. -Strength activities: Such as carrying groceries (or textbooks!), and weight training. These strengthen muscles and bones and improve posture (I probably win the award for worst posture). -Flexibility activities: such as stretches, yoga, housework or golfing (I’m gonna assume nobody does that last one…. or the third one). These keep your muscles relaxed and your joints mobile. So now you can integrate this sciency stuff along with last weeks tips on where to go. In no time we will have a buff squad that will kill it at the bed races next year at orientation week! Thats all for now, keep it classy, Daniels. |
