“Designing your life” book reflection

I’ve already written some of the things you need to include in this assignment. I just need smooth transitions added between paragraphs and a couple hundred words added. its beneficial to read the referenced book.

Assignment brief.

In the second half of this course, we’ll be looking at more broad topics related to design, how you might put design and the design process to use, and why design matter. For this assignment, you’ll use the reflective posts from our book “Designing Your Life” to inform a final 1500-2500 word essay.

Steps for Success
consider the following questions to answer in your essay (these do not need to be in any order):
1How does design apply to your life?
2What topics around design matter to you?
3Why does the world need design?

Use your reflection posts and course topics. Look back on your writing as you read through Designing Your Life and what you’ve learned over the course of the semester (this can include material from before Week 8 but should incorporate material afterwards as well, or from your own research/interests). Think about what stood out to you and what was important to you to inform the focus of this paper.

Tell a story. Using the questions and considerations above, organize your ideas about design to inform the structure of your paper. You can get a little personal in this essay (tell me why you think design is important and relates to your life!) but also think about the impact of design on the world and back up any claims with specific examples outside of your own experience (course material, articles, etc.).

4Provide a list of works cited. Remember to cite your sources within the text as well.
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This is a reflection assignment. you MUST include the “reflection posts” attached below in the essay.

Designing Your Life: Introduction + Start Where You Are + Building a Compass
-HEALTH
I workout regularly, and i eat well, therefore, would rate my health gauge at 3/4 full.

-WORK
I keep myself busy. With school work and my job so I would rate my work gauge 3/4 full. A full gauge would be achieved by being more productive and disciplined.

-PLAY
I go out with friends about once a week and I talk to my family on the phone regularly, but I don’t feel like thats actually “play”. I give myself 1/4.

-LOVE
Im very loved by my friends and family, so I give myself 3/4.

-WORKVIEW
Learning is the most important aspect of work life. I feel that work is something that challenges you, forces you to be out of your comfort zone. Weather you like the challenge or not. Good. Work is good when you’re doing something you love, to the point where it doesn’t even feel like the physical definition of “work”. Its important to live a balanced life where you have enough money to live while living with good values.

-LIFEVIEW
Meaningful relationships, content, healthiness, ambition and constant learning gives life meaning. Life is valuable when you have an effect on other’s lives. The more people you help and there people that depend you, the more valuable your life. Money, fame, and accomplishment all play a huge role in my lifeview, both directly and indirectly. Its important to have good relationships with family and friends and to spend time taking care of them.

COMPARE
Work view and life view have to have a balance. Relationships and learning are important in both. Work is a challenge and life is bliss. They both drive each other because one is not possible without the other.

Designing Your Life: Wayfinding + Designing Your Life + Getting Unstuck
After reading these chapters, I stated paying more attention to my day to day activities and started analyzing the kinds of energies I felt while doing them. I found that wile I was working out, I felt most energized and engaged while doing heavy weight reps, whereas I felt bored while walking around looking for equipment to set up for my next exercise. Similarly, while doing assignments and projects for school, I felt energized and happy when I get into the flow state and demotivated and bored while I an trying to figure out all the assignments I have to do. both these instances led me to change the way I approach my activities. I decided that at the beginning of the activity, I will plan what I’m going to do and set up for it before starting so I can be more productive and enjoy myself better.

The Getting Unstuck chapter really got me thinking about the importance of Ideating. I also started realizing the judgement I’ve unconsciously been imposing on myself. I started mind mapping my interests and started writing stuff that relate to those, repeating till I have 3+ rings. I also began to realize that there are many ways to target a problem, and getting stuck one one solution is a black hole you can’t get out of.

Designing Your Life: Prototyping + How Not to Get a Job + Designing Your Dream Job
These chapters forced me to think about alternative life plans and directions. I started by considering my interests and what I was too afraid to admit.

My three possible plans-

1) While at OSU I will complete my degree, do a different type of internship every summer so I can explore career choices. Upon graduation I will take a job as an industrial designer for a reputable company with good work-culture such as Apple, IBM and other tech giants.

2) while in school I will learn about entrepreneurship. I will use design thinking and the other tools taught by this program to begin a tech start up.

3) After college ill get a job and start buying property to start making passive income, that way I can travel the world and tick off everything from my bucket list.

My favorite is idea 2 – but I recognize that I can slowly achieve all of my plans.

Designing your Life: Choosing Happiness + Failure Immunity
After reading these two chapters, I was able to put the previous exercises and concepts into perspective. In the previous chapters, we were told to put down multiple ideas and options for our lives. What I found most interesting about these chapters was the study about Jams. Where shoppers were introduced to a few flavors and they were able to take their pick which resulted in promising sales. But when the shoppers were introduced to a large variety of jams, they were attracted to the different flavors but when it came to buying them, out was too overwhelming to make a decision. I feel that many people, including myself, sometimes get caught up with variety and that effects the decision making process. This also leads to being scared of failing and second-guessing my decisions, which leads to being uncertain with my decisions. Learning the skills to narrow down your options is what I learned from these learnings.
Designing your Life: Building a Team + Conclusion –
After reading these last chapters, I learned the importance of having a support system. being able to talk and discuss ideas is crucial in all scopes of life, from personal development to professional efficiency. I believe that you need to have a variety of personalities in your team so you can get many different perspectives when making important life decisions. The first person I would want in my team is my sister, she’s the most intelligent and openminded person I know. her wisdom always helps me put my life into perspective and helps me find solutions to my problems. the second person would be my mom-she is a very strong and kind woman. The next person would be my mentor Brian, he is a very successful individual who loves helping people and is always willing to talk things out with me. After listening to this weeks readings and podcast, I’ve learned a lot about my self and the people I surround myself with.