Here & now - 2020 Q1/Q2

My 2020 Q1/Q2 ‘Here & now’

What does it mean?

In the first week of each month of 2019, I wrote my focus, goals, and ambitions for that particular month on my website and LinkedIn in an effort to:

1)     Orient myself and point my energies in the right direction.

2)     Reflect on the past month and figure out if I need to gear up (or down).

3)     Keep friends and family updated on what I’m doing.

I received some unexpected compliments for this practice and that it helped motivate a few people to reflect on how they spend their time. This brought a smile to my face quite a few times.

What did I learn?

Personally, this practice was extremely helpful to continue being productive and proactive. If it makes sense, being ‘accountable’ to many people kept me going while I also learnt that the only person I should be accountable to is ‘myself’.

It reintroduced me to the power of writing things down. In 2017, I formed the habit of writing one-answer-a-day on Quora for 100 days. In an experiential way, it taught me the art of persuasive writing and generating some following there was definitely a ‘feel-good’ factor. Powerful writing has been useful in my academics and career as well as personal day-to-day life.

On the other hand, the act of reflection along with my monthly write-up taught me to make sure I always enjoy the time I spend being ‘productive’. That it is not always about getting everything ‘done’ but consciously enjoying things that I am doing right now. And that sometimes ‘not doing’ is more important than cluelessly grinding myself in order to get more done. Sometimes the most productive thing that you can do is relax.

What’s different in 2020?

This year, I decided to discontinue writing my monthly Here and now primarily because there wouldn’t be much change in my schedule or goals in the first 6 months. I have started working on my graduation project which will last 20 weeks and will remain my primary focus and priority at all times. So for the first half of the year, it goes something like this:

KLM I am almost a month into my graduation project at KLM. The situation of working is quite new to me and I spent some time doing my research and getting acquainted with it. My office is at a KLM hangar in Schiphol and I am constantly surrounded by fascinating machines that fly hundreds of people everyday. I plan to work on this project until July, when I will have my formal defence and graduation ceremony. Since this project is more than full-time intensive, I have prioritized this over everything else for the coming months.

VR If you have been following my work/previous posts, you might have seen that since the past few months. I was experimenting to use VR in the product development process. I also already got the chance to apply it in different manners on two (freelance) projects.

Apart from being a learning opportunity, the projects consolidated, for me, that VR has practical applications and can be very beneficial in industrial design. In the coming months, I plan to use VR for my project at KLM too. This means that I will be spending serious time learning the application of Unreal Engine to design VR spaces and interactions.

DUTCH It’s now more than 1.5 years that I have been living in Holland. I’ve got a fair command of the language but my pursuit to become fluent continues. Colleagues at KLM are extremely helpful by being patient enough to have all ‘non-business’ conversation in Dutch. I continue listening to the radio and podcasts to get my ears still more used to the sounds. I did have many ‘moments’ when I felt a breakthrough after a piece of smooth conversation and that feels wonderful. I look for more and more of these moments everyday.

CYCLING Cycling has always been a highly enjoyable activity for me. It is in fact one of the reasons that attracts me to the Netherlands the most. After trying out many different kinds of bikes (thanks to Marktplaats buying and selling), I got my hands on a fine road bike which I can use for decently long rides. As I have been doing for a few weeks, I would like to go on rides on Saturdays in the coming months. It would be nice to have myself trained enough for a much longer ride in the summer. When cycling far is not always possible, I am also developing a habit of running.

FUTURE A crucial task for the first half of 2020 is to figure out what comes in the second half. On the priority list is work, housing, and travel plans.

Until next time,

Aman