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Personal
Leadership

"You take the initiative in asking for, and reflecting on, feedback. You identify your own core values as the basis for your study career and professional development."

Description:

During my first portfolio review, I was given the feedback by my assessors to create a reflection journal, in which I write down the feedback I received, and how I applied it/plan to apply it.

Feelings:

I believed this to be a helpful suggestion, and immediately implemented it in a casual way, writing down feedback in a digital notebook, with the purpose of not forgetting, before I write down a more structured analysis of my feedback in Feedpulse/ here in my portfolio.

Evaluation:

I found that writing feedback in more casual language in a journal, helps for that feedback to stick in my head better, more so than writing for the purpose of documentation. I also find myself taking feedback from peers, semester 3 students more often when I write it down here as well, which of course helps me grow and reflect just as feedback from teachers does. Unfortunately, I find that I can forget about updating this journal at times, missing out on feedback opportunities.

Reflection:

When this method works, it works well. The act of writing, not typing, helps feedback to truly sink in and stick. Its feedback written in this notebook that I end up remembering and utilizing most often. I simply need to remind myself to stay consistent.

screenshot of my reflection journal

Action Plan/Feedforward:

Knowing that I can often be a bit forgetful at times, it is all-the-more important to take advantage of a journal like this. It is my goal to overcome whatever anxiety gets in my way of asking feedback, as I think that if I receive feedback on a more regular basis, I would be less likely to forget utilizing the journal.

Next Learning Outcome

Description:

During the trip to The Art Department, I attended multiple speeches from creatives in the gaming and animation industry, getting to witness their inspiring creative process on franchises or projects I’ve either heard lots of good about, or franchises I genuinely grew up with. I also got to experience seeing originals from Disney animations, a moment that will always stay with me, and attended a live-sketching session, as I simply couldn’t help but join in on such a creative day.

Feelings:

This is a trip that I think will stick with me for a very long time, and I feel honoured that I got the chance to experience such a thing. While I feel I learned a lot about iterative process from Nomada Studios, and new and exciting tools I can use, like GravitySketch for 3d modelling from Aardman, I was also simply in awe by getting to be surrounded by, in my opinion, priceless art, and hearing their creators speak.

Evaluation:

I took notes during the speeches, and pictures as well, to write this document and remember as much as I could, however, I wish I had written more. Each speaker had so much that was valuable. I was inspired by this day so much, that I spent my tax returns on a VR headset, just to learn GravitySketch.

Reflection:

I have always been highly passionate about artwork, particularly visual artwork, and that in video games speaks to me on a very deep level. I have always had a yearning for creative knowledge, and this day was inspiring to me, and genuinely made me feel that I am on the right track, and dipping my toes into the correct field for me.
I had no clue what to expect for this day, and I wish I would have done more research on this event prior to attending, to properly schedule exactly what to do with my time, as there was simply too much to do to hit all of it.

PDF with more details of my time at The Art Department
image of a presentation given by Nomada Studios

Action Plan/Feedforward:

If I ever get the chance to have a similar experience again, I will take the time to create a showcase portfolio, as I know there are portfolio reviews at these sessions, and that this would be a good opportunity to network with industry professionals, instead of simply passively absorbing all the art and information around me.

Next Learning Outcome

Description:

After being inspired by the speaker from Aardman Studios during the trip at The Art Department, I began to become highly interested in utilizing VR as a tool for creating 3D models. I started using one I already had, though quickly stopped, as it was giving me bad headaches after only about a half hour, due to the outdated blurry lenses on my headset. This led me to order a new VR set, that allowed me to work more comfortably. At this point, I 3d modelled this sunflower model, and began a new, more ambitious project, creating a willow tree. I also explored other uses for this headset and experimented with coding in the “virtual desktop environment”

Feelings:

Utilizing VR for 3D modelling was such an exciting and inspiring use of the technology, that I really would love to continue when I am not crunched by deadlines. I also felt incredibly productive when working on my portfolio while using the virtual desktop, though I did experience a few bugs while doing so.

Evaluation:

For 3D, this hardware really shines to create rough models in an intuitive way, that really helps to create a sense of scale, as you can physically walk around the art you create, though for high fidelity models, a software with Blender would make way for creating more detailed pieces. To me, this is a wonderful creative tool, that sparks creativity far more than the standard 3d modelling software and will become a staple in my workflow when I begin to focus on 3D in the upcoming semesters.
For the virtual desktop, I have learned the hard way that positioning elements in CSS in VR, and translating that to a real screen, gives horrible positioning errors, and after a full day of coding with the headset on, I ended up creating more work for myself in the end. This feature spoke out to me to begin with, as it could take my one monitor from my laptop, and translate that into 3 virtual screens, which sounded like a productivity dream, especially for me, that does not have the space to actually have 3 monitors. However, after that experience, I know that I cannot use this device in this way, at least not for anything pertaining to design.

Reflection:

I am beyond happy with this device, and though disappointed in its failure as a virtual desktop, it functions well as just another medium of art to put under my belt. I should have known better than to code on a virtual display, without checking my progress.

images of my usage in vr, 3d modelling and virtual desktop

Action Plan/Feedforward:

If I manage to find time beside project X and finishing my portfolio, I will continue 3D modelling in VR this semester. However, as my plans are to go into Media Creation next semester, regardless of if I continue now, I will utilize it for early iterations of modelling there, to get a sense of scale for my projects, and work in a more hands-on way, which helps to boost my creativity/productivity.

Next Learning Outcome

Description:

Similarly to the idea behind working in VR, I decided to choose another way to remove distractions, A dumbphone. A dumbphone is, at least by my definition, a cell phone, stripped of most, if not all, of the extra “bells and whistles” of a smartphone. For this purpose, I utilized an old e-reader I had bought, that actually had cell phone, and most smartphone capabilities, but was displayed in a black and white, “e-ink” display, which was only optimised for reading, and quite abysmal for anything else. While I cannot remove all social media from my life (unfortunately), due to the need to reach family and friends abroad that may not use apps like Whatsapp, making the addicting parts of social media as laggy and boring as possible, felt like the best way to reduce the impact of crippling phone addiction, thus leading me to pop my SIM card out of my smartphone, and make the change to a dumbphone. The catalyst to this decision was a video I highly recommend, that can be found here.

Feelings:

When using smartphone, I could feel myself becoming a more anxious, frustrated, and self-destructive version of myself. Nothing describes my relationship with Instagram better than the two words “doomscrolling brain-rot.” Because of this, it was my immediate reaction after the switch to a dumbphone, to completely remove a smartphone from my life. Now, for some, this may be doable, but I quickly found out that there were somethings that I genuinely do enjoy with my smartphone. Thus, I have found a good balance, having my main phone be my dumbphone, and my smartphone as the device I hold my banking information, music playlists, drawing software on-the-go, and, (most importantly of course haha) my Pokémon GO account, that I enjoy using to get motivated for walking and daily travel.

Evaluation:

Even though now I find myself carrying two phones, which at times is a bit cumbersome and annoying, I think that is the way it should be. I have a much healthier relationship with my devices now that they have more specific purposes for me, leading me to be a little less likely to constantly have the urge to check my phone(s) anytime there is a split-second of quiet.
Strictly statistically speaking, my daily screentime average has reduced from 6-7 hours a day on average, to a nice 2-3 hours, closer to 4 hours if it is a day I call home to my parents.

Reflection:

My phone used to be my biggest distraction, and my love-hate relationship with it, was mostly just a hate relationship at the end of the day. Has this solved all my anxiety and attention deficit and executive dysfunction issues? No, of course not. No matter how bad a phone can be for mental health, at the end of the day, my issues are caused by me, my upbringing, and my genetics. But the benefits I have seen are too much to list off here. The most noticeable though, being that that massive sense of dread I tend to have 24/7, is just a little bit smaller when I’m not constantly consuming politics and the world’s most horrific atrocities, followed immediately by the tonal whiplash of a funny cat video, then back to man-made horrors beyond my comprehension.

image of my main phone, a black and white ''dumbphone''

Action Plan/Feedforward:

There is more to be done about my tendency to be easily distracted, my procrastination habit, time-blindness, etc. And I need to cut out/reduce more of what distracts me needlessly. One way I trying to implement is reducing my time spent on specifically video games that incentivise the player logging in every single day. This is something I still struggle with and need to work on for time-management’s sake.

Next Learning Outcome

Description:

Something I briefly, and inconsistently tried in the past, were different study techniques to help with my lack of focus. One I tried a few times, but never stuck with, is the Pomodoro technique. This is when you study for 25 minutes, rest for 5 minutes, and repeat for four times, before getting a 15-minute break. When switching to the dumbphone, I was surprised to see that this technique was implemented directly into the phone’s OS. Tapping the special “e-ink” button from the lock screen, opened a pre-program timer specifically for Pomodoros, that would even track the number of sessions I took at a time. Upon finding this feature, I began to use it every time I sit down to study.

Feelings:

When using this technique, especially when working on my least favourite tasks, I find that the micro-breaks, allow me to work for longer, without burning out, or getting as distracted as I usually would. I also found that the visual of seeing how many sessions I have completed was a nice little motivator to keep going.

Evaluation:

Again, when this works, it works well. I study for longer periods of time when I use this technique, and I am overall much more productive when I do so. Now, my biggest obstacle to tackle in this category, is starting one of those long study sessions, instead of getting overwhelmed and pushing tasks off to a later date (thus of course, making the problem worse and starting a destructive vicious cycle).

Reflection:

I am finishing this cycle here after a bit of a break, and I can say that, in conjunction to Pomodoros, having a personal Trello for an even clearer visual of what needs done, has helped with tackling that first step of getting started on a long studying session. The two combined have made me significantly more productive now, and this is something I wish I had taken to utilizing in my study sessions years ago.

image of my main phone, a black and white ''dumbphone''

Action Plan/Feedforward:

I need to work on my discipline to work on tasks, before they reach the last moment, and that responsibility lies with me and only me, however, I live with my partner, and I find it helpful when someone I know will give me no judgement, still helps me to be held accountable, so going forward I have asked them to help me keep on track with my tasks, and to let me know when they notice me going too long without working on the things I need to do.

Next Learning Outcome

Description:

Late into this semester, I realized that Trello didn’t only have to be for collaborating, but that it also might be helpful to visualize my personal tasks in my own Trello. I listed each topic that I wanted to touch on, and things that needed to be rewritten into this Gibb’s reflection method from earlier in this semester.

Feelings:

Before the creation of this Trello board, I often found myself in a loop of getting overwhelmed at the amount of work needed to be done, procrastinating it out of stress, and therefore making the workload significantly worse. The creation of this Trello, while of course didn’t cure my anxiety, gave me a clear visual of all the work I needed to do, which helped me to take that first step, which was the hardest for me.

Evaluation:

Though I created this Trello board late into the semester, I found it’s impact to be immediately noticeable. Once I got started, I no longer had to worry about the mental load of trying to remember all the topics I needed to hit, and instead, could just write with better focus. Hindsight is 20/20, and it is evident that my planning would have benefitted significantly if I utilized this sooner.

Reflection:

I know I am a visual learner, so it makes complete sense that this method would be helpful for me. Externalizing my thoughts and having them organized somewhere as versatile and dynamic as Trello has done wonders for the mental load I have been carrying about this project. I’m not sure why I had this impression of Trello being a collaborative-only tool, when it absolutely is not.

screenshot of my personal Trello

Action Plan/Feedforward:

It goes without saying that in all future projects, whether personal or in a team setting, that I will be utilizing Trello or a similar management tool to map out my workload and keep visual track of my progress. I will be incorporating this into my workflow from the very beginning from now on.

Next Learning Outcome