Week 2 Capstone

Week 2 is done and dusted! This week was a bit of a struggle for me, if I’m being honest. I’m going to give the four F’s reflection toolkit a go for this week. So, starting with the facts - This week, I made it to my third stud prototype, this time focusing on mechanics similar to a pepper grinder, simplifying the seed system and allowing more space for seeds to be stored. Furthermore, I used multiple toolkits from the Design 4 Conservation methodology to help reconnect myself with my kawa and positionality while honing in on my ideas and their impacts. Along with this, I researched foot rotation biomechanics for running in order to validate the idea that twist-release studs would work. I further developed my project scope, creating 3 plans that scale in scope and difficulty.

Now for the feelings part. This week started with a very difficult loss for me personally, as a very influential person in my life moved away. This meant that the week started on quite a sour note, and I struggled for motivation to work for the first half of the week. I didn’t get much done, which did not help the feeling of anxiety around completing such an important project. I travelled home to Taranaki over the weekend to spend time with family, drastically improving my motivation and reducing my anxiety towards my capstone. Being around family always offers me a calming, grounded sensation and allows my brain to slow down and refocus on what is important. I ended the week in quite a positive mood and hold more excitement for my project now than before as it starts to take shape properly.

In terms of what I found out this week, I found that sometimes stepping away from work and focusing your energy elsewhere allows a bit of a mental refresh. This meant that once I could refocus on working, I had new ideas and felt motivated and excited again. Along with this, I learnt that it’s ok to have slow weeks sometimes. You can’t always be at 100%, and if you try to, your work will only suffer. Taking time to think and reconnect with your values stops your work from falling down a rabbit hole, and although the quantity completed may be less, I learnt that the quality of what you can produce is much greater when your mind is at ease.

For the future, I now know that through reconnecting with what is important to me, I can make it through unexpected events and plan ahead so that when I am in a better place, I can comfortably catch up to a high standard. Furthermore, defining my scope and developing my timeline has helped put my project into a more viable perspective, ensuring that future me has a path to follow. I think the Douglas Adams quote, “I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.” sums up what I’ve learnt quite well, as well as describing the design process as a whole.