This past semester, I took an Engineering Leadership course that is required for my major and fundamentally necessary since engineers typically end up in leadership positions. Much of the class involved getting to know myself and working towards becoming a better me since my professor emphasized that good leadership starts by changing yourself. I gained much more than I thought from this course!

At the beginning of the course, I was struggling with managing my stress. I knew I had to work on my stress management since I frequently experienced burnout in past semesters and my inability to bounce back would cause my academic life to suffer. As a part of the class, I had to pick three skills to work on to improve my Emotional Intelligence throughout the semester. I decided to work on self-regard, emotional expression, and stress tolerance. When we were covering stress management, my professor introduced the concept of oscillation. I decided to try it out to improve my stress tolerance skill.

THE CONCEPT

So what is oscillation? Oscillation refers to alternating periods of stress with recovery that include relaxation and recreation. This is to allow our bodies and minds to absorb a healthy amount of stress and handle more demanding situations. Below is a visual of oscillation that enables resilience to withstand and prosper through a progression of increasingly stressful events.

Below is also a visual of extended, unbroken stress with insufficient oscillation. Because there’s no downtime for recovery, the cumulative stress becomes too demanding, so the amount of stress that can be tolerated actually decreases. Productivity diminishes and nerves become raw. If not corrected, such stress can lead to a crisis, such as burnout

Humans function more effectively when we oscillate, and life is much more enjoyable. Downtime, relaxation, and recreation are critically important to productivity. In order for it to work in your life, however, you must not forget that oscillation is a process for us to undertake consciously, deliberately, and regularly.

HOW I APPLIED IT

I began scheduling downtime on my planner just as I would schedule academic responsibilities. After looking at my overall schedule, I decided that Saturday would be the best day to rest. It was awkward at first, I had to constantly remind myself that not doing work was okay, that taking time for myself was okay. Throughout this semester, I spent my Saturdays getting my nails done or spending time with my boyfriend/family. No semester before had I spent this much time enjoying myself and even though I thought I would get behind for having this much fun, I was actually more overall productive. I would start every week feeling refreshed (mentally) and ready for another week. I did not experience burnout this whole semester (first time ever) and I believe practicing oscillation had a lot to do with it.

If you experience burnout, try it out! Feel free to contact me!

long breaks:
• take a shower
• go for a run or to the gym
• get some lunch/dinner (invite another friend who may also need a study break)
• take a nap
• watch *ONE* Netflix episode. I don’t recommend watching more than one because before you know it, now you’re procrastinating
• organize your room

short breaks:
• stretch
• grab coffee (or tea)
• wash your face
• grab a snack and walk around while eating it
• check your social media accounts
• call your significant other (or friend)
• watch a short episode of a documentary or a TED Talk
• as cheesy as it may sound: reflect. close your eyes and reflect on anything that is related to academia, personal life, or your professional life and develop a short, realistic plan on how to improve it. this is how I mostly work on my self development and growth ☼

I honestly use the bare minimum to get my school work done. This is practically everything I used to get through this semester.

• I have a Microsoft Surface Book 2 that I use for my engineering work. It’s highly convenient since it’s both a tablet and a laptop. I have a pen that’s attached to the screen to write on the screen.

• All of my notetaking is done digitally, but I do have two small notebooks that I use when I’m preparing for an exam. Other than that, I use Microsoft’s OneNote for my notetaking.

• I have a planner that I use daily in which I write down my daily schedule by the hour. I use sticky notes to write my weekly to-do list and add that to my planner as well. By the end of the week, I should have every box checked off. I also use colored pens to write on my planner to tell between my different obligations (classes and work).

• I cannot study without listening to music, unless I am writing a paper, but as an engineering major, that’s rare. I had Apple’s AirPods but decided switch to Apple’s Powerbeats Pro, if you want my opinion on both of them, contact me!

Like I said, I use the bare minimum lol!