Rhythms of Rest
Embracing seasonality to recharge, reflect, and reset
As Harvey Mudd is on Spring Break this week, I’ve been thinking about the seasonality of work and how to intentionally wind down and recharge. The workweek and weekend pattern helps to create a natural ebb and flow of activity each week, but I think that in our modern-day, connected workplaces the line is getting more and more blurred. When we have even longer breaks, be it for a one-week vacation or over summer break, how should we approach these times?
This year I’m approaching Spring break with three words in mind: recharge, reflect, and reset.
1. Recharge
It’s probably a combination of the past two years of pandemic life, having two kids under three, and teaching two new courses this semester, but I am definitely feeling in need of a boost of energy. This week I’m trying to leverage the break in my normal routine to sleep and read a little more than usual. I’m also taking advantage of being in a new place and environment to break up my standard patterns and routines.
2. Reflect
Although I try my best to be intentional about how I spend my time, it’s easy to get caught frantically jumping from one thing to the next in the midst of a busy schedule. This week I’m trying to step back and revisit my big-picture goals for the semester and think ahead toward the summer and fall.
3. Reset
One of the lessons I try to drive home to all the students in my digital design courses is the importance of a reset signal in their designs. The reset signal guarantees that you can put your system into a known state and helps to ensure that things perform as you expect.
Sometimes the idea of a reset signal for life is helpful. It is easy to let bad habits slowly creep in and take you off course, putting you in a non-optimal or even unhealthy state. Having times of rest can give you an opportunity to slow down and reset your patterns of thought and action in order to put you back on firm footing. One habit I’m trying reset is my rhythm of weekly and daily planning. In the weeks leading up to Spring break, I fell out of the habit and want to get back on the horse.
Even if you aren’t embedded in the world of academia and the built-in rhythms of the academic calendar, I hope that these ideas are a helpful framework that you might embrace the next time you find yourself in a season with the opportunity to recharge, reflect, and reset.
The Book Nook
You may have seen some posters for this one since the movie finally came out in theaters recently, but I read Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie in the middle of last year as part of the Murder Mystery bookclub I’m a part of. This one was a fun read and well-suited to a group read where you can break the book up into multiple chunks and discuss theories midway through the novel. Of course I can’t tell you much more without spoiling the plot, but suffice to say, this is a typically great read from the “Queen of Crime.” If you’re looking for a little mystery reading, consider checking out this one out!
The Professor Is In
This week on break I’ve had some time to play around with a new toy. Earlier this semester one of my colleagues gave me a Fomu. It’s a super small field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development board that fits into a USB port. Through some super impressive engineering work they’ve managed to not only squeeze a Lattice ICE40UP5K FPGA chip on the board, but also put an RGB LED, 128 kB of RAM, 1 MB of SPI flash, and a few contacts that can be used as buttons. And to boot, it’s supported by an open-source tool chain. I’m relatively new to the open-source FPGA development world, but really enjoying the foray with this little piece of new hardware!
Leisure Line
This week I’ve been enjoying the chance to re-live some of my childhood memories with my kids as we play with some of the toys I grew up with. One that my kids are particularly enjoying are the Playmobil trains. If you haven’t had the chance to check these out, take a look, they’re great!
Still Life
I love the proximity to the mountains in Southern California. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but it feels like the San Gabriel Mountains are right on top of you when you’re hanging at the park.