[New post] Celebrate My 3rd Year of Working in NUS
Chun Lin posted: " This month marks the beginning of my 3rd year of working as a software engineer in National University of Singapore (NUS). Hence, at this juncture, I would like to give myself an opportunity to broaden my horizon so that I can live up to the expectat"
This month marks the beginning of my 3rd year of working as a software engineer in National University of Singapore (NUS). Hence, at this juncture, I would like to give myself an opportunity to broaden my horizon so that I can live up to the expectations of the team and continue to grow professionally.
Coincidentally, it's NUS Well-Being Day in the beginning of the month. All the staff and students can have a long holiday to rest and re-energise.
7 PitStop Principles for Mental Wellbeing
In the beginning of Well-Being Day, NUS introduced the 7 PitStop Principles to aid everyone in the campus in stress management and self care. The seven principles are as listed below.
Personal Skills;
Interactions;
Time Out;
Sleep;
Thoughtful Eating;
On the Move;
Purpose.
In order to make my life better by enhancing my mental wellbeing, I have tried to adopt the principles as a part of my lifestyle during the long holiday.
Personal Skills
As Eduardo Briceño shared in his Ted talk, in our life, there are two key zones, i.e. the Performance Zone and the Learning Zone. The Performance Zone is where we apply our knowledge and skills to carry out our tasks. The Learning Zone on the other hand is all about improving our current skills and learning new skills.
The problem why many people don't improve much is that they spend all of their time in their performance zone. They simply do, do, do but seldom reflect on it. Hence, in his talk, Eduardo Briceño suggested that we should frequently switch between the two zones.
During the NUS Well-Being Day long holiday, it's also coincidentally the launch of Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 6. Both of them are the key tools in my career. Hence, I took the opportunity to learn what's new during the launch event.
Joining the Microsoft team for the launch of Visual Studio 2022 to learn about what's new. (Image Source: Microsoft Visual Studio)
I have been focusing more on desktop and mobile app development in my past two years of working in NUS. Before that, I had always been working on web development projects which required skills in cloud computing.
Hence, in order to keep my skill relevant, I also took 6 to 7 hours per day to take some modules on Microsoft Learn to enhance my knowledge in designing, building, testing, and maintaining cloud applications and services on Microsoft Azure.
Interactions
Social isolation and loneliness can affect one's physical and mental health. Hence, family and friends play an important role in our healthy life.
Having a cup of coffee with friend in a quiet evening is enjoyable. (Image Source: PxHere)
I'm glad to have the opportunity to have a talk with Riza Marhaban, my friend and my mentor, in one of the evenings. This is a type of happiness especially in the current situation of pandemic because meeting friends is not as easy as the good old days.
In addition, during the holiday, I attended Dato Yeo Kok Hwa's session about Disrupting Negative Thoughts. Dato Yeo shared with us the symptoms and causes of negative thoughts as well as how we can apply strategies to disrupt those negative thoughts.
Dato Yeo talked about how some of us have Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs). For example, it could be because some people overgeneralise things in their life in such a way that they view a negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. It also could be because some people dwell on the negatives and ignore the positives. Hence, it's important to have alternative thinking which helps us to change the way we think.
Dato Yeo Kok Hwa's session about Disrupting Negative Thoughts.
Time Out
I'm not sure about the rest of NUS staff, but I find that the working life in NUS research centre is challenging. Hence, it's important for me to take time out for myself.
Before the holiday, Riza was telling me that Queen's Gambit is a must-watch miniseries on Netflix. So I took the chance to watch it during the holiday. I haven't stopped thinking about the series since finishing it because it was just that good.
Besides watching movie, I also played Command and Conquer 3 which is one of my favourite RTS games during the holiday. This video game was released in 2007. After 14 years have passed, I finally got the time to play it.
When I was working in startups, I lost a night or two of sleep especially when there is a deadline to meet. This is normal because sleep is undervalued in a startup culture where being busy and working beyond capacity is celebrated. Now in my current work life, I decide to sleep more.
During the holiday, I had 10 hours of sleep/rest per day on average.
Thoughtful Eating
Even though I'm not allowed to cook in the place I rent, I still try my best to avoid unhealthy food. It has been more than one year I stop consuming fast food.
Currently, I am still trying to exercise for at least 20-minutes, 3 times a week.
My friend Jon introduced me a home workout video for beginner like me. You can refer to the video below if you are also finding ways to stay healthy during the lockdown period.
I have been volunteering in National Library Board until the volunteering opportunity was cancelled in May 2021 due to the Covid-19 situation. So, there is nothing much to share about this until the volunteering programme is back.
The new library at Harbour Front that I was always volunteering at.
That's all for how I celebrate both my 3rd year of working in NUS and the NUS Well-Being Day. I hope reading this brought you some inspiration.
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