If you’re like me and you have a lot of free time to kill, then you will most likely end up binging a whole lot of TV. Though once in a while is fine, binging TV all the time and excessively indulging in passive leisure activities that require very little to no physical or mental engagement, can leave you feeling extremely drained and more bored than you started off. An online article (https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/why-your-free-time-is-boring.html) explored this issue and it discovered that engaging in active leisure rather than passive leisure (examples of passive leisure include watching TV, reading books, playing video games) can help you make the most of our free time and enjoy more. The types of active leisure activities the article outlined ranged from playing sports, learning a new language, and learning a new craft/art.
Though this all sounds great on paper, in reality it can be really hard to implement, especially as an engineering student. We all know how packed our schedules can get around exams and when we finally get some downtime, it can be near impossible to convince ourselves to do anything that requires any sort of effort. Additionally, sometimes when we pursue any of these types of activities, we often feel guilty that we are not spending our time productively by learning new skills or working on projects that can help enhance our resumes. So then what should an engineering student do to not only make the most out of their free time, but also use it to help build their professional knowledge and skills? The following are a few activities that you can try out and draw some inspiration from:
1. Sketching
Simply grab a piece of paper and a pencil and start drawing away. If nothing comes to mind then grab an object near you and try to recreate it. As engineering students, we are no strangers to CAD and other forms of visual design and being able to give shape to your ideas and express them physically. Sketching can not only help you develop your creative skills and put them to use in ideation sessions for design projects, but it has also been shown to improve your overall mental health as it is a very relaxing activity.
Resources to check out:
Learn to Draw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1HIh25sbqZnkA1T09UtVHoyjYaMJuK0a
Sketching Tips for Beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqva-bcEnHA&ab_channel=makoccino
15 Drawing Ideas for Beginners to Build Basic Skills: https://www.skillshare.com/blog/15-drawing-ideas-for-beginners-to-build-basic-skills/
2. Origami
Though it is unlikely that you will be creating devices or products that are strictly made up of paper in engineering practice, the tricky folds and shapes involved in origami can help you build better hand-eye coordination and precision in hands-on activities. This directly relates to building electrical circuits in engineering, where oftentimes you have to work with small components and place them perfectly into the appropriate slots of a circuit board. In terms of materials, origami is even more accessible than sketching because all it requires is paper and no other tools.
Resources to check out:
A great Youtube channel for learning to make different kinds of origami: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ICcukYYeSn26KlCRnhOhA
5 Origami Tips for Beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01tpRQafgEs&ab_channel=AlvanLe
3. Writing
As engineering students, it has probably been a while since we wrote something other than reports or presentations. It can be beneficial for us to practice our writing skills in other contexts such as creative writing, short stories, blogs etc. Doing so can help us develop our written voice, address hidden flaws in our writing’s grammar and structure, and provide yet another outlet for our creativity. It can also give us a fresh perspective of writing, so that we don’t dread the task every time another report needs to be written or a technical document needs to be revised. Taking it a step further, you can also use these forms of writing to help you study by revising your notes and turning them into poems and songs that you can easily remember or creating a story to make it easier to recall the steps of an intricate process or procedure.
Resources to check out:
105 Creative Writing Prompts to Try Out: https://blog.prepscholar.com/creative-writing-prompts
16 Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/08/07/improve-writing-skills
How to Start a Blog: https://firstsiteguide.com/start-blog/
4. Video Editing
When it comes to creating video presentations for design projects, what can really make them stand out is the level of video editing performed. It is not necessary for the video editing to be as grand as it is in movies but knowing the basics can greatly enhance the effect your presentation has on the audience. The best part is, you can practice video editing with any sort of footage you may have on your phone or computer and turn them into very fun and exciting short videos. You can even draw upon the creative writing you did from the previous section to create skits with family members and friends and record videos and edit them.
Remember, the point of all these activities is not to make you a master at any single one of them, but mainly to help you have fun in your free time and use it to develop some skills that might benefit you as an engineer in the future. Also, don’t think that you should only limit yourself to engaging in active leisure activities during your free time and that passive leisure activities should be avoided at all costs. Just as you aim to find balance in your work schedule, do the same for your free time. Don’t shy away from trying new things out and even failing at them because as long as you are having fun and engaging and challenging yourself a little both physically and mentally, then your free time won’t seem as boring. But hey, if there is ever a day that you feel like binging TV or video games, don’t stop yourself! Just remember to follow that session up with some other activity that gets you moving and keeps you physically and mentally engaged.