Hello fellow Designers,
My name is Jacob Abruzzini. I recently graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Industrial Design. I currently work at a company named Finis (fin-ees), where I design training equipment for swimmers (paddles, fins, suits, etc…).
Being a competitive swimmer myself and involved in a number of other sports (mountain biking, road cycling, kayaking, running…) I’ve always had a hard time finding a balance between design and athletics. During school there was a point in each semester where I was forced to sacrifice my athletics to work on design projects. I’m not saying this was a total negative decision… I actually enjoyed every second of it and I could see how it reflected in the quality of my work. All I’m saying is it’s hard to let go of a part of you life that is meaningful to you.
However, working full time now allows me to have a decent amount of free time afterwards to pursue my athletics at my leisure… The flip side is I don’t want my experience with design to end after work. There are a lot of design related things I want to do for myself, for my own enjoyment. Things like developing and tweaking my portfolio, sketching for fun, working through some personal product ideas, learning more about industrial design and other areas of design…
The real issue now is finding a balance between my personal design interests and my athletics. It’s been quite overwhelming to me lately considering there is so much I want to learn, do, explore, accomplish in both of my passions and I now have the free time to pursue them.
I realize this is an act of time management and prioritization, but I’m just curious if anyone on here has any tips, tricks, or experiences on how they found a balance between the important things in their life (work, design, athletics, hobbies, friends/family, etc…)?
Are there any creative ways where you were able to manage your time in a way that allowed you to do both?
How did you go about prioritizing your goals/projects?
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my intro and I’d greatly appreciate any feedback you may have.
Cheers,
Jacob