Story Telling Tool 

 Introduction 

 Redesigning My Life Through Design Thinking 

 Design thinking can be a fantastic tool in designing ones life . 

 Design thinking has helped me create new products , imagine new retail concepts , & solve other   abstract challenges . It has also helped me to design a better life for myself . In fact , I believe design   thinking may have helped save my life and that it has the power to save the lives of others . 

 Design thinking did n’t help me survive death from an airplane crash or a car accident or falling off a   cliff . What it did do , was help me address a much slower but equally lethal health threat : the heavy   stress from feeling a loss of control in my life . 

 Challenge   Sometime ago , I went through a period of massive change . I was promoted into a position of much   greater responsibility at work . Concurrently , I was also navigating life as a new father to my four   children . These were changes I experienced while living in a new city with few friends and no family in   the area to lean on . 

 I became overly stressed . I quickly found myself feeling like I was n’t excelling at the things that   mattered most to me . I started to “ rationalize out ” important aspects of my life . I stopped exercising .   I stopped watching what I was eating and started “ stress ” eating . I became more distant from my   closest of friends . I stopped taking the time to reflect deeply , to have meaningful conversations with   friends & family and also to do the things that made me happy . 

 I started feeling like I was losing myself . I felt suffocated from the weight of stress , the feeling of   dissonance from not excelling in the important parts of my life . I felt disconnected and alone . 

 I was also constantly tired . I went through a vicious cycle of not sleeping well , to overly - caffeinating   myself during the day to compensate for this lack of sleep , back to not being able to sleep when it was   nighttime again . 

 I was far from my “ best - self ” and I knew that I urgently needed to make a change . 

 I did n’t realize it until months later , that I was about to use design thinking to redesign my life .     Application & Insights – A Great Starting Point for Redesigning my Life   I knew I had to make an immediate change and I began a quick , yet intense evaluation of my life to   understand why I was feeling such loss of control . It was time for me to do what I always preached   was important to do for others but had clearly failed to do for myself : empathize . 

 Self - empathy sounded like it should be easy ; I was already feeling sorry for myself which seemed like   a great start . However , I was only scratching the surface and not truly understanding why I was feeling 

 the way I was . As a brand marketer working with consumers , I ’ve been trained to use tools like   interviews and ethnographies to gain empathy but was n’t used to conducting a similar exercise with   myself . 

 I started a personal journal to build deeper insights into my own behavior and state - of - being . While I   felt I already knew who I was and what was important to me , I found that journaling myself helped to   surface insights and themes that I was not acutely aware of until they were painfully obvious on a   sheet of paper . 

 I put no restrictions on my writing ; I wrote down any thought or feeling that came to mind without   editing . It felt scary at first , even knowing that I planned to keep my journal private . However , I quickly   found journaling to be mentally freeing and an activity I grew to cherish . 

 My journal surfaced a number of needs . The need for the support of family & close friends . The need   for rest and taking care of my health . The need to let go of long - lasting burdens . The need to live a life   of courage and without fear . The need to dream and push myself . 

 I synthesized the insights from my journal to better understand what was driving my needs and define   the specific problems ( aka . “ life design challenges ” ) that I needed to address immediately . 

 Approach 

 I began brainstorming ideas as to how I might address my challenges . I listed each challenge at the   top of its own sheet of paper and tried to generate as many different ideas for potential solutions as   I could . 

 I chose to ideate by myself first , as this “ design challenge ” was deeply personal and I did n’t feel   comfortable sharing the entirety of what I felt with most people . After my initial brainstorm , I did   choose to supplement it with some ideas from a few folks whom I believed excelled in my target   problem areas . 

 I paired some of the key insights from my journal with my favorite ideas from my ideation , and put   them into a notebook that I frequently use for ideation and deep reflection . This became my working   prototype or my so - called “ playbook for my life ” . 

 My prototype playbook had some straight - forward guidance for simplifying my life including : 

 ▪   One cup of coffee per day , no caffeine after 4 pm 

 ▪   Get 6 + hours of sleep per night 

 ▪   No bright lights / phones while laying down in bed before bedtime 

 One of the best parts of using design thinking for your own life is that you can implement each stage   immediately . There is no organizational buy - in , no coordination of facilities , participants , or   workshops . The only buy - in and resources needed come from you . 

 I could n’t wait to test my prototype and see if my solutions were actionable and addressing the right   challenges in my life . After all my self - reflection & ideation , I could n’t wait to “ design - do ” and hopefully   regain control of my life . 

 Outcome   I actually started feeling better and more in control even before I tested my prototype playbook . My   journal helped me to release the tension in my mind and understand what was going on in my head ,   while the ideation helped me feel like I was proactively taking action and in control . 

 I was amazed with how quickly I saw results after implementing my prototype . Simple steps like   eliminating PM caffeine intake and developing an AM / night - time routine paid off immediately . I   instantly felt better and started sleeping more soundly within days . I also felt less stressed at work   and realized for the first time how much excess caffeine was exacerbating my general feelings of   stress . 

 There were many other components of my prototype playbook geared at simplifying my life ( the   above is just a very small sample ) . Many of the components I ’ve kept , some I ’ve eliminated or   continued to tweak . 

 Design thinking helped me regain control of my life and I believe it can provide similar results in the   lives of others which is why I feel compelled to share my story . I hope I ’ve convinced you in the role   that design thinking can play in designing your life , whether it ’s a better career , a better lifestyle , a   better anything . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Story Telling Tool 

 Introduction 

 Redesigning My Life Through Design Thinking 

 Design thinking can be a fantastic tool in designing ones life . 

 Design thinking has helped me create new products , imagine new retail concepts , & solve other   abstract challenges . It has also helped me to design a better life for myself . In fact , I believe design   thinking may have helped save my life and that it has the power to save the lives of others . 

 Design thinking did n’t help me survive death from an airplane crash or a car accident or falling off a   cliff . What it did do , was help me address a much slower but equally lethal health threat : the heavy   stress from feeling a loss of control in my life . 

 Challenge   Sometime ago , I went through a period of massive change . I was promoted into a position of much   greater responsibility at work . Concurrently , I was also navigating life as a new father to my four   children . These were changes I experienced while living in a new city with few friends and no family in   the area to lean on . 

 I became overly stressed . I quickly found myself feeling like I was n’t excelling at the things that   mattered most to me . I started to “ rationalize out ” important aspects of my life . I stopped exercising .   I stopped watching what I was eating and started “ stress ” eating . I became more distant from my   closest of friends . I stopped taking the time to reflect deeply , to have meaningful conversations with   friends & family and also to do the things that made me happy . 

 I started feeling like I was losing myself . I felt suffocated from the weight of stress , the feeling of   dissonance from not excelling in the important parts of my life . I felt disconnected and alone . 

 I was also constantly tired . I went through a vicious cycle of not sleeping well , to overly - caffeinating   myself during the day to compensate for this lack of sleep , back to not being able to sleep when it was   nighttime again . 

 I was far from my “ best - self ” and I knew that I urgently needed to make a change . 

 I did n’t realize it until months later , that I was about to use design thinking to redesign my life .     Application & Insights – A Great Starting Point for Redesigning my Life   I knew I had to make an immediate change and I began a quick , yet intense evaluation of my life to   understand why I was feeling such loss of control . It was time for me to do what I always preached   was important to do for others but had clearly failed to do for myself : empathize . 

 Self - empathy sounded like it should be easy ; I was already feeling sorry for myself which seemed like   a great start . However , I was only scratching the surface and not truly understanding why I was feeling 

 the way I was . As a brand marketer working with consumers , I ’ve been trained to use tools like   interviews and ethnographies to gain empathy but was n’t used to conducting a similar exercise with   myself . 

 I started a personal journal to build deeper insights into my own behavior and state - of - being . While I   felt I already knew who I was and what was important to me , I found that journaling myself helped to   surface insights and themes that I was not acutely aware of until they were painfully obvious on a   sheet of paper . 

 I put no restrictions on my writing ; I wrote down any thought or feeling that came to mind without   editing . It felt scary at first , even knowing that I planned to keep my journal private . However , I quickly   found journaling to be mentally freeing and an activity I grew to cherish . 

 My journal surfaced a number of needs . The need for the support of family & close friends . The need   for rest and taking care of my health . The need to let go of long - lasting burdens . The need to live a life   of courage and without fear . The need to dream and push myself . 

 I synthesized the insights from my journal to better understand what was driving my needs and define   the specific problems ( aka . “ life design challenges ” ) that I needed to address immediately . 

 Approach 

 I began brainstorming ideas as to how I might address my challenges . I listed each challenge at the   top of its own sheet of paper and tried to generate as many different ideas for potential solutions as   I could . 

 I chose to ideate by myself first , as this “ design challenge ” was deeply personal and I did n’t feel   comfortable sharing the entirety of what I felt with most people . After my initial brainstorm , I did   choose to supplement it with some ideas from a few folks whom I believed excelled in my target   problem areas . 

 I paired some of the key insights from my journal with my favorite ideas from my ideation , and put   them into a notebook that I frequently use for ideation and deep reflection . This became my working   prototype or my so - called “ playbook for my life ” . 

 My prototype playbook had some straight - forward guidance for simplifying my life including : 

 ▪   One cup of coffee per day , no caffeine after 4 pm 

 ▪   Get 6 + hours of sleep per night 

 ▪   No bright lights / phones while laying down in bed before bedtime 

 One of the best parts of using design thinking for your own life is that you can implement each stage   immediately . There is no organizational buy - in , no coordination of facilities , participants , or   workshops . The only buy - in and resources needed come from you . 

 I could n’t wait to test my prototype and see if my solutions were actionable and addressing the right   challenges in my life . After all my self - reflection & ideation , I could n’t wait to “ design - do ” and hopefully   regain control of my life . 

 Outcome   I actually started feeling better and more in control even before I tested my prototype playbook . My   journal helped me to release the tension in my mind and understand what was going on in my head ,   while the ideation helped me feel like I was proactively taking action and in control . 

 I was amazed with how quickly I saw results after implementing my prototype . Simple steps like   eliminating PM caffeine intake and developing an AM / night - time routine paid off immediately . I   instantly felt better and started sleeping more soundly within days . I also felt less stressed at work   and realized for the first time how much excess caffeine was exacerbating my general feelings of   stress . 

 There were many other components of my prototype playbook geared at simplifying my life ( the   above is just a very small sample ) . Many of the components I ’ve kept , some I ’ve eliminated or   continued to tweak . 

 Design thinking helped me regain control of my life and I believe it can provide similar results in the   lives of others which is why I feel compelled to share my story . I hope I ’ve convinced you in the role   that design thinking can play in designing your life , whether it ’s a better career , a better lifestyle , a   better anything .
### Output: 