Self management skills refer to the abilities of an individual to curb their emotions and to perform activities which are under their control. Self management skills play a crucial role in both personal and professional life of any individual.
Self management is all about making the right choices be it an emotional one or a professional one depending upon the scenario that a person is dealing with. If you can ace the self management skills, you can easily be your boss. It helps you in taking responsibilities of your actions doing your work against all the odds.
It is a combination of all sorts of soft skills. This is because self-skill gives you the power of self with which you can cultivate all of the other necessary skills. Self management skills are essential for all areas of life.
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What are Self-Management Skills?
The greatest asset we have is ‘self’, and all of us possess it irrespective of who we are, how we are, how we look or what we do.
This ‘self’ has immense power.
It has the strength to transform our little world and in turn, change the more prominent world too.
Behaviour is the key to success. Control over our behavior comes with self-management.
One can establish a career and personal relations better if one is good at self-management. It is one of the top five professional skills by which success can be achieved.
Best Self Management Skills you need to learn to manage yourself
Now here are some of the best self management skills that you need to learn to manage yourself.
1) Stress management
No matter whether you are a working professional or not, stress is something everybody has dealt with at least for once. But when you are in workforce handling stress can be one of the toughest jobs out there. Thus learning the art of stress management is necessary.
It is one of those self management skills that help you remain calm in the chaos, will help to be at peace with yourself even if a lot of things are going on at your workplace. Stress management is also necessary because it will provide with many health benefits.
Generally, stress has detraining effects on your health. It can lead to your increased or decreased blood pressure, having dark circles under your eyes, graying of your hair and what not. It can even hamper the balance of your logical thinking approach.
You can’t work effectively if you are going through any of this problem. And that is why stress management is necessary.
2) Time management
It is rightly said that ‘Time and Tide wait for none.’ Hence you shouldn’t and must not take time for granted. Time waits for none and so should you. As an individual, you must respect the value of time, and this will happen when you ac the art of time management skills.
It is one of those self management skills which are necessary for people coming from all sorts of background whether they are a working professional or not. For effective time management, one needs to know the amount of work that is required in order to be done. And divide it according to its priority and then a lot specific amount of time to each of the work and finally start working on it.
Here are a few things that you need to do when it comes to time management –
- Set priority for things that are needed to be done. Also, arrange the task that you will be assigned to your employees and the one that you will be doing on your own.
- Remove all sorts of wastes and redundancies form your work. For instance, if you are in a workforce and are the manager of some organization, do not waste time in arranging a pointless ROI meeting time and again. Instead, make full use of the resources that are available to you and boost the everyday operation that is being performed at work.
- Reduce the time for overhead training. This can be done once you realize the optimum stakeholders that are there for your projects.
3) Organizational skills
Now you have to make sure that the place that you are working in is well organized. This will help you to boost your productivity ten times more. It can be as simple as cleaning up the piles of paperwork ever since the beginning of your time or cleaning your work desk or desktop table.
This will make your life look more organized and you will feel less burdened. This way you will be clearing up all of the clutters and enjoy a clean space. You can try having organized folders for that matter for both your soft and hard copy documents.
Also, try arranging all of your things in alphabetical order. This will save a lot of your time when you will look for a file form an old project of yours. This entire little thing is what the organizational skills is comprised of.
4) Problem-solving
This is yet another essential self management skill, one on which I can’t emphasize enough! Problems are an inevitable part of our lives. But only the ones who can deal with it are the ones who have accepted this as a fact. You cannot avoid problems no matter how good you are or how perfectly you try to complete a task. Problems will come your way.
This is exactly where your problem-solving skills will come in handy. By working on your problem-solving skills, you will be able to analyze the problem with more effectiveness and come to unbiased decisions. This will help you in reaching a fair solution to your problem.
Now these problems may be either technical or sometimes interpersonal
5) Decision-making skills
This is also a very important time management sill that one hold has, and only a few of us do. If you are good at the decision making, you will automatically notice the positive impact of it in your day to day life. By making clear and effective decisions, you will be able to make a difference in your life.
Your productivity will increase ten times, and you will also succeed in managing time. If you are stuck in a situation where you want to know which task you want to do next consider asking yourself a few questions.
These may be related to what are the different kinds of resources that will be needed for the completion of the next task, and how many of these resources are already available or how much will you be able to complete the job within the specified time or not, etc.
6) Self-confidence
Self-confidence is one skill which is inbuilt in many, but many severely lack it due to many reasons. But even if one lacks self-confidence, it can always be developed. If you are self-confident, you will be able to see your life in a much more positive manner.
This positivity in your life will then impact your workplace and your surroundings as well. If you have self-confidence, even your employees will feel motivated. Self-confidence is simply infectious. It brings positivity to everything.
When you are self-confident you tend to believe in your abilities and like and respect yourself. Here are a few tips by following which you too can become self-confident-
- Always try to remain positive, be optimistic and try to look at the brighter side of things but it does not mean that you will have to neglect your problems and fake positivity. It means that if you have some problem, try solving it instead of worrying about it. This is the way to become positive, and it will automatically boost your self-confidence.
- Try to avoid all of those things that bring negativity to your life. It can be people like your relative or your friends or your employees at work. Or it can be some situation that brings negativity to you. Try avoiding it so that you can remain positive.
- Find happiness in the small things in life. Happiness is not just associated with the destination enjoy the journey.
- Remember to remind this to yourself from time to time that you are smart, you are intelligent, and you can do anything and everything in your life.
- Surround yourself with people who reciprocate positive vibes to you, those who talk positive and bring out the best in you.
7) Self-protection
Self-protection too comes under self management skills, and not many people are aware of this fact. No matter you should always take care of yourself. Sometimes work life can be so hectic that people forget that there is a life beyond that. And this is where most people go wrong.
Always make sure that you take care of yourself. Do exercise daily even it is for 10 minutes, eat healthy food and do not rely on fast food much and most importantly get enough sleep. In general, 7 to 8 hours of sleep will do the job to get the required amount of sleep.
This way you will ensure that you are staying healthy and will be more energized while working.
How to Improve Self Management Skills?
1) Taking the initiative
Initialization is the beginning. The very start of any new task begins with ‘self’.
The ability to take initiatives and helping yourself discover new opportunities improves your chances of success. Hence, taking action is an integral part of the best Self management Skills.
2) Checking Productivity
Someone can make the best use of the available resources and mark success.
One has to stay motivated and engaged in life to enhance productivity. In the low phase of life, one has to take care that he is not wasting the resources but rather making the best use of it. It is what enhances productivity.
Learning and experimenting are ways to improve it. Both of these ways never lead to null. They give you the hope of creating something new.
You need to analyze the productivity of your different endeavors regularly, so you can better optimize your outputs.
3) Self-awareness
One has to be aware of ‘self’. Quite literally, that is ‘self-awareness’.
One must know his strengths and weaknesses. There should be knowledge of what you can achieve by staying within your comfort zone and what you need to do better to gain more.
You should be aware of the causes and consequences of your behavior. There should be no underestimation and overestimation regarding your capabilities.
Hence, self-awareness is a stepping stone for the best-suited Self management Skills.
4) Enhance Positivity
Positivity is a virtue of humankind. It rekindles the hope of achieving something bigger and better in life.
There is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. This is called positivity. Every living being encounters failures. But, rising above them and making it your strength is called positivity.
Believing in goodness and not getting bogged down in low times are the keys to being a better person. That is a part of Self management Skills.
Being positive in different circumstances help you manage yourself more appropriately.
5) Commitment
Commitment is the art of living up to your promises.
It gives reassurance and builds trust and faith among people. There has to be honesty and transparency in any work environment. Here, commitment comes into the picture.
One should know if he can stick to the job assigned to him and complete it wholeheartedly.
Only then, one should commit to it.
If there are any issues while fulfilling a promise or a commitment, the person should let others know about it and make amends for it. When one enhances commitment, self-management is achieved.
6) Build Good Personal Networks
Relationships are essential in all walks of life. They strengthen the joy of living life.
Hence, one must have good friends, colleagues, and family. All of them contribute to shaping you. If you have excellent interpersonal relations, they are your saviors in times of dire need.
Choosing the right people and being true to them are ways to ensure proper personal networks. Virtues like helpfulness, approachability, and accountability can be enhanced through this.
7) Listen to Yourself
When we are talking about ourselves, it will be foolish if you put ‘self’ out of the frame. You should always listen to what your conscience and your inner soul tell you.
They still have the truth to be told. You should monitor your stress levels and devise various mechanisms to reduce that burden.
It is equally essential to pay attention to yourself. You have to take care of your health- physical and emotional. They play critical roles in keeping you healthy and healthy.
8) Undertake Improvements and Evaluate Yourself
No one on the face of this earth is perfect. Everyone needs to improve some of the other assets of themselves.
Hence, it is advisable to undertake improvements and pay keen attention to the process of achieving these improvements.
You can evaluate yourself and know if you are on the right path. You can take professional guidance if you feel its need.
Self-management can be achieved if you know what to improve and how to improve.
Conclusion
Thus by practicing all of the skills mentioned above your day to day life, you will be easily able to ace the self management skills. This, in turn, will help you to do better not only in your professional life but also in your personal life.
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