Self-management is a way of controlling your knowledge and understanding to stay aware of things related to both your professional and personal lives. As a result, you become more efficient at what you do.

By developing self-management skills, you can have a better and clear perception of your capabilities. Read on to know the tried and tested self-management skills that you need to acquire.

MUO 8 Self-Management Skills to Acquire for Personal and Work-Life Productivity Infographic

1. Time Management

An image showing someone managing time

In both personal and professional life, you need to be careful about time management. The efficient utilization of time is often a metric that expresses productivity figures.

Also, time management ensures an optimum work-life balance in your life. This skill becomes the foundation for developing other vital self-management skills.

There are various time management techniques available that you can follow according to your needs. You can also use apps that help you to implement these techniques.

  • GTD Method: This method consists of five steps, namely Capture, Clarify, Organize, Review, and Engage. Infinity is a GTD tool that helps you stay focused and finish the work in time.
  • Time Blocking Method: It lets you divide your day into time blocks and assign one block for each work. Todoist is a time blocking app you can use for outlining tasks.
  • Parkinson’s Law: Though this is not a time management technique, understanding this law helps manage your tasks and time. As per the law, the more time you get to finish a task, the more time you’ll take. Procrastinators should understand this and create deadlines accordingly.
  • Eat That Frog Technique: In this technique, you complete the difficult task first. Then, completing the remaining tasks become easy.
  • Pomodoro Technique: This method lets you take a small break after working for a fixed time to avoid exhaustion. Pomodoro app helps you to automate the five-minute break after working for 25 minutes.

2. Stress Management

A visual of an interviewee who is stressed

As the amount of stress in our lives is increasing, you need to implement appropriate stress management. It'll help you in moving on with your tasks. Not everyone reacts to stress in the same way, and ways to cope with stress differ from person to person.

While you can’t eliminate stress from life completely, properly handling it will ensure improved self-management. Healthy eating and sleeping habits can reduce stress and help you stay calm. You can listen to your favorite songs and meditate on Spotify to relieve stress and concentrate better.

3. Self-Motivation

A visualization of motivating yourself

Even if you want to accomplish something wholeheartedly, staying self-motivated all the time can be challenging as external factors can distract you. Therefore, mastering self-motivation will help you to keep distractions away, especially when there is an urgent task at hand.

This self-management skill keeps your enthusiasm intact throughout the whole time of a task. You can motivate yourself to become a productive person by practicing these:

  1. Have a positive outlook towards life and work.
  2. Prioritize your tasks and goals.
  3. Track your progress and work towards growth.
  4. Reward yourself after reaching the goals.
  5. Try to make your objectives achievable and fun.

4. Organization

A visual for an organized work table

Organization is an essential self-management quality that inspires you to become productive and proficient. It refers to keeping your workspace clean and executing your daily tasks by planning and prioritizing. Stay organized will you can finish your tasks in an orderly manner without getting distracted.

As the computer has become an indispensable part of work, you need to keep that organized too. Sort all the files and documents in separate folders based on category, so you don’t spend hours finding a file. Also, enlist the tasks you need to perform today in Microsoft To-Do to keep yourself from forgetting any.

5. Goal Setting

An image showing setting up goals

When it comes to self-management, goal-setting has extreme importance. It goes hand in hand with your productivity as well. Only if you have specific goals in your personal and professional life, you can measure if you're going in the right direction or not.

You’ll know what you want to achieve when you keep seeing the goals before you. SMART criteria is a goal-setting method that lets you set objectives in a better way. You can use Joe’s Goals to set up goals by implementing SMART criteria.

Related: How to Boost Your Productivity Using SMART Criteria

6. Meaningful Productivity

Productivity does not mean working throughout the day and night. It means accomplishing your target with minimum effort and time. Measuring productivity is not easy as it involves various metrics like time, labor, output, cost, etc.

You can focus on achieving meaningful productivity as part of self-management skills. Combining time management and goal setting, you can work to become productive in the most meaningful way. Additionally, to track your and your team's productivity, you can utilize the Universal Reporting in Asana.

7. Accountability

A visual showing being responsible

In a nutshell, accountability is accepting responsibility for your actions. It is closely connected to motivation and productivity. When you have accountability, you hold yourself accountable for the commitment you made. It means you don’t look for any excuse when things don’t go as planned.

Many people tend to hold others responsible for their failures. But, they're happy to take credit for their success in work and personal life. However, this is not a sign of a productive person. Real achievers always accept their faults and do their best to get positive results.

If you are an accountable person, your family, friends, and colleagues will consider you trustworthy and ask for your help when needed. You can become responsible by practicing the following tips:

  1. Put consistent efforts
  2. Religiously follow the deadline
  3. Accept your faults
  4. Know your strengths and weaknesses

8. Self Awareness & Regulation

Self-awareness and regulation are integral parts of self-control. These are all about having conscious knowledge of one's own character and feeling. If you become aware of yourself, you can impact your work positively. But, you may think that you can’t be self-aware as it is an involuntary action.

You can become consciously self-aware, and with the right approach, it will increase over time. Having self-regulation is equally vital, as it lets you control your emotion and handle your workload in personal and professional life. Here are some quick tips to become self-aware:

  1. Be focused and mindful about the things you do.
  2. Listen to others actively and carefully.
  3. Self-reflect to understand yourself.
  4. Ask for feedback at work for self-assessment.

Bring Out the Best of You

Without self-management skills, you’ll lag in your journey to success. Follow the tips mentioned above to develop self-management skills.

You can increase your personal productivity at the home office or workplace through appropriate execution and regular practice.