Self-Management
Self-management is an important skill to master when working on personal and professional development. It includes such things as motivation, self-organization, time skills, goal setting, planning and decision making. Successful self-management enhances clarity, self-determination and satisfaction in both private and working life.
What is self-management?
Managing oneself well means being able to regulate one’s own needs, feelings and behaviours appropriately. Those who are able to do this are generally more satisfied and also work in a more goal-oriented manner. Various self-management methods and techniques can help with motivation, setting goals and priorities, and organizing work. Self-competence can be learned and developed. Effective self-competence can help drive autonomous personal and professional development.
Methods for developing self-competence
Different self-management methods can help with organization, structuring, goal setting or time planning in professional or personal everyday life. There is no need to apply all of the methods at the same time. Trying out different approaches can be helpful. For example, focus first on a specific area where you want to develop, such as priority setting, organization, productivity or time planning.
This method also supports priority setting. With the division into categories A, B or C, a clear plan and recommendations for action are created. All tasks that arise are divided into the three levels of importance and processed accordingly.
The Eisenhower principle can be used to separate important from less important and urgent from less urgent tasks and thus enable more effective prioritization. Four possible combinations of importance and urgency indicate different recommendations for action.
Goals are often formulated very vaguely. However, in order to carry out plans or projects successfully, a clear objective is essential. Formulating goals "smartly" means describing them in terms of how specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and trackable they are.
The 80-20 rule is based on the idea that 80% of the results are achieved with 20% of the total effort. For 20% of the results, 80% of the time is used. It becomes clear that a lot of time is spent working on things which make up only a relatively small part of the overall result.
The ALPEN method improves time planning and structure in the working day. For this purpose, all pending tasks (Aufgaben) are written down. In the second step, the length of the task (Länge) is added. The time should be realistic and include a deadline. In the third step, the time specifications are corrected and a buffer (Puffer) is scheduled. In the fourth step, a decision (Entscheidung) is made regarding which tasks are important and which are not. At the end of the day, a follow-up check (Nachkontrolle) is made and a balance is drawn.
Integrate self-management methods into everyday life
