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• What is self-management? (7 skills to i ...

What is self-management? (7 skills to improve it)

Self-management is your ability to regulate behaviors, thoughts, and emotions in a way that better serves you and your work. Learn the 7 most important self-management skills to become a better leader.

It’s certainly not easy, but self-management can be learned. And it’s worth doing—as you improve your self-management skills, you’ll naturally grow as a leader. From the top project management skills to your own personal development, we’ll go over what self-management is and the seven soft skills to develop it.

Anatomy of Work Special Report: The unexplored link between impostor syndrome and burnout

Burnout and impostor syndrome have historically been studied as two separate phenomena. In this report, we connect the dots to help leaders slow burnout and increase employee retention.

What is self-management?

Self-management is your ability to regulate your behaviors, thoughts, and emotions in a productive way. This means excelling in both personal and professional responsibilities for the benefit of yourself and your team.

Effective self-management leads to better emotional intelligence by supporting your self-awareness and well being. This means staying on top of social cues and respecting your own personal needs.

Self-management is an important leadership quality that doesn’t always come naturally, but with the right tools and practice, you can develop. Let’s dive into the top seven self-management skills to develop. 

What are the 7 self-management skills?

Developing self-management skills requires a certain level of self-awareness—you need to know yourself before you can regulate yourself. Start slow and embrace the process, remembering that these skills are ongoing.

Skill 1. Time management

Time management is when you control how you use your time. This means prioritizing your most important tasks first and managing your daily to-do list . A leader who has good time management skills can manage their time effectively without the need for external help.

Having good time management skills can help you stay engaged and avoid procrastination . As a leader, time management allows you enough time to both stay on top of your own work and empower others to do the same.  

Skill 2. Self motivation

Self motivation is your ability to get motivated and proactively accomplish daily tasks. It takes a certain level of personal responsibility, but practicing self motivation can help you become more self-aware and prioritize what's important to you.

This is similar to intrinsic motivation , which is motivation that comes from within. Like self motivation, intrinsic motivation stems from a variety of personal factors. For example, your internal motivator for volunteering could be that it makes you feel fulfilled. External motivators, on the other hand, are influenced by factors outside yourself. For example, working faster because you’re scared of the repercussions if you work slower.

Enjoying the work you do is an important part of staying motivated and engaged throughout your workday. Plus, liking the work you do can help you inspire your team to do their very best. To practice internal motivation, work towards goals that excite you and fuel your sense of purpose.

Skill 3. Stress management

Leaders often deal with stress, but to be good at self-management you need to embody healthy stress management. Without stress management, you can suffer from overwork and, eventually, burnout .

Leaders with good stress management skills approach work in a focused manner by connecting their initiatives to larger goals. When you know which task is most important and how project deliverables are tied to team goals, you can better prioritize work and will likely feel more fulfilled doing it. Engaging with your work in this way is a form of self-care, and it can help reduce your stress levels and keep you level headed.

Skill 4. Adaptability

Being adaptable means you have the confidence and ability to pivot when changes arise. This is especially important for leaders who work in a fast-paced environment where project changes occur often. 

For example, imagine a new project comes up that’s a higher priority than the one you’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks. Instead of becoming stressed or frustrated, you can adapt to this change and move forward with openness and curiosity. This is an important skill to have to maintain flexibility.

While being adaptable may be uncomfortable at times, it can make you a great leader as you have the ability to tackle anything that comes your way.  It also empowers your team to do the same.

Skill 5. Decision making

To be effective, it’s essential for leaders to develop decision-making skills that reduce confusion and increase team empowerment. Problem solving and addressing issues can help you grow your decision-making skills. 

Like all the skills we’ve looked at so far, decision making is something you can learn. Start by sharpening your critical thinking skills and learning how to analyze key information when problems arise. And use data-driven decision making to ensure your actions come from data rather than guesswork, so fewer issues will arise down the road.

Skill 6. Goal alignment

Setting goals means you prioritize the most important projects that have the highest impact on your business. 

This means being able to see the bigger picture and knowing what’s best for your team members and organization. In the long run, this will generate better results and boost team morale .  

Goal alignment consists of three main skills:

Goal setting. When goal setting, be sure to identify current pain points, forecast growth objectives, and analyze your current resource allocation plans —all of which can help you set informed goals. Use the SMART goals framework to make sure your goal is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Goal communication. Not only does this involve managing your team’s goals, but it always involves aligning them to your organization’s overall goals. That way,  your team members understand how their work ladders up to larger objectives. This requires transparent communication and aligned teamwork .  

Goal tracking. Not only is it important to set and communicate goals, but it’s also important to track them. This is critical for connecting daily work to larger goals and seeing how your team is progressing over time. 

Skill 7. Personal development

Personal development is key for all team members, but especially for leaders. In order to build your team’s knowledge, you first need to build your own.  This means taking the time to attend workshops, take courses, and connect with industry experts to develop your management skills.

This means taking the time to attend workshops, take courses, and connect with industry experts—all of which can help you develop your management skills. 

By continuing to develop your skills, you can empower your team to do the same. Not only does this mean individual career development, but it also means growth for the good of the company. 

Examples of self-management

Analyzing examples of self-management in the workplace can help you understand the skills you need to develop and embody healthy self-management. 

These examples involve refining the way you see yourself in order to develop strong self-esteem. Here are some examples of self-management to better understand how you can empower yourself to be a better leader in the workplace:

Example 1: Setting goals and aligning them to the larger picture.  

Team lead Daniela Vargas wants to increase returning customers by 10% this year in order to meet her organization’s growth goals. To start, she writes up a business case and schedules a meeting with the head of operations and product development. During that meeting, Daniela walks the department heads through her plan to rebrand an existing product line that hasn’t performed well in the past. The leaders agree to the plan and Daniela gets to work to develop a detailed work breakdown structure . 

Example 2: Stress management and time allocation.

Ray Brooks starts his day by going through his daily to-do list. He notices he has a few tasks that need to be completed and an overdue task that he didn’t get to yesterday. He also gets a meeting invite for a new project that is flagged as a top priority. Instead of becoming overwhelmed and frustrated with the tasks on his plate, Ray goes to work to reorganize his schedule. Critically, Ray realizes that he can’t get everything done that day. To get his best work done, he prioritizes the new project meeting, since it’s a top priority. He then spends the rest of his day tackling his high priority tasks while maintaining the quality of his work. Instead of working all night, which Ray knows will stress him out and take away from his family time, he decides that his least important tasks will need to wait until the next day. 

In both of these situations, the leader made rational decisions based on what was best for themselves and their teams. They were quick to make intelligent decisions while considering their own well-being in order to get good results. ​

Managing your behaviors and emotions

Managing your thoughts and behaviors can help you become better at self-management and, in turn, stronger as a leader. By streamlining your individual organizational systems, you’re proactively working towards becoming the best leader that you can be. 

Learn additional ways to support your team with work management software. From increased productivity to team visibility, effectively managing your work doesn’t have to be challenging. 

Related resources

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Listening to understand: How to practice active listening (with examples)

Unmasking impostor syndrome: 15 ways to overcome it at work

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Self-management skills: What they are and why they’re important

While many workers spend tens of thousands of dollars learning hard skills in college, soft skills are frequently overlooked. If you’re struggling to achieve your dreams, your self-management abilities may be to blame. By learning better self-management, you can become more effective in the workplace.

What is self-management?

Self-management is the way you can manage your thoughts, actions, and feelings in a productive manner. When you have strong self-management skills, you are able to change how you feel, speak, and act in different situations. You’re able to work productively on an assignment when you need to and connect with colleagues in your weekly meeting.

When you are good at self-management, you understand your personal role in managing your life. You take responsibility for your actions.

People who are good at self-management also possess strong emotional intelligence. This means they are good at self-regulation and self-awareness, which allows them to consciously work with different desires and emotions. Because they are self-aware and can self-regulate, they can express their emotions in the way they want to instead of being compelled to by their feelings.

Self-management examples

Even if you’ve never heard of it before, it is possible to learn better self-management skills. To get started, read through the following examples of this skill in practice.

1. Focusing on a task

When Thomas is given a task at work, he is instantly distracted by messages on his phone and emails from other co-workers. It makes it impossible to get anything done . He wants to finish his latest task, but he knows he won’t be able to unless he finds a way to focus.

2. Managing time wisely

Genevieve struggles to get home in time for dinner each day. As soon as a new email or request comes in, she immediately starts working on it. She struggles to prioritize tasks, which means she is often overwhelmed by working on a dozen things at the same time.

Whether you want to build a stronger bond with your children or achieve a promotion at work, time management is one of the most important skills you can learn. There are only so many hours in the day, so you have to learn how to manage your time wisely. If this is a struggle for you, you can always use the Timely app to track how you spend your time.

3. Clarify different roles

Lamonte is a go-getter who wants to get a promotion at work, so he typically turns in amazing projects. Last week, he spent several days working on a project that was assigned to someone else without realizing it. Because he wasn’t sure what he was responsible for, he ended up wasting days of effort and felt burned out.

4. Motivating yourself

Uri just started working for a new company, but he wasn’t given a lot of direction about what to do, and his workload is piling up. Whenever he looks at his inbox, he immediately feels too intimidated to tackle anything. Without some self-motivation, he feels like his job will only become more overwhelming.

5. Planning your time strategically

Fatima is great at motivating herself to get tasks done, but she doesn’t know how to prioritize different goals. She gets bogged down in minutiae because she’s unable to plan her time strategically. What she needs is a big-picture approach to her work week.

6. Managing stress

Anna’s stomach clenches into knots whenever she thinks about an upcoming assignment at work. She is exhausted during the day because she isn’t able to sleep at night. Instead of working on her task list and reducing some of her stress, she spends her time searching for vacation tickets and daydreaming.

Why are self-management skills so important?

Self-management skills matter because they allow you to be an effective, productive part of your organization. If team members can’t stay on task, the team will never be able to reach its goals.

On an organizational level, self-management empowers team members to take initiative and complete projects on their own. These skills can increase employee innovation and decision-making abilities.

When it comes to the individual level, self-management matters because it helps you to reach your own goals. If you can’t manage your thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, you’ll never be able to focus on your goals. Your success in professional and personal matters is directly related to how well you can master your own emotions and behaviors.

By improving your self-management, you can enjoy some of the following benefits.

• Enhanced productivity.
• Increased odds of getting promoted.
• More free time for things you care about.
• Improved relationships with your colleagues.
• Better mental health.
• Enhanced physical health.
• Accomplish more of your objectives.

Essential self-management skills

Once you realize you and your team need to make some changes, there are a few self-management skills you can start working on.

Role clarity

A key part of managing your time is knowing which tasks are yours and when you need to complete them. Role clarity also helps your team understand who is responsible for a specific part of the team’s work. It’s impossible to succeed at work if you don’t know what you’re expected to do.

In the example of Lamonte, Lamonte could start each week by asking his team leader about which tasks he will be expected to perform and when. His team leader can also improve role clarity by using a time management app to assign tasks and a time management matrix to sort tasks according to their priority level.

When you are good at managing your emotions and attention, you have an easier time completing your work. You are able to focus on what you’re doing and ignore outside distractions.

In Thomas’ example, outside distractions are preventing him from performing his day-to-day tasks. To improve his self-management, he could try only checking email and online correspondence at the start and end of the day. He could also close his office door or work on important projects during his peak focus hours.

Strategic planning

Take a moment to sit down and plan out your objectives. Then, you should determine the steps you will take to achieve them. Once you have figured out your priorities, you can block out time for working on different aspects of your objectives.

In Fatima’s example, she needs help understanding the organization’s objectives and her role within the organization. A team meeting or better task delegation can help her understand her priorities and roles. Then, she can spend some time prioritizing her goals for the week, so she doesn’t end up bogged down by unimportant distractions.

Time management

Time management is an important part of strategic planning. If you can’t manage your time wisely, the best strategic plans aren’t going to help. You have to figure out how much time you have available during the week and devote time blocks to specific tasks.

Other than setting aside time blocks for specific tasks, Genevieve also needs to prioritize some of her time outside of work. By setting a hard rule about going home at the end of her day, she will motivate herself to complete more projects during the day. She should also focus on her most important tasks first, so she can let minor tasks slide if she runs out of time.

Self-motivation

In order to be good at self-management, you must be able to motivate yourself. While outside factors can sometimes make a difference, your long-term success is determined by how good you are at finding motivation within. In fact, employees with intrinsic motivation were 32% more committed to their work and had a 46% higher job satisfaction level.

In Uri’s case, he can improve his self-motivation by breaking his work day down into smaller, less overwhelming tasks. He may also benefit from understanding he doesn’t have to be perfect. Making mistakes is normal in a new position, and the only way he’ll accomplish anything is by trying to do new things.

Stress Management

Stress can make it difficult to think clearly, and it can lead to problems with your physical health. Because of this, you need to learn how to manage difficult emotions, like stress and anxiety. Otherwise, these feelings will distract you from reaching your goals.

Eating healthy and exercising are important for managing stress. In Anna’s case, she needs to reduce her overall stress levels by eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep at night. She should talk to her boss about her workload because she feels too overwhelmed to even try tackling it.

Strategies to help you build your self-management skills

Whether you want to improve your self-management skills to achieve success or simply to enjoy a less stressful work life, there are a few strategies you can try out.

Motivate through reminders and rewards

To develop self-motivation, start by reminding yourself why you are doing something. When you achieve your goal, give yourself a reward. This could be eating at a favorite restaurant, taking a long bath, or doing something else you love.

Reduce distractions

Better motivation and time management can be achieved by reducing distractions. Turn off social media, and relegate your digital correspondence to set times of the day.

Get time management tools

Time management tools, like Google Calendar and Timely , can help you prioritize tasks and work through your to-do list. If a task can be done without your presence, delegate it to a team member using your time management app.

Work during your peak hours

Identify which hours are your peak production times. Then, you should focus on completing your most important projects during your hours. During non-peak hours, you can handle meetings, email responses, and less important tasks.

Set deadlines

To achieve goals, it helps to set a deadline. Then, you can break down major goals into smaller milestones. By doing this, you can easily track how far along you are in achieving your major goals.

Develop better emotional regulation

Emotional regulation helps you manage stress, tension, anger, and other difficult emotions. Meditation, yoga, and journaling are great activities for developing emotional regulation. If you can’t regulate your emotions, you can’t learn self-management.

Learn Better Self-Management Skills

Once you become talented at self-management, it can help you achieve more at work. You can also develop a better work-life balance and a healthier lifestyle.

Related articles

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Self-management: how to prioritize and be more productive

It’s the end of your day. You feel overloaded, stressed, and overwhelmed by all the things you need to accomplish at work and in your personal life.

You put your head on your pillow but tasks you forgot to write down pop into your head reminding you that tomorrow will be another long day. 

Don’t fear! You are not alone with all those stressful thoughts.

Researchers show that around 60% of the Japanese population is under constant stress, 13.5 million workdays in Europe are lost yearly due to stress, and 83% of US workers report being under significant stress. (Take a quick pause now, and breathe deeply! I promise this article will get better) . 

We have this constant, nagging feeling of trying to fix and manage our external environment rather than looking inward.

How well do you know yourself? What are your values? What are your strengths and weaknesses? 

If I ask you today: Who is the most important person in your life? Who would the answer be (honestly)? 

I hope you said: you . 

Every day, everyone wakes up with the same amount of time to make any decision they want. However, most of those decisions are being done to please someone else. And, little by little, we start to forget about ourselves—the most important person in our life.

Because let’s face it, you cannot take care of your loved ones if you’re not taking care of yourself .  

It’s time for you to take control of your life and be accountable for your actions without putting the responsibility on the other or on external factors. Free yourself from things you cannot control and start assessing what you can by knowing yourself.

An easy way to explain this and start shifting your perspective is by looking at how you see time. The term ‘time management’ does not hit the heart of the problem because it’s not about managing time.

Time cannot be changed, but you can. It’s about finding a technique that will help you perfect your way of working on yourself . 

This is called self-management. 

What’s Self-Management, And Why Is It Important?

Self-management is the competence to shape one’s own personal and professional development independently of external influences. You are in charge of your own destiny. This means it’s up to you to find your place in the world and know when to change course. 

Peter Drucker , author of the book “ Managing Oneself ” emphasizes that we live in an age of unprecedented opportunities. However, these choices also require taking responsibility for one’s own development and personal maturity. He says:

“Knowledge workers must, effectively, be their own chief executive officers”. 

This means that you are both a company and a manager. Your body and mind personify the company through its beliefs and physiological qualities. Your behavior and how you handle your decisions to bring this business to prosper represents your role as a manager.

But why is this important?

A large part of the working population is chronically stressed. Some are already at the end of their strength and suffer from the symptoms of overwork, such as burnout .

Self-management comes into play to help you become more self-aware. It enables you to achieve the life you want and stop blaming external factors for your problem. When learning how to manage yourself, you recognize the impact of your emotions and thoughts on a given action. It makes you responsible and equipped to evaluate your work and determine the way to proceed.

4 Self-Management Techniques To Put You In The Center Of Your Life

Now that you’ve learned what self-management is, let’s look into how you can start managing your life. Here are three important things to keep in mind: 

• Start with a goal. Don’t live a busy life. If you don’t know where you want to be, it’s unlikely you will be able to manage yourself meaningfully. Define your objectives and set goals at all levels. 
• It’s not a 9-to-5 job, it’s a daily choice . It’s a way of thinking and can not be switched off after work. Sometimes, you may think it’s a weekly choice, it’s fine! It takes time to build it. 
• Make a plan. Plan a strategy to achieve the goal and implement it. 

There are many ways you can put into action the life you want to live. The best way to start is by testing a few techniques while being conscious of the decisions you’ve made throughout the process. 

1. Adopt The ‘Getting Things Done’ Framework To Stay Organized

According to David Allen, creator of the “Getting Things Done” methodology:

“Self-management is about knowing what to do at any given moment” . 

The GTD framework helps you achieve that. The idea is simple — clear your mind for important things by capturing and organizing all the tasks that need to be done in a logical system. This allows you to take control of what needs to be done, avoiding any mental distractions so you can focus on execution. 

The GTD framework is based on five steps: 

• Capture all the things! Your ideas, recurring tasks, long emails responses, meetings, everything. 
• Clarify the things you have to do. This is the time to decide if that task needs action or not.
• Organize those action tasks by priority and category. Assign due dates when possible. 
• Reflect on your to-do list. This is when you revise all the system and pick what your task should be.
• Engage and get to work. At this stage, all your tasks are organized by priorities and broken down into actions. You know exactly what you should be doing. 

Conscious Tip: When reflecting on what tasks needs to be accomplished, think about the emotional outcome of that action. How are you going to feel while doing it and completing it? Try to categorize your list in a balanced way where you have a task that will make you feel “you are a good person in the world”, for instance, and another task where you feel tedious about it but you know it needs to be done (e.g. doing your taxes ).

This way you stop trying to find valuable things to do and start finding the value in the things you are already doing. 

2. Practice The Pomodoro Technique To Boost Your Focus

Avoid task hopping by using the Pomodoro technique . The idea is to choose one task and make the small commitment of spending 25 minutes completely focused on it, followed by short breaks of 5 minutes. After four cycles, allow yourself a break of 30 minutes.

This technique will only work if you set your environment to avoid interruptions, whether external like constant pings on Slack, or internal like your own thoughts and emotions. I would like to focus on the latter since it’s much easier to shut down an app and not so easy to ease the mind. 

Before you go into your deep work mode , take a few breaths and assess if that task triggers any discomfort on you. 

For instance, while working on a presentation for your directors, you have a persistent voice in the back of your mind saying “I am not good at this”. According to a study , if this is left unaddressed, this thought can cause a bad mood, procrastination, and/or self-doubt — a feeling associated with characteristics of imposter syndrome .

Take a moment to acknowledge your emotions or thoughts by writing it down. From there, you can either decide to find closure, or put it to rest for now, and bring your attention back to your focus (the NOW task).

Conscious Tip: Keep a journal (analog or digital!) to write down any thoughts or emotions that came through while focusing on a task. This will help you increase your self-awareness and understand what initiatives trigger discomfort and what motivates you.

3. Use The Eisenhower Matrix To Prioritize And Delegate 

One way of improving self-management is by prioritizing your urgent and important tasks. The Eisenhower Matrix can help you achieve that and also understand what can be delegated. It’s split into four boxes:  

• Important/Urgent 
• Important/Not Urgent 
• Not Important/Urgent 
• Not important/Not-Urgent.

Below is an example of how it can be used:

The key when using this technique is to reflect and identify which quadrant you spend the majority of your time. If you spent too much time on tasks that are Urgent and Important, you will end up being burnt out, stressed, and continually putting out fires instead of being proactive.

On the other hand, if you spend most of your time on Not Urgent and Not Important tasks, that means that you are not in the center/in control of your life, being irresponsible and dependent on other people or institutions for your basic needs. 

Conscious Tip: At the end of the week, sit down for the last hour to evaluate how this system worked for you. Ideally, you want to be working on tasks that are on the Not Urgent/ Important quadrant which means you are focusing on your vision, mission, and things that you can control. 

4. Learn To Say No To Stay True To Your Goals

When you say yes to another project or to help a coworker on something “quickly,” it means you are effectively saying no to the tasks you have already prioritized. Take your time before committing to doing another task. Sometimes, saying “Can I get back to you on this?” gives you the opportunity to delegate, research more about the new task, or ask the experts for more information. 

Conscious Tip: Improve your self-esteem and your confidence by evaluating your own worth and learning to say ‘no’ in certain circumstances. 

Self-Management Is A Work In Progress

A successful self-management strategy is a multi-year process and it is in constant evolution. It takes time for you to find which prioritization and productivity styles work for you and what which ones need more time to prosper.  

Start small by trying out one of the techniques today for a month. These tips should help you do more, acknowledge what you get done, be grateful, correct your course as needed, and be a better person at home and at work. 

Next: The Top 5 Blockers To Your Productivity (And How To Hack Each One

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Unlocking Your Potential: Mastering Self-Management Skills for Personal and Professional Success

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Have you ever found yourself wondering how some people seem to have it all under control? They’re the ones who always meet deadlines, keep their cool in stressful situations, and still find time for a personal life. What’s their secret? It’s simple: self-management skills.

Self-management isn’t just about getting things done. It’s about managing your time, emotions, and priorities in a way that maximizes your productivity and keeps your stress levels low. Think of it as being the CEO of your own life. You’re in charge of your decisions, actions, and reactions. And just like a skilled CEO, you need a set of tools to manage everything effectively.

In a world where 24 hours never seem enough, mastering self-management skills is more important than ever. A study by the American Psychological Association found that 61% of adults cite managing their time as a significant stressor. This is where the power of self-management comes into play. By harnessing these skills, you’re not just improving your efficiency; you’re enhancing your quality of life.

In this article, we’re going to dive deep into the realm of self-management. Whether you’re a business mogul, a creative freelancer, or a stay-at-home parent, these skills are universal and transformative. We’ll explore what self-management really means, why it’s essential, and how you can develop and refine these skills in your everyday life.

So, let’s embark on this journey together. By the end of this read, you’ll have a toolkit brimming with strategies, examples, and practical tips to elevate your self-management game. And the best part? You’ll start seeing results in both your personal and professional life. Let’s turn those stressful 24 hours into a day of accomplishments and fulfillment.

What Is Self-Management, and Why Does It Matter to You?

Self-management might seem like just another buzzword in the sea of productivity jargon. Yet, it’s far more crucial to your success than you might initially think. At its core, self-management is about taking control of your actions, emotions, and time, ensuring you’re the master of your own life, both personally and professionally. Let’s delve into what this really means and why it’s absolutely essential for you.

Definition and Importance

Self-management is the skill that enables you to direct your own activities towards the achievement of your objectives without needing constant supervision or guidance. It combines time management, emotional regulation, goal setting, and self-motivation to empower you to perform at your best.

• Self-discipline and autonomy are at the heart of self-management. It’s about making informed decisions that align with your long-term goals, rather than being swayed by momentary distractions or impulses.
• Emotional intelligence plays a pivotal role, as managing your emotions effectively prevents stress from undermining your performance and well-being.

Understanding and mastering self-management transforms the way you work and live. It’s not just about ticking off tasks on your to-do list; it’s about doing the right tasks at the right time, in alignment with your deepest values and ambitions.

The Impact of Self-Management on Your Success

Effective self-management doesn’t just influence how much you can get done in a day; it fundamentally affects the trajectory of your career and personal life.

Here are a few ways how:

• Improved productivity : By prioritizing tasks and managing time effectively, you accomplish more with less effort.
• Enhanced resilience : Managing your emotions and stress levels helps you navigate challenges more smoothly, making you more resilient in the face of adversity.
• Better decision-making : With a clear understanding of your goals and priorities, you’re equipped to make decisions that propel you forward.

To illustrate, consider the story of a marketing professional who once struggled with meeting deadlines and managing client expectations. By adopting self-management techniques, such as setting clear priorities, breaking tasks into manageable chunks, and practicing mindfulness to stay focused and calm, they were able to transform their approach to work. This not only led to a significant increase in client satisfaction but also opened up opportunities for career advancement.

Clarify What Self-Management Is

It’s crucial to recognize that self-management is not about micromanaging every second of your day. Rather, it’s about understanding your priorities and values and aligning your daily actions with them. This means saying no to tasks that don’t serve your goals and saying yes to activities that move you closer to your aspirations.

• For professionals, this might mean delegating tasks that others can do so you can focus on what you do best.
• For creatives, it involves setting aside uninterrupted time for deep work, away from the distractions of emails and social media.

In every aspect, self-management empowers you to live and work intentionally, making conscious choices about how you spend your time and energy.

Discuss Its Relevance in Everyday Life and Professional Settings

Self-management skills are universally applicable and critically important, whether you’re leading a team, running a business, or simply trying to juggle the demands of everyday life.

• In a business context, self-management leads to better leadership, as you’re able to model the discipline and focus you want to see in your team.
• For individual contributors, it means being able to manage workload effectively , meet deadlines, and contribute to projects in a meaningful way.

In essence, self-management is about taking charge of your life, leading by example, and making the most of the opportunities that come your way. By mastering these skills, you not only enhance your professional success but also improve your personal well-being and satisfaction.

Unlocking the Power of Self-Management: Key Strategies for Everyday Success

In the quest to master self-management, adopting certain strategies can make a world of difference in your daily life. Whether you’re navigating the demands of a bustling professional environment or striving for personal growth, these core strategies are your roadmap to achieving more with less stress.

Essential Self-Management Strategies

Effective self-management is built on a foundation of key practices that steer you towards achieving your goals while maintaining balance.

Here are some strategies to incorporate into your routine:

• Set Clear, Achievable Goals : Break down your long-term aspirations into short-term objectives. This makes them more manageable and gives you a clear direction. Remember, a goal without a plan is just a wish.
• Prioritize Tasks : Not all tasks are created equal. Use the Eisenhower Box or a similar tool to distinguish between what’s urgent and what’s important. This will help you focus on activities that align with your goals.
• Time Blocking : Dedicate specific blocks of time to different activities. By assigning tasks to specific time slots, you’ll reduce the temptation to multitask, leading to higher efficiency and lower stress levels.
• Mindfulness and Reflection : Regularly take stock of your emotional and mental state. Mindfulness techniques can help you stay focused, while self-reflection can provide insights into how your actions align with your personal and professional goals.

Example : Consider a project manager juggling multiple projects with tight deadlines. By setting clear, achievable goals for each project, prioritizing tasks based on urgency and importance, allocating specific times for deep work, and reflecting on their progress, they can enhance their productivity while maintaining a healthy work-life balance .

Tips for Implementation:

• Start your day by listing your top priorities.
• Use digital tools or planners for time blocking.
• Allocate time for breaks and self-reflection to avoid burnout.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Even with the best intentions, you might encounter obstacles on your path to effective self-management.

Here are some common challenges and strategies to overcome them:

• Procrastination : This is often a result of feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start. Break tasks into smaller, more manageable steps and start with the easiest one to build momentum.
• Distractions : The digital world offers endless distractions. Identify your main sources of distraction and set boundaries. Use apps that limit your use of social media or block distracting websites during work hours.
• Time Management : Feeling like there’s never enough time in the day is a common issue. Audit how you spend your time for a week. You might discover time sinks that you can eliminate or reduce.
• Staying Motivated : Motivation ebbs and flows. Connect your tasks to your larger goals or values to find intrinsic motivation. Reward yourself for completing tasks to maintain momentum.
• For procrastination, try the Pomodoro technique : work for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break.
• Create a designated workspace to minimize distractions and signal to your brain that it’s time to focus.
• Use time tracking apps to gain insights into where your time goes and adjust accordingly.

By implementing these strategies and adjusting them to fit your personal and professional life, you’ll find that mastering self-management is not only possible but also incredibly rewarding. It’s about making intentional choices that align with your goals, leading to a more productive, balanced, and fulfilling life.

Refining and Sustaining Your Self-Management Journey

As you navigate the path of enhancing your self-management skills, remember that this journey is as much about growth and adaptation as it is about achieving your immediate goals. Let’s explore the cyclical process of feedback and adjustment, the long-term benefits awaiting you, and the importance of patience and persistence. Finally, we’ll set forth actionable next steps to ensure you embark on this transformative journey with clarity and purpose.

Feedback and Adjustment Process

The journey of self-improvement is iterative. Seeking feedback on your self-management practices is crucial for identifying areas of strength and those requiring refinement. Regular self-assessment, coupled with insights from peers, mentors, or coaches, can illuminate the effectiveness of your strategies and highlight opportunities for adjustment.

• Self-Assessment : Periodically review your goals and the strategies you’ve employed to meet them. Ask yourself what’s working, what isn’t, and why.
• Feedback from Others : Constructive criticism from those you trust can provide external perspectives you might overlook. Embrace this feedback as a valuable tool for growth.

Long-term Benefits

Mastering self-management skills offers far-reaching benefits that extend beyond immediate productivity gains or stress reduction.

These skills lay the foundation for:

• Career Advancement : Enhanced decision-making and prioritization abilities can propel you to new heights in your professional life, opening doors to leadership roles and opportunities.
• Personal Growth : Committing to self-management fosters a mindset of continuous learning and self-reflection, essential components of personal development.
• Improved Mental Health : By managing stress more effectively and aligning your actions with your values, you’ll experience greater emotional well-being.
• Stronger Relationships : Effective self-management also improves your ability to maintain healthy boundaries and invest time and energy into nurturing significant relationships.

Encouragement for Patience and Persistence

Remember, developing robust self-management skills is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s normal to encounter setbacks as you strive to integrate new habits and practices into your life. Be patient with yourself and recognize that each challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow. Persistence, coupled with a compassionate approach to self-improvement, will ensure you remain committed to your journey, even when the going gets tough.

Actionable Next Steps

Ready to take your self-management skills to the next level?

Here are some actionable steps to get you started:

• Identify One Strategy to Implement : Choose one self-management strategy that resonates with you and commit to integrating it into your daily routine.
• Set Specific, Measurable Goals : Clearly define what success looks like for your chosen strategy. Setting measurable goals will help you track your progress and stay motivated.
• Seek Support : Whether it’s joining a community of like-minded individuals, finding a mentor, or working with a coach, don’t underestimate the power of support in your self-improvement journey.
• Reflect and Adjust Regularly : Set aside time for regular reflection on your progress and be prepared to adjust your strategies as needed.

By embracing these steps, you’re not just committing to improving your self-management skills; you’re embarking on a lifelong journey of personal and professional growth. Let’s take this step forward together, with determination, openness to change, and a steadfast commitment to unlocking our full potential.

Conclusion: The Journey Towards Mastery

In the journey of life, mastering self-management is akin to navigating a ship with precision and care. It’s about steering through the waves of daily responsibilities, emotional challenges, and time constraints with grace and efficiency. By embracing the strategies discussed, from setting clear goals to practicing mindfulness and overcoming common obstacles, you’re not just surviving the day; you’re thriving in it.

Remember, the essence of self-management lies in making intentional choices that align with your deepest values and aspirations. It’s a continuous journey of growth, learning, and adaptation. Start by implementing one strategy at a time, and gradually, you’ll build a resilient, productive, and fulfilling life.

We invite you to share your journey, challenges, and victories in mastering self-management. Your experiences can inspire and enlighten others, creating a ripple effect of positive change. And if you’re eager to explore further, countless resources await to guide you deeper into this transformative path.

Let’s embark on this journey with determination and curiosity, knowing that each step we take is a step towards unlocking our full potential. The power to manage ourselves effectively is the greatest tool we have in achieving personal and professional success. Let’s harness it together.

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11 Self-Management Skills and How to Develop Them

Discover the importance of self-management skills. Dive into practical tips and real-world examples to enhance your personal growth and productivity.

Self-awareness. Prioritization. Adaptability. Discipline.

These aren’t mere buzzwords but the essential skills every person needs to navigate the complexities of modern life.

But where do you begin? And how can you strategize to harness these skills efficiently?

In this article, we delve deep into the art of self-management, outlining its importance and how it could be the transformative element you need this year.

What are self-management skills?

Self-management skills are the tools and behaviors that individuals use to manage their personal and professional activities. These skills give you the ability to regulate and control your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors effectively in different situations.

Self-management skills can be pivotal. They  improve productivity  and reduce stress, among other benefits. Awareness of your feelings and actions makes you better equipped to handle the demands and challenges of your personal and professional worlds. It also helps you maintain clarity so you can make smarter decisions.

At the end of the day, self-management translates to a healthier, less stressed-out you, making these skills invaluable for holistic well-being and success. When you’re less stressed and more poised you’re also in a better position to interact and  collaborate with others  successfully and be more creative.

11 self-management skills and how to improve them

While there are numerous skills under the “self-management” umbrella, we’ll focus on 11 of the most practical and universal ones here. These are the skills you can start developing now to build a foundation of better productivity and mental toughness.

1. Time management

Time management  is the ability to plan and control how you spend your daily hours to accomplish your goals. It includes prioritizing, setting goals, planning ahead, and performing tasks both efficiently and by their deadlines.

Ways to develop your time-management skills

You can develop time-management skills by:

• Prioritizing tasks : Begin by listing all the tasks you have. Rank them based on their urgency and importance. Tackle the highest-priority tasks first, allocating specific chunks of time to work on them.
• Using the right tools and techniques : Use tools like  calendars ,  planners , and  apps like Motion  to help organize your tasks. Methods like the  Pomodoro Technique , which involves working in focused intervals with short breaks, can boost your productivity, too.
• Setting specific goals :  Goal-setting  is an essential aspect of effective time management, as it provides clarity and focus, both of which help facilitate optimal planning and allocation of time. Instead of having vague goals, like “Work on the project,” set specific goals, like “Complete the first draft of the project by 5 PM.”

2. Self-motivation

Self-motivation is the inner drive that propels individuals to act on their own accord without the need for external influence or persuasion. Cultivating it is paramount for anyone seeking to take charge of their life and achieve substantial success.

Ways to develop your self-motivation skills

You can develop self-motivation by:

• Identifying your personal values and interests : Understand what matters most to you and align your actions with those things.
• Visualizing success : Visualize achieving your goals. Engage in positive mental imagery to keep your motivation high and maintain focus on the outcomes you desire.
• Practicing self-compassion and positive self-talk : Be kind to yourself and use positive self-talk. Encourage yourself through challenges, and maintain a positive outlook to sustain your motivation.

3. Decision-making

Decision-making is a crucial skill that involves evaluating multiple alternatives and choosing the most suitable option based on the current circumstances and desired outcomes. It’s an indispensable trait for effective leadership, problem-solving, and navigating complex life situations.

Adeptness in decision-making can significantly elevate your personal and professional achievements.

‎Ways to develop your decision-making skills

You can develop your decision-making skills by:

• Gathering relevant information : Collect all necessary information that will help you make an informed decision. Ensure your data is accurate, updated, and comprehensive to make well-thought-out choices.
• Scenario planning : Explore different scenarios and their outcomes to improve your understanding of and preparedness for them.
• Seeking advice and feedback : Consult with trusted individuals who can provide you with valuable insights into your choices. Receptiveness to feedback can significantly improve your decision-making skills.

4. Problem-solving

Problem-solving is a critical self-management skill that involves identifying issues, analyzing potential solutions, and implementing effective resolutions. It’s a multifaceted process that requires analytical thinking, creativity, and effective decision-making.

Ways to develop your problem-solving skills

You can develop your problem-solving skills by:

• Learning various frameworks : Familiarize yourself with different problem-solving frameworks and methodologies, like the Scientific Method,  Six Sigma , or Design Thinking.
• Using technology : Utilize software and other digital tools to help you organize, analyze, and solve problems more efficiently.
• Improving your emotional intelligence : Problem-solving can be frustrating. Developing patience and resilience can help you navigate challenges more effectively.

5. Goal setting

Goal setting is a crucial skill that provides direction, motivation, and a clear focus. It starts with careful consideration of what you want to achieve, followed by specific steps and hard work to bring those desires to fruition.

Ways to develop your goal-setting skills

You can develop your goal-setting skills by:

• Visualizing success : Regularly visualize yourself achieving your goals to reinforce your commitment to them and help maintain a positive outlook. Visual reminders of your goals can provide daily motivation and keep your objectives top-of-mind.
• Using the SMART framework : Establish goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound to ensure their clarity and attainability. Documenting your goals can provide a clear roadmap and boost your motivation.
• Breaking down large goals into smaller ones : Divide big, long-term goals into smaller, more manageable milestones to create a step-by-step plan toward achievement.

6. Self-awareness

Self-awareness is a foundational aspect of self-management. It begins with an introspective look into one’s inner workings, fostering an understanding that paves the way for personal growth and improved interactions with others.

‎You can develop self-awareness by:

• Engaging in reflective practices : Use journaling to document your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to various situations and provide insights into your behaviors and emotional responses.
• Seeking feedback:  Collect feedback from peers, supervisors, subordinates, and others to gain a holistic view of how you are perceived. Openness to constructive criticism can provide you with valuable insights into areas for improvement.
• Using self-assessment tools : Tools like the  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator  or the  9 Enneagram Types  can provide insights into your personality traits and behavioral tendencies. Understanding yourself better can be a stepping stone to increased self-awareness.

7. Emotional regulation

Emotional regulation is a conduit to balanced reactions, improved relationships, and a robust sense of self-management. It fosters a composed and proactive approach to both your personal and professional life.

You can improve your emotional regulation by:

• Practicing mindfulness and meditation : Practice meditation to foster a sense of calm and a balanced perspective, which can be instrumental in emotional regulation. Additionally, research shows that mindfulness can affect our brain and mental networks and  change how we process things . It helps us become more aware of ourselves and improve our control of our emotions and actions.
• Responding, not reacting : Take a moment to pause and reflect before responding to emotional triggers. Think through the potential outcome of each possible response to ensure the one you choose aligns with your long-term goals.

8. Task initiation

Task initiation is the ability to begin tasks independently and without procrastinating. It’s an essential component of self-management, as it directly influences productivity and goal attainment.

You can improve your task initiation skills via:

• Prioritization management:  Clearly identify and rank your tasks based on their importance and urgency, as this helps you focus on starting — and completing — the most critical ones first. This structured approach can help prevent you from feeling overwhelmed by long to-do lists, making it easier to kickstart tasks.
• Time blocking : Dedicating specific blocks of time in advance to get things done can encourage you to start tasks. This  structured approach minimizes procrastination  by setting clear intentions and deadlines. Time blocking can also help you create a routine and a sense of accountability, improving your ability to  overcome procrastination .

9. Stress management

A staggering  83% of US workers  suffer from work-related stress, with 25% saying their job is the number-one stressor in their lives. With stress as one of the causes of high blood pressure, obesity, and depression, being able to avoid it is a useful self-management skill.

‎You can improve your stress management abilities by:

• Engaging in physical activity : Regular exercise is a fantastic stress reliever, as it promotes the release of endorphins, which are natural mood lifters.
• Identifying (and eliminating) the stressors in your life : Recognize and list what typically stresses you out. Understanding your stress triggers can help you anticipate challenges and come up with coping strategies.
• Taking naps:  A short nap can help restore your energy and rejuvenate your mind.  Research suggests  that it can also improve your mood and help you manage negative emotions, especially when dealing with acute stressors.

10. Adaptability

Adaptability is the ability to efficiently and effectively adjust to new conditions and changes in your environment. It’s an essential self-management skill, as it helps you navigate unexpected situations, embrace new ideas, and cope with the uncertainties and challenges of life.

You can improve your adaptability by:

• Encouraging yourself to take risks:  When you take risks, you step outside your comfort zone. This is where learning and personal growth happen. You learn to deal with uncertainty and gain new experiences that can be valuable in your future decision-making.

Consider setting stretch goals , which challenge you to think big — beyond your typical capabilities. This can be a huge driver of adaptability.

• Staying informed : Stay updated on new developments in your field or area of interest. This knowledge will make you more comfortable and prepared to adapt to new situations.

For example, participating in industry forums, conferences, and professional groups can provide you with first-hand knowledge from other industry professionals on new best practices, challenges, and solutions in your field.

11. Organizational skills

Improving your organizational skills is essential for effectively managing your time, tasks, and resources. It’s a key self-management skill that can reduce stress and boost your productivity, both personally and professionally.

‎You can improve your organizational skills by:

• Using digital tools : Harness the power of tools like Motion to help you keep track of your tasks, appointments, and deadlines. Motion’s intuitive features analyze your tasks, deadlines, and priorities to auto-prioritize your to-do list. That means you get the time you need to complete each of your tasks.
• Regularly decluttering : Keep your workspace tidy. A clean desk can mirror and encourage a clear mind, making it easier to prioritize your tasks.

Research shows that a clean desk can improve focus, which means it improves your ability to do your job — and be productive at it. Employees who work at clean desks have been found to be able to work without losing focus for  more than seven minutes  longer than those who don’t work at clean desks.

Improve your self-management skills with Motion

Mastering self-management is challenging, especially when balancing personal motivations, external pressures, and daily distractions.

But tools like Motion can make it easier.

With Motion’s intuitive features, not only can you streamline your tasks, but you can also develop and hone your self-management skills.  Motion’s Task Manager , for instance, helps you keep track of your tasks and priorities, making it easier to manage your time and workload.

Cultivate and boost your self-management skills by integrating Motion into your routine.  Sign up for a free 7-day trial .

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50 Examples of Self-Management Skills

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Self-management refers to your ability to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in different situations and towards achieving personal goals.

It is primarily used in two contexts:

• Healthcare and elderly care: In the caring industries, the term is used to describe patients engaging in self-care activities that maintain their health or manage their conditions.
• Personal and professional development: Self-management in this context is about achieving success, goal-setting improving productivity , and achieving progress.

Understanding self-management means recognizing it as a combination of skills such as time management, decision-making, healthy behaviors, stress management, and self-control.

Self-Management Examples

1. Time Management Time management involves planning out how much time to spend on specific activities. By successfully managing your time, you’ll be able to optimize your time and increase your overall productivity and effectiveness in any tasks you do.

2. Goal Setting Goal setting is the process of identifying tangible objectives you want to achieve to feel successful. A person who can manage themselves well is able to set goals themselves, perhaps through a SMART Goals framework . They don’t rely on others to set their goals. Furthermore, they will be able to track their progress toward their goals.

3. Prioritization Prioritization is the act of arranging tasks or situations according to their relevance or importance . It ensures that your valuable resources (namely, time and energy) are effectively utilized. For example, you might prioritize your most important tasks for the start of the day when you feel fresh.

4. Healthy Eating Healthy eating involves the consistent intake of a balanced diet that provides essential nutrients our bodies need. Vital to self-management, it supports overall physical health, boosts the immune system, and improves mental well-being. If you don’t take care of this, you could become physically unwell.

5. Daily Exercise Daily exercise refers to engaging in physical activities regularly, such as walking, jogging, cycling, or doing yoga. We need to make this a habit in order to maintain our physical strength, balance our moods, and boost our overall health. Incorporating daily exercise into your routine paves the way for a healthier lifestyle, promoting longevity.

6. Positive Habits Positive habits include practices that contribute meaningfully to personal growth and holistic well-being, such as maintaining regular sleep patterns, practicing mindfulness, or giving time for recreation. They play an essential role in self-management by enhancing mental health, improving self-esteem, and cultivating personal resilience.

7. Quality Sleep Quality sleep refers to getting enough deep, restful sleep, which is vital for the body to regenerate and recover from daily activities. As a key factor in self-management, it enhances cognitive functions , promotes physical health, and regulates mood. Ensuring quality sleep forms the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle, benefiting both your physical and mental well-being.

8. Healthy Moderation Moderation is the practice of avoiding excesses in behaviors and consumption, ensuring a balanced lifestyle. An essential aspect of self-management, it promotes health, prevents unhealthy habits, and sustains well-being. Living in moderation ensures you avoid the pitfalls of overindulgence, supporting a balanced, healthy life.

9. Decision-Making Decision-making is the ability to make smart choices by identifying and choosing alternatives, ideally based on your values and preferences. A person who is effective at self-management can, firstly, make decisive choices, and secondly, make choices that help them reach their long-term goals .

10. Problem-Solving Skills Problem-solving involves finding solutions to difficult or complex issues. This critical self-management skill allows you to address challenges effectively, promoting progress and growth.

11. Self-Motivation Self-motivation refers to the inner drive to achieve, produce, develop, and keep moving forward. A cornerstone of self-management, it helps you maintain focus and persistence in the face of obstacles.

12. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand, manage, and effectively express your, and others’, emotions. It significantly aids in self-management by improving interpersonal relationships and managing your own emotional state.

13. Stress Management Stress Management includes techniques and strategies to handle stress effectively. With this skill, you can maintain balance and continue to function well even under pressure. The key is to making sure you get enough relaxation that you don’t burn out, which would dramatically decrease your productivity.

14. Self-Discipline Self-discipline involves the ability to stay on-task and consistent in your behaviors, even when you don’t feel like it. It is crucial for self-management as it enhances focus, efficiency, and fosters habit formation.

15. Accountability Accountability is the acceptance of responsibility for your actions. As a core aspect of self-management, it fosters trust and credibility, while also increasing personal and professional growth.

16. Self-Awareness Self-awareness refers to the awareness of your own thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and motivations. You need the awareness of yourself before you can achieve management of yourself.

17. Assertiveness Assertiveness refers to the confidence to express your needs, desires, ideas and feelings in an open, honest and respectful manner. This skill is key in managing your own affairs and preventing you from being waylaid by others. But remember, effectively using this skill means you need to be always respectful and seek out fairness for all, not just treating others unfairly.

18. Delayed Gratification You need to be able to delay your own gratification in order to achieve longer-time ambitions. For example, if you want to lose weight, you need to delay eating until dinner in order to achieve your big, overarching, ambition (rather than succumbing to the instantaneous desire to eat that snack!)

19. Self-Assessment Self-assessment is the process of evaluating your own skills, qualities, and performances. As a self-management skill, it fosters continuous learning and improvement by recognizing your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for growth.

20. Active Listening Active listening refers to fully concentrating on a speaker, understanding their message, responding thoughtfully, and avoiding distraction. This self-management skill assists in gaining a deeper understanding of situations, improving relationships, and making informed decisions.

21. Tailored Communication Tailored communication refers to the action of changing how you communicate in order to suit the needs of your audience. For example, you might need to simplify your explanations for a novice. This is all about managing your own message to achieve your goals.

22. Selective Attention Selective attention refers to the ability to direct your attention towards a specific task, excluding all distractions. These are vital self-management skills that enhance productivity and efficiency and to keep out any extraneous information that’s not necessary for achieving your goals.

23. Adaptability Adaptability is the ability to adjust swiftly to new conditions, tasks, and individuals. A core aspect of self-management, it enhances problem-solving, decision-making, and resilience.

24. Self-Care Self-care involves activities and practices that you undertake to relax, rejuvenate, and maintain your health. It is crucial to self-management as it supports mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

25. Resourcefulness Resourcefulness is the ability to cope with difficult or unexpected situations. We often teach this to students as a fundamental skill in self-management: e.g. “see if you can answer this question yourself before approaching the teacher.”

26. Proactivity Proactivity implies initiating changes rather than reacting to events. Without this skill, you’ll likely fall into procrastination and not sufficiently manage your own to-do list. Proactivity boosts productivity and reduces stress by allowing you to control situations to your advantage.

27. Personal Branding Personal branding is the conscious effort to create an impression of yourself in the eyes of others based on how you present yourself in-person, on social media, and so on. It’s an essential self-management skill as it helps differentiate you in professional settings and aids in career growth.

28. Networking Networking is the process of interacting with others to exchange information and build professional relationships. As a self-management skill, it enables career development through opportunities, collaborations, and knowledge sharing.

29. Multitasking Multitasking is the ability to handle more than one task simultaneously. While it’s debated whether multitasking actually achieves greater productivity, it can occasionally increase productivity in situations where tasks are not cognitively demanding.

30. Learning from Experiences This refers to the willingness and ability to learn from mistakes, errors, and other experiences, and subsequently apply that learning to perform successfully under new or first-time conditions. In terms of self-management, this skill enables you to be adaptable, solve new problems, and embrace change.

31. Initiative Initiative is the drive to step forward and take action without explicit instruction , seizing opportunities that others might miss. This capability fosters proactive behaviors, encourages innovation, and prompts you to take charge of situations, thus opening more doors for success. With initiative, you’re not waiting for opportunities to come to you – you’re seeking them out, demonstrating leadership, and driving your improvement.

32. Independence Independence is the ability to complete tasks and make decisions without reliance on others, emphasizing self-reliance. The trait underpins self-management as it enables you to take control of your life, make important decisions independently, and carry out tasks effectively without needing constant supervision.

33. Introspection Introspection involves examining and reflecting on one’s own mental and emotional processes for the purpose of self-understanding. By practicing introspection, you can identify areas in need of growth, align your actions with your values, and foster a healthier relationship with yourself and others.

34. Patience Patience is the capacity to tolerate delay, difficulty, or annoyance without getting angry or upset, and wait for things without frustration. In self-management, patience plays a paramount role, encouraging thoughtful decision-making, reducing stress, and contributing to maintaining positive interpersonal relationships.

35. Ethical Judgment Ethical judgment involves making decisions based on moral principles, standards, and values. This quality is fundamental to self-management because it guides behavior, fosters accountability, and enhances credibility in both professional and personal capacities.

36. Reliability Reliability is a trait that defines a person’s consistency in delivering results and sticking to commitments. It is a crucial self-management skill, as it builds others’ confidence in you, so you need to know how to do it! By being reliable, you are trusted to keep your word, strengthening your personal and professional relationships.

37. Growth Mindset A growth mindset is characterized by the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work, and the love of learning. It is a fundamental part of self-management, as people with this trait will continuously learn and improve throughout your lifetime.

38. Receptiveness to Constructive Feedback Receptiveness to constructive feedback involves the willingness to accept and implement feedback to improve personal or professional effectiveness. It’s related to self-management because you need to be able to take on feedback in order to improve yourself and constantly become better .

39. Self-Promotion Self-promotion involves strategically showcasing and communicating your skills, accomplishments, and personal brand to others. If you master this skill, you will open up new opportunities for yourself, boost your own visibility, and ultimately achieve career and personal advancement.

40. Organizational Skills Organization involves creating order and structure in various aspects of your life. It is vital for effective self-management as it optimizes productivity, reduces stress, and helps in achieving goals.

41. Task Delegation Task delegation is about assigning responsibilities to others based on their skills and capabilities. It’s a management skill that is crucial for leaders, and while it appears more like a group management skill, it’s at core a self-management skill for leaders as well, because task delegation is needed for leaders in order to get all of his or her projects complete in time.

42. Attention to Detail Attention to detail relates to the ability to carefully observe and consider all elements of a situation or task. This skill is paramount in ensuring quality, avoiding your own unforced errors, and ensuring you don’t miss important information.

43. Resilience Resilience refers to your capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It allows you to adapt to adverse situations and continue to make progress towards your goals, even when barriers and obstacles are placed in your way – which will, of course, happen to us all!

44. Flexibility Flexibility is the willingness to adapt to new circumstances, changes, and unexpected events. It’s one of the more difficult tasks because most people like consistency and predictability. Nonetheless, this skill of flexibility allows you to adapt to changing circumstances in order to meet your goals.

45. Hydration Hydration is the practice of maintaining an optimal level of body fluids by consuming suitable liquids, primarily water, throughout the day. Integral to self-management, it ensures bodily functions operate efficiently, promotes cognitive health, and aids in digestion. By staying well-hydrated, you help your body perform effectively, thereby maintaining your overall health and well-being.

46. Mental Health Care Mental health care involves cognitive, emotional, and psychological well-being practices, such as regular therapy, mindfulness, or relaxation exercises. Properly caring for your mental health allows you to better manage emotional upheavals, promotes a positive outlook, and contributes to robust overall wellness.

47. Regular Check-Ups Regular check-ups involve routine medical examinations to monitor overall health and detect any potential health issues early. An essential self-management practice, it allows for preventative care, ensures timely treatment, and provides peace of mind. By scheduling regular check-ups, you actively take responsibility for your health, keeping potential risks in check and ensuring a healthier lifestyle.

48. Avoiding Harmful Substances Avoiding harmful substances means steering clear of materials or indulgences that negatively affect health, such as fast food, sugar-loaded drinks, or excessive caffeine. By avoiding harmful substances, you are making choices that safeguard your health and boost your overall well-being.

49. Mindful Eating Mindful eating involves paying full attention to the experience of eating, observing how the food makes you feel and the physical hunger and satiety cues it triggers. By eating mindfully, you learn to listen to your body’s needs, which can lead to better nutritional choices and a healthier lifestyle.

50. Regular Movement Regular movement, beyond structured exercise, means integrating physical motion into your everyday routine, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or parking a bit farther to increase walking steps. Through prioritizing regular movement, you incorporate healthful habits into your routine, ensuring improved physical well-being, energy levels, and mood.

Self-management forms the foundation of personal and professional success. By optimizing qualities such as time management, goal setting, critical thinking , and adaptability, among others, we find ourselves better prepared to navigate the complexities of modern life.

The benefits of self-management extend to improved decision-making abilities, increased productivity, heightened emotional intelligence, and overall enhancement of one’s life quality.

Whether in overcoming personal obstacles or propelling professional growth, the skills associated with self-management prove to be indispensable. Therefore, nurturing and honing these skills should be an ongoing commitment, offering not only immediate advantages but also serving as a lasting investment for future triumphs.

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5 Tips for Better Self-Management

Learn self-management skills and strategies to better take control of your life..

Updated December 3, 2023 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• Self-management is being able to assess priorities, manage time, and hold yourself accountable.
• Being organized can support your efficiency and productivity.
• Showing yourself appreciation for your hard work can help you feel motivated to continue reaching your goals.

Cowritten by Sukhman Rekhi and Tchiki Davis.

Do you find yourself getting easily overwhelmed by your inexhaustible to-do list? Have you been in a situation where your frustration led you to tears? Has there been a time when you wanted to start eating a better diet but struggled to follow the plan? If this sounds like you, don’t worry—we’ve all been there. Sometimes our thoughts and emotions can overpower our self-control and lead to what we wouldn’t consider to be our proudest moments. But that’s why we’re here to help you understand the importance of self- management and how to become more mindful and productive .

The Practice of Self-Management

The practice of self-management includes being able to assess your priorities, manage your time , hold yourself accountable, follow through with the task at hand, and, most importantly, maintain your well-being (Hackman, 1986). Many of us may struggle with procrastination from time to time, especially when it comes to school assignments or mundane tasks at work. But we may also deal with procrastination in our home life.

Without healthy self-management, we may find it difficult to complete simple tasks (or big projects), achieve our goals, achieve self-growth and professional growth, and take care of our emotional well-being.

Self-Management Tips

Here are some self-management skills you may want to consider improving on if you haven’t already done so (Lorig & Holman, 2003; Grady & Gough, 2014).

Organization: Is your workspace messy? Do you find yourself having random sticky notes all over your home? When you’re at school, do you struggle to find a pen or pencil instantly? Organizing might sound like a tedious process, but being organized can support your efficiency and productivity . It can also help you feel less stressed the next time you have a meeting you’re in a rush for and need to find the keys to your car.

Self- motivation : As much as we want to be constantly motivated to do whatever we’re working toward, motivation usually ebbs and flows. This is why balancing work and rest is necessary. Self-motivation encourages us not only to take the initiative to work but to feel driven to accomplish tasks, too. Next time you’re feeling a bit unmotivated, you may want to reflect and find something that motivates you. Whether it’s the satisfaction of a job well done, being able to watch your favorite show after dinner, or treating yourself to a fun day at the beach, showing yourself appreciation for your hard work can help you feel motivated to continue reaching your goals.

Managing time: Without understanding time management , it can be rather tricky to practice self-management. Some examples of time management may include creating a calendar that lists out all of your important events and meetings, having a weekly plan that you regularly update with your to-do list, or even just working on one thing at a time so that you can focus your energy on the task or event at hand without feeling overwhelmed .

Self-care: If the goals of self-management are to better manage our thoughts, emotions, and actions so that we can thrive in our personal and professional lives, we cannot do this without taking the time to manage our stress, show ourselves appreciation, and incorporate rest and play into our hectic days. For example, have you ever found yourself working more than 40 hours a week while juggling family life and social obligations? More often than not, you may notice that your brain feels jumbled and you’re having a hard time getting anything done. Self-care is an essential way to combat feeling overworked and stressed. Whether it’s setting boundaries at work by not taking your tasks home with you, getting in 30 minutes of exercise a few times a week, or eating some delicious food while spending time with your loved ones, any form of self-care can enable us to have a more balanced and fulfilling lifestyle.

Regulating emotions: A healthy practice of self-management is to learn to be in tune with your emotions. For example, do you get anxious before a presentation at school? Do you have a supervisor who drives you just a little bit nutty? Is there something at home or work that makes you feel a bit sad? While it may feel like a waste of time to process emotions and take time for ourselves when we feel down or upset, it’s crucial to understand how our emotions affect us before they manifest into something bigger. If you’re nervous about a presentation, consider asking a family member or classmate to help you practice. Feeling annoyed by something at work? Try having a conversation with your work team or journaling about it. Is something else making you feel down in the dumps? You may want to try focusing on your strengths to boost your self-esteem or perhaps chat with a friend to feel supported. Once we understand what some of our underlying emotions are, we can manage them better and, thus, refocus our time and energy back on what is important. ​

Adapted from an article published by The Berkeley Well-Being Institute .

Grady, P. A., & Gough, L. L. (2014). Self-management: a comprehensive approach to management of chronic conditions. American journal of public health, 104(8), e25-e31.

Hackman, J. R. (1986). The psychology of self-management in organizations. American Psychological Association.

Lorig, K. R., & Holman, H. R. (2003). Self-management education: history, definition, outcomes, and mechanisms. Annals of behavioral medicine, 26(1), 1-7.

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. , is a consultant, writer, and expert on well-being technology.

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3.5 Prioritization: Self-Management of What You Do and When You Do It

Questions to Consider:

• Why is prioritization important?
• What are the steps involved in prioritization?
• How do I deal with situation where others’ priorities are not the same as my own?
• What do I do when priorities conflict?
• What are the best ways to make sure I complete tasks?

Prioritization: Self-Management of What You Do and When You Do It

Another key component in time management is that of prioritization. Prioritization can be thought of as ordering tasks and allotting time for them based on their identified needs or value.

This next section provides some insight into not only helping prioritize tasks and actions based on need and value, but also how to better understand the factors that contribute to prioritization.

How to Prioritize

The enemy of good prioritization is panic, or at least making decisions based on strictly emotional reactions. It can be all too easy to immediately respond to a problem as soon as it pops up without thinking of the consequences of your reaction and how it might impact other priorities. It is very natural for us to want to remove a stressful situation as soon as we can. We want the adverse emotions out of the way as quickly as possible. But when it comes to juggling multiple problems or tasks to complete, prioritizing them first may mean the difference between completing everything satisfactorily and completing nothing at all.

Make Certain You Understand the Requirements of Each Task

One of the best ways to make good decisions about the prioritization of tasks is to understand the requirements of each. If you have multiple assignments to complete and you assume one of those assignments will only take an hour, you may decide to put it off until the others are finished. Your assumption could be disastrous if you find, once you begin the assignment, that there are several extra components that you did not account for and the time to complete will be four times as long as you estimated. Or, one of the assignments may be dependent on the results of another—like participating in a study and then writing a report on the results. If you are not aware that one assignment depends upon the completion of the other before you begin, you could inadvertently do the assignments out of order and have to start over. Because of situations like this, it is critically important to understand exactly what needs to be done to complete a task before you determine its priority.

Make Decisions on Importance, Impact on Other Priorities, and Urgency

After you are aware of the requirements for each task, you can then decide your priorities based on the importance of the task and what things need to be finished in which order.

To summarize: the key components to prioritization are making certain you understand each task and making decisions based on importance, impact, and urgency.

To better see how things may need to be prioritized, some people make a list of the tasks they need to complete and then arrange them in a quadrant map based on importance and urgency. Traditionally this is called the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. Before becoming the 34th president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower served as the Allied forces supreme commander during World War II and said he used this technique to better prioritize the things he needed to get done.

In this activity you will begin by making a list of things you need or want to do today and then draw your own version of the grid below. Write each item in one of the four squares; choose the square that best describes it based on its urgency and its importance. When you have completed writing each the tasks in its appropriate square, you will see a prioritization order of your tasks. Obviously, those listed in the Important and Urgent square will be the things you need to finish first. After that will come things that are “important but not urgent,” followed by “not important, but urgent,” and finally “not urgent and not important.”

Who Is Driving Your Tasks?

Another thing to keep in mind when approaching time management is that while you may have greater autonomy in managing your own time, many of your tasks are being driven by a number of different individuals. These individuals are not only unaware of the other things you need to do, but they often have goals that are in conflict with your other tasks. This means that different instructors, your manager at work, or even your friends may be trying to assert their needs into your priorities. An example of this might be a boss that would like for you to work a few hours of overtime, but you were planning on using that time to do research for a paper.

Just like assessing the requirements and needs for each priority, doing the same with how others may be influencing your available time can be an important part of time management. In some cases, keeping others informed about your priorities may help avert possible conflicts (e.g., letting your boss know you will need time on a certain evening to study, letting your friends know you plan to do a journal project on Saturday but can do something on Sunday, etc.).

It will be important to be aware of how others can drive your priorities and for you to listen to your own good judgment. In essence, time management in college is as much about managing all the elements of your life as it is about managing time for class and to complete assignments.

Making the Tough Decision When It Is Needed

Occasionally, regardless of how much you have planned or how well you have managed your time, events arise where it becomes almost impossible to accomplish everything you need to by the time required. While this is very unfortunate, it simply cannot be helped. As the saying goes, “things happen.”

Finding yourself in this kind of situation is when prioritization becomes most important. You may find yourself in the uncomfortable position of only being able to complete one task or another in the time given. When this occurs with college assignments, the dilemma can be extremely stressful, but it is important to not feel overwhelmed by the anxiety of the situation so that you can make a carefully calculated decision based on the value and impact of your choice.

“What do you do when faced with priority conflicts?”

As an illustration, imagine a situation where you think you can only complete one of two assignments that are both important and urgent, and you must make a choice of which one you will finish and which one you will not. This is when it becomes critical to understand all the factors involved. While it may seem that whichever assignment is worth the most points to your grade is how you make the choice, there are actually a number of other attributes that can influence your decision in order to make the most of a bad situation. For example, one of the assignments may only be worth a minimal number of points toward your total grade, but it may be foundational to the rest of the course. Not finishing it, or finishing it late, may put other future assignments in jeopardy as well. Or the instructor for one of the courses might have a “late assignment” policy that is more forgiving—something that would allow you to turn in the work a little late without too much of a penalty.

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, the first step is to try to find a way to get everything finished, regardless of the challenges. If that simply cannot happen, the next immediate step would be to communicate with your instructors to let them know about the situation. They may be able to help you decide on a course of action, or they may have options you had not thought of. Only then can you make the choices about prioritizing in a tough situation.

The key here is to make certain you are aware of and understand all the ramifications to help make the best decision when the situation dictates you make a hard choice among priorities.

Completing the Tasks

Another important part of time management is to develop approaches that will help you complete tasks in a manner that is efficient and works for you. Most of this comes down to a little planning and being as informed about the specifics of each task as you can be.

Knowing What You Need to Do

As discussed in previous parts of this chapter, many learning activities have multiple components, and sometimes they must occur in a specific order. Additionally, some elements may not only be dependent on the order they are completed, but can also be dependent on how they are completed. To illustrate this we will analyze a task that is usually considered to be a simple one: attending a class session. In this analysis we will look at not only what must be accomplished to get the most out of the experience, but also at how each element is dependent upon others and must be done in a specific order. The graphic below shows the interrelationship between the different activities, many of which might not initially seem significant enough to warrant mention, but it becomes obvious that other elements depend upon them when they are listed out this way.

As you can see from the graphic above, even a task as simple as “going to class” can be broken down into a number of different elements that have a good deal of dependency on other tasks. One example of this is preparing for the class lecture by reading materials ahead of time in order to make the lecture and any complex concepts easier to follow. If you did it the other way around, you might miss opportunities to ask questions or receive clarification on the information presented during the lecture.

Understanding what you need to do and when you need to do it can be applied to any task, no matter how simple or how complex. Knowing what you need to do and planning for it can go a long way toward success and preventing unpleasant surprises.

Knowing How You Will Get It Done

After you have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to complete a task (or the component parts of a task), the next step is to create a plan for completing everything.

This may not be as easy or as simple as declaring that you will finish part one, then move on to part two, and so on. Each component may need different resources or skills to complete, and it is in your best interest to identify those ahead of time and include them as part of your plan.

A good analogy for this sort of planning is to think about it in much the same way you would preparing for a lengthy trip. With a long journey you probably would not walk out the front door and then decide how you were going to get where you were going. There are too many other decisions to be made and tasks to be completed around each choice. If you decided you were going by plane, you would need to purchase tickets, and you would have to schedule your trip around flight times. If you decided to go by car, you would need gas money and possibly a map or GPS device. What about clothes? The clothes you will need are dependent on how long will you be gone and what the climate will be like. If it far enough away that you will need to speak another language, you may need to either acquire that skill or at least come with something or someone to help you translate.

What follows is a planning list that can help you think about and prepare for the tasks you are about to begin.

What Resources Will You Need?

The first part of this list may appear to be so obvious that it should go without mention, but it is by far one of the most critical and one of the most overlooked. Have you ever planned a trip but forgotten your most comfortable pair of shoes or neglected to book a hotel room? If a missing resource is important, the entire project can come to a complete halt. Even if the missing resource is a minor component, it may still dramatically alter the end result.

Learning activities are much the same in this way, and it is also important to keep in mind that resources may not be limited to physical objects such as paper or ink. Information can be a critical resource as well. In fact, one of the most often overlooked aspects in planning by new college students is just how much research, reading, and information they will need to complete assignments.

For example, if you had an assignment in which you were supposed to compare and contrast a novel with a film adapted from that novel, it would be important to have access to both the movie and the book as resources. Your plans for completing the work could quickly fall apart if you learned that on the evening you planned to watch the film, it was no longer available.

What Skills Will You Need?

Poor planning or a bad assumption in this area can be disastrous, especially if some part of the task has a steep learning curve. No matter how well you planned the other parts of the project, if there is some skill needed that you do not have and you have no idea how long it will take to learn, it can be a bad situation.

Imagine a scenario where one of your class projects is to create a poster. It is your intent to use some kind of imaging software to produce professional-looking graphics and charts for the poster, but you have never used the software in that way before. It seems easy enough, but once you begin, you find the charts keep printing out in the wrong resolution. You search online for a solution, but the only thing you can find requires you to recreate them all over again in a different setting. Unfortunately, that part of the project will now take twice as long.

It can be extremely difficult to recover from a situation like that, and it could have been prevented by taking the time to learn how to do it correctly before you began or by at least including in your schedule some time to learn and practice.

Set Deadlines

Of course, the best way to approach time management is to set realistic deadlines that take into account which elements are dependent on which others and the order in which they should be completed. Giving yourself two days to write a 20- page work of fiction is not very realistic when even many professional authors average only 6 pages per day. Your intentions may be well founded, but your use of unrealistic deadlines will not be very successful.

Setting appropriate deadlines and sticking to them is very important—so much so that several sections in the rest of this chapter touch on effective deadline practices.

Be Flexible

It is ironic that the item on this list that comes just after a strong encouragement to make deadlines and stick to them is the suggestion to be flexible. The reason that being flexible has made this list is because even the best-laid plans and most accurate time management efforts can take an unexpected turn. The idea behind being flexible is to readjust your plans and deadlines when something does happen to throw things off. The worst thing you could do in such a situation is panic or just stop working because the next step in your careful planning has suddenly become a roadblock. The moment when you see that something in your plan may become an issue is when to begin readjusting your plan.

Adjusting a plan along the way is incredibly common. In fact, many professional project managers have learned that it seems something always happens or there is always some delay, and they have developed an approach to deal with the inevitable need for some flexibility. In essence, you could say that they are even planning for problems, mistakes, or delays from the very beginning, and they will often add a little extra time for each task to help ensure an issue does not derail the entire project or that the completion of the project does not miss the final due date.

“As you work through tasks, make certain you are always monitoring and adapting to ensure you complete them.”

Student Profile

“While in college, I recall an instance where I was awake for two nights in a row trying to cram for upcoming midterms. I quickly learned that trying to navigate through college while working full time posed a significant challenge. Because of inability to manage my responsibilities, my first year of college was quite miserable. I went through a lot of trial and error to find out that time management was the key. From my experiences, I have extrapolated three important components to this skill. First, knowing your values is imperative. Values will serve as a guide, which will help you to determine which actions bring you closer to your goals and those that don't. Second, know your constraints . Constraints (in form of time or other responsibilities) can help you set the parameter within which you can function efficiently. The last component is action . This component was the hardest for me to master, but it was the most fruitful. Because knowing values and limitations without engaging in appropriate actions does not serve any meaningful purpose. I strongly believe that learning time management can contribute greatly towards positive university experience.”

—Firdavs Khaydarov , Psychology Major, Minnesota State University, Mankato

The Importance of Where You Do Your Work

A large part of ensuring that you can complete tasks on time comes to setting up conditions that will allow you to do the work well. Much of this has to do with the environment where you will do your work. This not only includes physical space such as a work area, but other conditions like being free from distractions and your physical well-being and mental attitude.

The Right Space

Simple things, like where you are set up to do your work, can not only aid in your efficiency but also affect how well you can work or even if you can get the work completed at all. One example of this might be typing on a laptop. While it might seem more comfortable to lie back on a couch and type a long paper, sitting up at a desk or table actually increases your typing speed and reduces the number of mistakes. Even the kind of mouse you use can impact how you work, and using one you are comfortable with can make a big difference.

There are a host of other factors that can come into play as well. Do you have enough space? Is the space cluttered, or do you have the room to keep reference materials and other things you might need within arm’s reach? Are there other ways you could work that might be even more efficient? For example, buying an inexpensive second monitor—even secondhand—might be the key to decreasing the amount of time you spend when you can have more than one document displayed at a time.

The key is to find what works for you and to treat your work space as another important resource needed to get the task finished.

Distraction Free

Few things are more frustrating than trying to do work while distractions are going on around you. If other people are continually interrupting you or there are things that keep pulling your attention from the task at hand, everything takes longer and you are more prone to mistakes. 4

Many people say they work better with distractions—they prefer to leave the television or the radio on—but the truth is that an environment with too many interruptions is rarely helpful when focus is required. Before deciding that the television or talkative roommates do not bother you when you work, take an honest accounting of the work you produce with interruptions compared to work you do without.

If you find that your work is better without distractions, it is a good idea to create an environment that reduces interruptions. This may mean you have to go to a private room, use headphones, or go somewhere like a library to work. Regardless, the importance of a distraction-free environment cannot be emphasized enough.

Working at the Right Time

Most people are subject to their own rhythms, cycles, and preferences throughout their day. Some are alert and energetic in the mornings, while others are considered “night owls” and prefer to work after everyone else has gone to sleep. It can be important to be aware of your own cycles and to use them to your advantage. Rarely does anyone do their best work when they are exhausted, either physically or mentally. Just as it can be difficult to work when you are physically ill, it can also be a hindrance to try to learn or do mental work when you are tired or emotionally upset.

Your working environment definitely includes your own state of mind and physical well-being. Both have a significant influence on your learning and production ability. Because of this, it is not only important to be aware of your own condition and work preferences, but to actually try to create conditions that help you in these areas. One approach is to set aside a specific time to do certain kinds of work. You might find that you concentrate better after you have eaten a meal. If that is the case, make it a habit of doing homework every night after dinner. Or you might enjoy reading more after you are ready for bed, so you do your reading assignments just before you go to sleep at night. Some people find that they are more creative during a certain time of the day or that they are more comfortable writing with subtle lighting. It is worth taking the time to find the conditions that work best for you so that you can take advantage of them.

Analysis Question

Student survey on work environment.

Analysis: Take the time to think about where you will do your work and when. What can you do to help ensure your working environment will be helpful rather than harmful? What do you know doesn’t work for you? What will you do to prevent those adverse conditions from creeping into your work environment?

Below is a quick survey to help you determine your own preferences in regard to your work space, the time you work, and distractions. Rank each option: 1–4, 1 meaning “least like me” and 4 meaning “most like me.”

• I like my workspace to be organized and clean.
• There are certain places where I am more comfortable when I work.
• I prefer to be alone when I work on certain things.
• I find it difficult to read with other sounds or voices around me.
• There are certain times of the day when I can be more focused.
• My moods or emotions can interfere with my ability to concentrate
• 4 https://en.calameo.com/read/00009178915b8f5b352ba

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Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/1-introduction

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What Is Self-Leadership? Models, Theory, and Examples

The fact is, we all lead ourselves to some extent. How efficiently we do that determines how much we live life with purpose and intent. Yet, despite its central importance to leading a meaningful life, it seems that the term self-leadership often warrants explanation and doesn’t form part of our common vocabulary.

This article offers a basic overview of what self-leadership is and its scientific foundations.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Leadership Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or others adopt positive leadership practices and help organizations thrive.

This Article Contains:

Self-leadership explained, theories and models of self-leadership, 8 core competencies and skills, a real-life example, training in self-leadership: 6 courses and programs, 8 inspiring quotes, positivepsychology.com’s resources, a take-home message.

Self-leadership is the practice of understanding who you are, identifying your desired experiences, and intentionally guiding yourself toward them. It spans the determination of wha t we do, why we do it, and how  we do it.

The term ‘self-leadership’ first emerged from organizational management literature by Charles C. Manz (1983), who later defined it as a “ comprehensive self-influence perspective that concerns leading oneself toward performance of naturally motivating tasks as well as managing oneself to do work that must be done but is not naturally motivating ” (Manz, 1986).

The concept was based on the (then novel) insight that self-leadership is a prerequisite for effective and authentic team leadership (Manz & Sims, 1991). In fact, more autonomous, self-leading workers are more productive, irrespective of their work role (Birdi et al., 2008).

Since its first mention, discussion and examination of the self-leadership concept remained predominantly in organizational leadership and management contexts. More recently, Marieta Du Plessis (2019) acknowledged the opportunity to complement the concept with insights from positive psychology research, offering the following definition:

Positive self-leadership refers to the capacity to identify and apply one’s signature strengths to initiate, maintain, or sustain self-influencing behaviors.

Du Plessis emphasizes the importance of value-based self-inspiration and self-goal setting in the self-leadership journey.

When considering this definition, the broader applicability of self-leadership becomes evident. In fact, the concept of self-leadership draws on several interdisciplinary theoretical models and frameworks, including many from the field of positive psychology.

Theoretical foundations

Self-control is synonymous with self-management and self-regulation and describes the iterative process of determining a desired end state, comparing that to the current state, and subsequently taking action to close the gap between the two (Carver & Scheier, 1981).

It is important to note that especially in the early literature, the terms self-leadership and self-management were often used interchangeably.

However, self-management is a necessary but not entirely encompassing element of self-leadership in that it simply refers to the internally regulated management and execution of tasks (i.e., addressing the how of an action). In this case, the choice of the task itself and the underlying reason for the choice are externally regulated.

In contrast, self-leadership includes an internally regulated choice, value alignment, and execution of the chosen activity (i.e., addressing the what , why , and how ).

Social-cognitive theory  acknowledges the triadic interaction between our thoughts, behavior, and socio-political environment (Bandura, 1986).

Self-determination theory describes the reciprocity between human motivation and a purposeful life. It highlights the role of internally regulated and intrinsic motivation as a driver behind self-leadership behaviors (Deci & Ryan, 1985).

However, self-leadership theory is also well suited to a couple of other theories. In light of the central notion of self-determined action in line with one’s intrinsic needs, in particular self-actualizing behaviors , Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is one such view.

Furthermore, self-leadership is rooted in self-awareness in combination with self-management, which, according to Daniel Goleman (2005), form two of the four pillars of emotional intelligence .

Self-leadership models

There is still a general lack of self-leadership models and guiding frameworks in line with the relative infancy and historical development of the scientific self-leadership evidence base.

The positive self-leadership capability model explicitly combines insights from the organizational leadership literature with those from organizational and positive psychology (Du Plessis, 2019).

This model is based on the strengths-based capability framework (Stander & Van Zyl, 2019). It is aligned with experiences from delivering organizational interventions regarding positive self-leadership development.

It offers several competencies (outer quadrants) across four dynamically interacting core capabilities (inner quadrants): character strengths, abilities and talents, interests and aspirations, and environmental strengths (Du Plessis, 2019).

The positive self-leadership capability model (reprinted with permission from Du Plessis, 2019)

While most of these capabilities draw on popular, well-known concepts from positive psychology research, environmental strengths refer to an individual’s ability to draw on resources from their socio-political and built environment.

Given the broad field of self-leadership and lack of comprehensive and empirically tested self-leadership models to date, it might be more helpful to focus on the various competencies involved in it.

Here are some cognitive and behavioral strategies that effective self-leadership draws on.

1. Self-awareness and self-knowledge

Self-awareness is the ability to perceive yourself clearly through inward inspection. It is the act of practicing mindfulness, with the attention directed toward yourself.

Self-awareness allows us to perceive our current inner reality or state and, as such, is a prerequisite of self-control and self-regulation  (Carver & Scheier, 1981; Silvia & O’Brien, 2004).

Basic self-knowledge is vital to understanding one’s needs, motives, and drives. At a minimum, this includes the following four elements:

Personality traits

Our personality traits predict and explain our thoughts, feelings, and behavior, in particular spontaneous action. Interestingly, individuals with a higher conscientiousness score (one of the Big Five character traits) have been shown to be more efficient self-leaders (Stewart, Carson, & Cardy, 1996).

Individuals with a lower conscientiousness score and the ambition to improve their self-leadership skills could place particular effort on cultivating conscientiousness.

Personal strengths and weaknesses

These provide insight into what we feel drawn toward, how we can conquer problems and perform exceptionally well, what drains us, and where we tend to procrastinate.

Our values are what is most important to us in life, and, knowingly or not, we make decisions based on them. They are the reason why we do what we do.

Talents and interests

Our talents and interests offer insight into how we can put our strengths to work, enjoy the process, and maximize our chances of succeeding and serving a purpose bigger than ourselves.

Self-knowledge allows us to answer questions such as ‘What am I feeling and why?’; ‘What is important to me?’; ‘How can I succeed and when do I need to be particularly vigilant on my goal journey?’; and ‘What is my sense of purpose?’

2. Identifying desired experiences

Arguably, we all strive for happiness, and our goals are a means to achieve that. However, research shows that our ability to predict what will make us happy is poorer than we think (Gilbert & Wilson, 2006). So it is important to understand insights from happiness research as well as how to align our goals or desired experiences with our values.

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3. Constructive thought and decision making

As humans, we like to think of ourselves as a cognitive and rational species that makes thoughtful choices along the path of life. Unfortunately, many of the processes happening inside our minds are anything but rational (Kahneman, 2012).

An example of this is the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957). Another is that our ability to reason is inhibited when we feel stressed and are experiencing the so-called fight-or-flight response (also known as the amygdala hijack).

Unfortunately, we are somewhat neurologically wired to perceive threats and therefore have to proactively practice positivity if we want to use our full potential to make rational decisions (Fredrickson, 2001). When we are relaxed and in a positive emotional state, we can think creatively and innovatively (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).

Finally, this includes developing a growth mindset – the belief in our ability to develop and change things or ourselves (Dweck, 2016). This implies an understanding that while we cannot control all of our experiences, we can control how we choose to react to them.

Therefore, understanding the fundamentals of constructive thought and decision-making processes, plus practicing mindfulness and positivity to cultivate them, are essential elements of self-leadership.

4. Planning and goal setting

The planning and goal-setting competencies include breaking bigger dreams into manageable milestones and then optimizing each milestone into a goal.

The goal-setting process includes articulating SMART goals, identifying contingency plans, proactively committing by documenting it all, and establishing accountability and using positive reward upon goal attainment.

5. Optimizing motivation

Optimizing motivation includes the competency of adjusting one’s goal to become more appealing. This can be achieved by identifying an intrinsically motivating goal behavior and aligning the goal to one’s values and self-concept (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Optimizing motivation also means understanding the role of willpower, a finite resource but one that can be cultivated. Finally, this competency includes an awareness that we may not feel ready or confident when trying a new goal behavior. Instead, self-efficacy is developed by taking small, continuous steps toward the goal (Bandura, 1977).

6. Harnessing the ecosystem

The nature versus nurture debate is an ongoing point of curiosity regarding the magnitude of influence the environment versus our genetics have on our behavior. Do we mostly learn our behavior through our life circumstances, experiences, and the people around us? Or is it innate and mostly inherited?

These days, scientists agree that the answer isn’t usually found at either extreme end of the scale. Instead, we know that they usually both interact and together influence the way we act.

Harnessing the ecosystem is about proactively seeking support for our goal behavior in the social, organizational, community, political, and physical environment we live in. This includes mobilizing social support, cueing new goal behavior through small tweaks in our physical environment, and identifying goal-aligned resources in our community.

7. Amplifying performance

There are three techniques worth learning to amplify self-leadership performance:

• High-performance planning entails asking yourself a set of questions about how you can perform optimally during a predefined period and reviewing your ambitions at the end of it. As such, it is a particular form of planning, goal setting, and intention forming.
• Self-coaching is a constructive thought strategy and involves solution seeking by mentally navigating a coaching framework, such as the GROW model.
• Functional visualization techniques (also referred to as functional imagery training) involve detailed mental rehearsal of the desired goal behavior, which has been shown to significantly increase the likelihood of goal attainment (Solbrig et al., 2018).

8. Embracing failure and cultivating grit

Tal Ben-Shahar famously said:

Learn to fail or fail to learn.

(Ben-Shahar, 2014)

Most people will fail at some stage on the path to their goals. Often when people don’t stick to their plans, they get so frustrated with themselves in those situations that they avoid thinking about the whole topic altogether (cognitive dissonance at its best).

They give up because they will not attain the goal as quickly or to the extent that they had planned and therefore feel like a smaller win is not worthy. Both are fatal to our goal attainment.

It is important to adjust one’s expectations about encountering some form of failure along the goal path. Other important competencies to cultivate are self-compassion and grit.

Self-compassion is treating yourself with the same care, love, and respect you would give to a struggling close friend. Research shows that contrary to the popular belief that self-compassion leads to complacency, it actually increases motivation (Neff, 2003).

Grit is a combination of passion and perseverance for long-term goals (Duckworth & Gross, 2014). Grit is what can, more reliably than any other characteristic, distinguish the successful from the non-successful.

You can cultivate it by putting deliberate effort into developing your talents into skills; and, when you take your skill and put effort into refining it, you will accomplish achievement.

However, when reflecting on the practice of leading oneself intrinsically, proactively, and regardless of external circumstance, one person comes to mind immediately: Viktor Frankl .

As described in his (1984) book Man’s Search for Meaning , Frankl famously survived the Holocaust and three years of incarceration in Nazi concentration camps. Despite the immense hardships he experienced there, Frankl was able to survive.

Moreover, he demonstrated many critical self-leadership skills throughout his experience. He had a profound understanding that he could not change what was happening to him and his fellow inmates, but he could choose how to respond to it.

He understood the importance of values in life, had a strong awareness of his own, and lived by them, and in doing so, he found meaning and purpose. He exhibited constructive thought strategies and continuously identified opportunities to contribute to the wellbeing of his inmates. And, he managed to persevere in this way not only throughout the entire period of incarceration but also afterward.

Great leadership starts with self-leadership – Lars Sudmann

Due to the infancy of the self-leadership field, courses and programs are still somewhat rare. It should also be noted that the course information provided online is often brief and vague, which makes it hard to judge how many self-leadership competencies are covered.

Most of the current courses are positioned in the organizational leadership training arena. Here are a few courses worth mentioning:

• The Ken Blanchard® Companies provide worldwide in-person and online training (or a combination thereof), explicitly for employees.
• Mainstream Corporate Training offers self-paced self-leadership online training and live online training.
• Ducidium Pty Ltd provides in-person training in Australia and is currently developing self-paced virtual training.

Regarding training for self-leadership more broadly (i.e., not tied to the workplace), the following courses can be recommended:

• Stanford Graduate School of Business offers a free online course developed by lecturer Ed Batista called ‘ The Art of Self-Coaching. ’ While Batista refers to self-coaching rather than self-leadership, he covers many critical self-leadership skills topics and competencies. The easiest way to access the course may be via Batista’s website , where he also offers a course outline.
• Self Leaders is a Stockholm-based company offering virtual, experience-based, and customized self-leadership training worldwide. They also frequently offer free short workshops and events .
• Dr. Maike Neuhaus offers a comprehensive online self-leadership course called Fresh Start , which gives you clarity on change, and helps you flourish.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

Self-leadership… is about influencing ourselves, creating the self-motivation and self-direction we need to accomplish what we want to accomplish.

Charles C. Manz

All human beings are self-leaders; however, not all self-leaders are effective at self-leading.

Being a self-leader is to serve as chief, captain, president, or CEO of one’s own life.

Peter Drucker

The first and best victory is to conquer self.

The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.

Viktor E. Frankl

First, be a leader of yourself. Only then can you grow to lead others.

David Taylor-Klaus

Leadership’s First Commandment: Know Thyself… No tool can help a leader who lacks self-knowledge.

Harvard Business Review editorial

17 Exercises To Build Positive Leaders

Use these 17 Positive Leadership Exercises [PDF] to help others inspire, motivate, and guide employees in ways that enrich workplace performance and satisfaction. Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

The following articles will make great supplemental reading:

• How to Improve Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
• Self-Therapy for Anxiety and Depression
• Positive Leadership: 30 Must-Have Traits and Skills
• What’s Your Coaching Approach? 10 Different Coaching Styles Explained

Two special masterclasses can be particularly helpful as additional resources and are highly recommended:

• Motivation and Goal Achievement Masterclass
• Meaning and Valued Living Masterclass

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop positive leadership skills, this collection contains 17 validated positive leadership exercises . Use them to equip leaders with the skills needed to cultivate a culture of positivity and resilience.

A relatively new concept, self-leadership warrants more research. In particular, the current evidence base around self-leadership will benefit significantly from an interdisciplinary examination by complementing organizational leadership literature with insights from positive psychology.

Also, self-leadership competencies are now increasingly receiving attention from education professionals, who are stressing the importance of adapting school curricula to the rapidly changing workforce landscape due to advances in technology.

Here, it is highlighted that graduates need to be self-aware, self-driven, flexible, and adaptable to an ever-changing work environment (Freeman, 2020).

Now dubbed as a key 21st-century skill, learning the art of self-leadership will indeed form part of a fundamental life instruction booklet, maybe sooner rather than later.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Leadership Exercises for free .

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Self-evaluation examples: 60 of the best sample answers for employees and managers

Self-evaluations are essential for employee, and organisational development and help employees reflect on their performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and set goals for improvement.

Self-evaluations provide several benefits, including improved self-awareness, increased ownership, better communication, trust, and development planning.

To aid in the self-evaluation process, it's helpful to have a set of examples to draw inspiration from. This article provides 60 of the best sample answers for employees and managers preparing for a self-evaluation.

How teams benefit from self-evaluations

Self-evaluations can provide valuable insight and help create a more positive and productive performance review process. Let’s look the some of the top benefits.

Improved self-awareness

Self-evaluations help employees reflect on their performance and identify their strengths and weaknesses. This can lead to improved self-awareness and personal growth.

Increased Ownership

When employees are involved in the evaluation process, they take more ownership of their work and are more committed to meeting their goals and objectives.

Better Communication

Self-evaluations allow employees to communicate their accomplishments, goals, and concerns to their managers. This helps to establish open and honest lines of communication, which can improve the team's overall performance.

Objectivity

Self-evaluations can help reduce the subjective bias that can sometimes occur during performance evaluations solely by managers. This can lead to a more objective and fair assessment of an employee's performance.

Development Planning

Self-evaluations can help employees identify areas where they need to improve and then work with their managers to develop a plan to address those areas.

Increased Trust

Employees who feel their contributions and efforts are recognised and valued are more likely to trust their managers and the organisation. This can increase engagement and commitment to the company's goals and objectives.

What is typically covered in a self-evaluation?

Self-evaluations typically cover a range of topics that assess an employee's performance, contributions, and development over a given period. Some common topics that are covered in self-evaluations include:

Accomplishments

This includes reviewing significant projects, tasks, and achievements the employee has accomplished over the review period.

Goals and Objectives

This includes an assessment of the employee's progress towards their individual goals and objectives and any changes or updates to their goals for the upcoming period.

Contributions to the Team and Organisation

This includes evaluating the employee's contributions to the team and organisation, such as collaboration, communication, and leadership.

Skills and Competencies

This includes a self-assessment of the employee's current skills and competencies and any areas where they need further development.

Professional Development

This includes an evaluation of the employee's efforts to further their professional development and growth, such as taking on new responsibilities, seeking additional training and development opportunities, and seeking feedback from others.

These are some of the most common topics covered in self-evaluations, but the exact content can vary depending on the organisation and the individual employee's role and responsibilities.

Understanding your strengths and weaknesses is crucial for personal growth, which can be greatly facilitated by structured self-evaluations. Roslin's self-evaluation tools allow you to reflect accurately on your performance, using tailored feedback that aligns with your career aspirations. Dive deeper into your professional journey and discover how Roslin can transform your self-assessment process.

Leadership examples

Positive comments.

• "I am proud of my ability to lead by example and consistently demonstrate a positive attitude and strong work ethic. I have inspired my team to work towards common goals, increasing productivity and morale."
• "I have successfully led multiple projects this year, ensuring they were completed on time and within budget. My strong organisational skills and attention to detail have allowed me to manage complex projects and delegate tasks effectively to my team."
• "I have made a conscious effort to foster a positive and inclusive work environment by promoting open communication and encouraging collaboration. This has resulted in a more cohesive and motivated team better equipped to meet our organisational goals."

Areas for improvement

• "I must improve my public speaking skills and become more confident in presenting to large groups. I plan to attend a public speaking course and seek opportunities to practice my skills."
• "I have sometimes struggled with delegating tasks effectively, leading to feelings of burnout and overwork for myself and my team. I plan to improve my delegation skills by setting clear expectations, providing ongoing support, and allowing team members to take ownership of their responsibilities."
• "I recognise that I can be too focused on the big picture and neglect to provide regular feedback and recognition to my team. I plan to make a more conscious effort to provide regular feedback, both positive and constructive, and to recognise the contributions and achievements of my team members."

Collaboration and teamwork examples

• "I have demonstrated strong teamwork skills by actively seeking out opportunities to collaborate with others and build positive relationships with my colleagues. I have consistently been able to find common ground and work towards shared goals, resulting in more efficient and effective work processes."
• "I have effectively supported my team members by sharing my knowledge and expertise and providing guidance and mentorship. This has resulted in a more cohesive and supportive work environment and has allowed my team to achieve better outcomes."
• "I have shown strong conflict resolution skills by navigating and resolving disagreements and challenges professionally and respectfully. This has helped to maintain positive and productive relationships within my team and across departments."
• "I recognise that I can sometimes be too focused on my own goals and tasks, neglecting to consider the needs and perspectives of others fully. I plan to be a more active listener and seek input and feedback from my colleagues to ensure everyone's needs and priorities are considered."
• "I have sometimes struggled to effectively communicate and coordinate with team members, leading to misunderstandings and delays. I plan to improve my communication skills by being clearer and more concise in my messaging and by making a greater effort to involve all team members in decision-making processes."
• "I recognise that I need to improve my time management skills, as this can impact my ability to collaborate with others effectively. I plan to prioritise my tasks, set clear deadlines, and seek support from my team when needed to ensure that all collaborative projects are completed on time and to the best of my ability."

Communication examples

• "I have consistently demonstrated strong communication skills in person and in writing. I have effectively conveyed my ideas and messages to many audiences and received positive feedback on my clear and concise writing style."
• "I have made a concerted effort to be an active listener, seeking out the perspectives and opinions of others and providing empathy and understanding. This has helped to build positive relationships with my colleagues and has allowed me to understand and respond to their needs more effectively."
• "I have effectively used various communication tools and platforms to reach and engage with my audience, including email, video conferencing, and social media. This has allowed me to reach a wider audience and to more effectively convey important information and updates."
• "I sometimes struggle to articulate my ideas and thoughts clearly, especially in high-pressure situations. I plan to improve my public speaking skills by attending workshops and seeking opportunities to practice my skills."
• "I have sometimes struggled to effectively communicate with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, leading to misunderstandings and miscommunications. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to improve my cultural competency and better understand and communicate with people from diverse backgrounds."
• "I recognise that I can sometimes be too direct or blunt in my communication style, leading to negative perceptions and misinterpretations. I plan to improve my interpersonal skills by being more mindful of the tone and delivery of my messages and by seeking feedback from others on my communication style."

Job Knowledge examples

• "I have demonstrated a strong understanding of my role and responsibilities and a deep knowledge of industry best practices and emerging trends. This has allowed me to perform my job effectively and to make informed decisions that benefit my team and the organisation."
• "I have shown a commitment to continuous learning and professional development, regularly seeking opportunities to expand my knowledge and skills. This has kept me at the forefront of my field and has allowed me to bring new and innovative ideas to my role."
• "I have effectively applied my job knowledge to solve complex problems and to complete challenging projects. My strong analytical skills and attention to detail have allowed me to identify and resolve issues quickly and effectively, improving my work's overall efficiency and quality."
• "I recognise that I need to improve my technical skills in a specific area, as this will enhance my ability to perform my job and to provide value to the organisation. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."
• "I have sometimes struggled to keep up with new developments and changes in my field, leading to a lack of awareness of best practices and emerging trends. I plan to make a more conscious effort to stay informed and seek new learning opportunities regularly."
• "I recognise that I need to improve my project management skills, as this will enhance my ability to plan and execute projects effectively. I plan to seek out training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area and to apply my newfound knowledge to my current role."

Job performance examples

• "I have consistently exceeded expectations in the performance of my job duties, consistently meeting or exceeding project deadlines and delivering high-quality work."
• "I have taken the initiative to identify and address areas of improvement in my work and the work of my team, leading to increased efficiency and improved outcomes."
• "I have effectively collaborated with my colleagues and cross-functional teams, demonstrating strong teamwork skills and a positive attitude towards achieving common goals."
• "I must improve my time management skills to be more efficient and better prioritise my workload. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."
• "I have sometimes struggled to manage my workload effectively and to balance competing priorities, leading to stress and burnout. I plan to work on better prioritising my tasks and to seek out additional support when needed."

"I recognise that I need to improve my delegation skills to manage my workload effectively and to empower my team members. I plan to seek out training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area and to apply my newfound knowledge to my current role."

Time management examples

• "I have consistently demonstrated strong time management skills, effectively balancing my workload and meeting deadlines on time."
• "I have effectively prioritised my tasks and responsibilities, ensuring that high-priority items receive the attention they deserve."
• "I have implemented various time management techniques and tools, such as creating to-do lists and scheduling regular review sessions, which have greatly improved my efficiency and productivity."

"I recognise that I sometimes struggle with distractions and procrastination, leading to decreased efficiency and longer completion times for tasks. I plan to work on maintaining focus and reducing distractions to improve my time management skills."

Problem-solving examples

• "I have consistently demonstrated strong problem-solving skills, effectively identifying and addressing issues in a timely and efficient manner."
• "I have a curious and analytical mindset, which allows me to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to complex problems."

"I recognise that I need to improve my decision-making skills, as this will enhance my ability to solve problems and make informed decisions effectively. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."

"I have sometimes struggled to manage my emotions and biases effectively when solving problems, leading to suboptimal solutions. I plan to develop emotional intelligence and objectivity when approaching problems."

"I recognise that I need to improve my research and data analysis skills, as this will enhance my ability to gather and interpret information needed to solve problems. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."

Company values examples

• "I have consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to the company's values, aligning my actions and decisions with the company's mission and goals."
• "I have been a role model for the company's values, inspiring my colleagues and team members to embody them in their work."
• "I have sought out opportunities to promote and reinforce the company's values, both within my work and interactions with others."
• "I must improve my understanding of the company's values and how they align with its mission and goals. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my knowledge in this area."
• "I have sometimes struggled to balance my workload and personal values effectively with the company's values, leading to conflicts. I plan to align my actions and decisions better with the company's values."
• "I recognise that I need to improve my communication skills. This will enhance my ability to effectively convey the company's values to others and promote a culture of values-driven decision-making. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."

Productivity examples

• "I have consistently demonstrated a strong work ethic and a commitment to productivity, consistently delivering high-quality work on time and exceeding expectations."
• "I have implemented various productivity techniques and tools, such as time tracking and task management software, which have greatly improved my efficiency and productivity."
• "I recognise that I sometimes struggle with distractions and procrastination, leading to decreased efficiency and longer completion times for tasks. I plan to work on maintaining focus and reducing distractions to improve my productivity."
• "I recognise that I need to improve my time management skills, as this will enhance my ability to balance my workload effectively and to meet deadlines. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."

Customer experience examples

• "I have consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to providing excellent customer service, always going above and beyond to meet the needs of our customers."
• "I have effectively communicated with customers, building strong relationships and gaining their trust and loyalty."
• "I deeply understand our customers' needs and preferences and have effectively used this knowledge to enhance the customer experience."
• "I sometimes struggle managing customer complaints and conflicts, leading to dissatisfaction and negative experiences. I plan to develop my conflict resolution skills and seek additional training in this area."
• "I have sometimes struggled to effectively manage my workload and balance competing priorities, leading to longer response times and reduced customer availability. I plan to work on better prioritising my tasks and to seek out additional support when needed."
• "I recognise that I need to improve my empathy and emotional intelligence skills, as this will enhance my ability to understand and respond to the needs of our customers effectively. I plan to seek training and development opportunities to build my skills in this area."

As you plan your professional development, consider how a comprehensive evaluation tool can streamline this process. With Roslin's performance review software , you can not only track your progress but also set actionable goals based on insightful analytics. Empower your career development with Roslin and make your next self-evaluation your stepping stone to success.

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Your complete guide to self-assessments (with examples)

Bettering yourself — and your organization — starts with a look inward.

Especially in today’s labor market, employers are looking for ways to optimize employee performance. Some companies have pressed pause on hiring while others have forfeited to layoffs .

No matter where your organization falls on the hiring spectrum, employers everywhere can agree: it’s time to make sure employees are tapping into their full potential. The success of your organization depends on it.  

At some point in everyone’s career, they'll likely have to participate in a performance evaluation.

In this post, we’ll talk about the benefits of self-assessments for both employers and employees. We’ll also give you some self-assessment examples to start using today. Plus, you’ll learn some best practices to help conduct effective and impactful self-assessments at your organization.

What is a self-assessment?

Typically, a performance evaluation, otherwise known as a self-assessment or performance review , begins with a series of notes from your employer or employers on how you have conducted yourself at work. They typically end with a self-assessment, where you share how much progress you believe you have made during a certain amount of time on the job.

8 benefits of self-evaluations for managers and employees

There are a number of reasons why self-assessments are a useful tool for both managers and employees. 

On its face, self-assessments can seem like a performance management tool to keep employees on track. But it isn’t just a tool to keep employees on track to meet organizational goals. It helps employees grow, develop, and ultimately reach their full potential. 

Here are some of the benefits self-evaluations offer employees and employers:

For managers 

For managers or employers, self-assessments can be a useful tool that comes with a range of benefits. Here are four benefits of self-evaluations for managers. 

• Improved performance. But research tells us that self-assessments have a positive impact on personal and professional growth. In fact, one study found that implementing self-assessments drastically improved performance and self-directed learning skills. 
• Increased employee engagement. Managers have an incredible influence over the employee experience. A Gallup study found that managers can account for up to 70% of the variance in employee engagement . A self-assessment can be the entry point to open, clear, and transparent communication between manager and employee. When employees know what’s expected of them and what they need to work on, it can increase employee engagement .  
• Improved decision-making skills . Managers, you have to deeply know your employees’ strengths and areas of opportunity. When you’re managing a team, it’s critical to know when (and where) certain employees need to jump into a priority. Especially in a fast-changing world of work , the decisions that managers are making are increasing. But with help from a self-assessment by your employees, you have a window into where your employees can flex their skills. For example, let’s say a new data analysis project pops up. You need someone on your team to step up and lead the project. You also need another person to help crunch the numbers — and put together a narrative that the data tells. Because of your employees’ self-assessments, you can quickly identify and make decisions on who should lead what. 
• Better goal-setting. Self-assessments also help managers get a better understanding of what an employee's goals are at work. Having a good grasp on what employees want from their work and what they feel are their strengths and weaknesses can help managers lead better. A self-assessment is a handy tool for managers to use in order to highlight workers’ achievements, set future goals , check in on employee weaknesses, and assess how they can help employees improve those skills. 

For employees 

Just as managers benefit from self-assessments, so do employees. We’ve outlined four ways self-assessments help benefit the employee. 

• Increased self-awareness. A self-assessment can act as a mirror or reflection point. At BetterUp, we use a Whole Person Model to help our Members accurately gain self-awareness and self-reflect. According to our Whole Person Model, we see a 172% increase in self-awareness for those who start out low as a result of coaching. But what does coaching have to do with self-assessments? It can help bring awareness to an employee's strengths — and areas of opportunity. 
• Better learning and development goals. A self-assessment can help pinpoint different target growth areas. Designed to help prompt your employees to examine their skills, a self-assessment can be the tool you need to help identify a learning goal.
• Improved self-confidence . A self-assessment, though it can sound intimidating, isn’t just for identifying what’s not working. For many employees, it’s also a reassurance of what’s working well, especially when your manager agrees. A self-assessment can help your employees realize strengths they might not have identified before. It can also show growth areas where they might’ve struggled before.
• Opens up opportunities for further professional development. To go hand-in-hand with learning and development, self-assessments can help determine where employees should invest in professional development . For example, let’s say your employee takes a self-assessment and realizes they’re falling short on project management skills. Because of the assessment, you can offer project management workshops to help their professional development.  

38 self-assessment example questions for managers to use

Here are 38 examples of questions that managers can ask their employees during a self-assessment. 

Self-evaluation questions on achievements

• What areas do you think you could improve in?
• What could you have done better at work over the past year?
• What would you say your strengths are?
• How do you think you have contributed the most to the company?
• What has been your favorite project in the last year?
• Do you think you did a good job fulfilling your responsibilities over the last year?

Self-assessment questions on goals 

• What goals did you set for yourself this year? Month? Quarter?
• How many of those goals did you achieve?
• Were you happy with the results of meeting those goals you set for yourself?
• What are your future goals for next year? Quarter? Month? What can I do to help you better meet those goals?

Self-evaluation questions on advancement and professional growth 

• Have you taken part in any professional development programs the company offers?
• Are there any leadership positions you would like to have in the future?
• Is there any specific training that you feel you could use to help be more prepared to pursue a leadership role?
• Are there any skills that you could develop outside of work that would help with your work performance?
• Do you feel that there are any particular skills or talents of yours that you are not using?

Self-assessment questions on creativity 

• Do you feel that you think “outside the box” when it comes to finding solutions to work-related problems?
• What are some examples of when you thought “ outside of the box ” in order to solve a work problem? What could your manager do to make it easier for you to use creative problem-solving skills ?
• Do you feel that your position allows you to use your creative problem-solving skills to the fullest?

Self-evaluation questions on communication skills 

• Do you think that you communicate effectively with your manager and colleagues?
• What do you think makes a good communicator?
• How do you start difficult conversations with co-workers or managers? 
• How often do you ask for help on an assignment? Or ask questions to help clarify something about a project?

Self-assessment questions on time management

• Do you think that you use your time wisely while at work?
• When was a time when you thought you managed your time well?
• How could you improve your time management skills in the future?
• Can you describe an example of when you could have used your time better?

Self-evaluation questions on values and behaviors

• Do you think that you have worked in a way that aligns with our core values?
• What could you do to improve how you embody some of the company’s core values ?
• What do you value most about your work?
• When do you feel the most valued by the company?
• What are the qualities you have that make a valuable employee?
• List five things you do that positively impact your productivity .

Self-assessment questions on weaknesses

• Can you identify any weaknesses that you might have that could be hampering your productivity?
• Do you feel comfortable asking for help if you run into a problem with work?
• How could you work toward improving your work-related opportunities?
• Is there anything that leadership could do in order to help you address these opportunities?

Self-assessment example responses for employees

While coming up with questions for a performance review can be tough for managers. Crafting responses to a self-assessment that portrays an employee in their best light is even tougher.

Looking at a few examples of self-assessment questions and responses can be helpful when preparing for your own review. If you are particularly nervous about your self-assessment, practice by writing out some responses to the listed example questions. Use the example response as a jumping-off point for your own practice responses. 

Here are some example responses to the self-evaluation questions listed above.

Self-evaluation responses on achievements

• “I try to lead by example and feel that I put in my best effort every day. I am always the first person to arrive at work and always the last to leave.”
• “I have extremely high standards for my work and have gone above and beyond my job description. I routinely set goals for myself and work late nights and over the weekend to complete assignments.” 
• “Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to improve my public speaking skills and volunteered to give a company-wide presentation on a recently completed project. I’m proud of myself for taking that fear head-on, and the presentation was well received.” 

Self-assessment responses on goals

• “I would like to be able to keep working on my leadership skills. In order to do this, I plan to double down on my commitment to keep pitching project ideas at meetings and taking the lead on group work. I am proud to say that I have grown as a leader over the past year and would love to continue to do so.” 
• “One of the goals I set for myself this year was to become more organized. I have struggled a bit to learn how to better manage my time or delegate tasks but I am actively trying to learn from my mistakes .”

Self-evaluation responses on advancement and growth

• “When I applied for my current position, I did so with the long-term goal of eventually obtaining a managerial role. I can see myself overseeing a team at the company given my interests, ability to delegate tasks, organization, and expert time management skills. I also really enjoy pushing my colleagues to do their best and explore new ways of tackling a project.” 
• “ Now that I have worked at the company for a year, I have learned enough that I feel confident taking the creative lead on a project in the near future.”

Self-assessment responses about creativity

• “Since starting with the company, I have often used creative problem-solving skills on assignments or used lateral thinking to find solutions to work-related problems.”
• “I have been commended several times over the past quarter for my original ideas during pitch sessions, ability to think outside of the box, and come up with creative solutions to problems.”
• “During my team’s weekly meeting, I am typically the first person to jump in with an idea for our next project.” 
• “I often try to help my colleagues figure out solutions to problems when they are stuck.” 

Self-evaluation responses about communication skills

• “I routinely ask questions to clarify expectations for assignments.”
• “I am often the first one to speak up with a question or concern in a meeting.”
• “I always speak respectfully when having hard conversations with managers and co-workers.”
• “I know how to respectfully receive feedback on my performance from managers and co-workers.”
• “I frequently talk to fellow team members about things that are going well or not so well on a project.”
• “If I can not meet a deadline, I always give notice to my manager as early as possible with an explanation as to why I am behind.” 

Self-assessment responses about time management skills

• “In the past year, I have made all of my deadlines and frequently submit my work ahead of time.”
• “My ability to be organized has saved co-workers hours of time on collaborations.”
• “My co-workers will sometimes come to me for advice on how to improve their time management skills. I am always happy to give recommendations to co-workers in the hopes of making our company run more efficiently.” 

Self-evaluation responses about values and behaviors 

• “I believe that the best relationships between employees and employers are built on transparency.”
• “ I value kindness in the workplace and make sure to be as welcoming and helpful to everyone I interact with.”
• “I believe that every obstacle can be overcome with open and respectful communication.”
• “I value my co-workers and strive to be as thoughtful about their well-being as I am my own.”
• “I believe that a positive attitude is the best tool in the workplace and always look at setbacks as opportunities.” 

Self-assessment responses on weaknesses

• “I am a high achiever and often struggle with telling a manager no to an extra work assignment even if I have a lot on my plate already. Unfortunately, this can impact my productivity as completing multiple tasks in a timely fashion can be a tough balancing act. As a result, I will sometimes miss a deadline or ask for a deadline to be changed. I have been learning how to let my manager know if I have too many tasks to take on a new assignment. I’m happy to say I have made some progress and will continue to work on improving.” 
• “I sometimes find it hard to ask for help completing a task when doing so could help me finish an assignment more efficiently. Because of this, I can inadvertently waste time on an assignment that could have been completed quickly with the help of a manager or co-worker. I am trying to be better at anticipating when I will need help for a project and asking for it early.” 

Best practices when writing your self-assessment 

1. be honest.

When writing a review of your work performance, be honest with yourself. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and a self-assessment is meant to highlight those on-the-job strengths. They also allow employees to come up with solutions on how to improve in their weaker areas. Make sure to be honest in mentioning times that you fell short at work from something small like turning up a few minutes late to a meeting to something more consequential like missing an important deadline. 

2. Be confident

You should be proud of the work you do and there is nothing wrong with expressing that pride in a self-assessment. While being honest about work mistakes is crucial in a self-assessment, you should also mention the times that you went the extra mile or really shined. 

3. Be committed to improving 

A self-assessment is all about figuring out what you need to do to become better at your work, and there is always room for self-improvement . Make sure to express in your self-assessment how you want to keep growing. Expressing an interest in discovering new ways to improve on good work habits and strengths, as well as shortcomings, will make you appear to be an employee that will grow with the company. 

4. Be professional 

You should never make things personal in a self-assessment. That means no insulting your manager or boss for poor leadership skills or blaming a colleague for a less than stellar result on a collaborative project.  It also means taking responsibility for your own shortcomings in the workplace. Being professional also means taking the performance review and the self-assessment seriously. Make sure to take the time to write a worthwhile review that isn’t rushed or forced and is instead filled with insights and solutions. 

5. Take your time 

A self-assessment that is rushed won’t help anyone. Make time for self-reflection beforehand, and take your time when sitting down to write your self-assessment and put some thought into it. This is one of the few chances that you will have in the workplace to advocate for yourself and remind your employer why you are great at your job. This is also a great opportunity to let management know that you are struggling with something and to see if there are any professional development programs that your company offers to help you address these weaknesses.

6. Be specific 

During your self-assessment, use specific examples as much as possible. For example, if you are taking the time to write about how you consistently do the bulk of the work needed to complete group projects, make sure to list three or four examples. Don’t be afraid to say that you were the one that stayed up all night to make sure that a deadline was met. Or that you were the one that pushed your colleagues to make the project better. 

Something that can help you do this more easily is to track your accomplishments throughout the year. Keep a journal or a small notebook at your desk or on your person where you can jot down notes about the things you think you have done well every day or every week. Having a weekly or monthly list of your accomplishments will make it much easier to remind a manager or employer how valuable you are to the company. 

7. Use numbers 

Data can help convince an employer that your work has been beneficial to the company. When writing a self-assessment, back up claims about your achievements with numbers. If you write in your self-assessment that you are great at figuring out ways to shorten the amount of time your team spends on projects, make sure to reference how much time you have been able to cut. Including concrete numbers in your self-assessment will allow your manager or employer to develop a metric to measure your achievements.  

How to prepare for an employee self-assessment

Preparing ahead of time for giving or writing a self-assessment is central to having a constructive performance review. Managers should know what goals they would like employees to have completed and review themselves with some areas of weakness that employees can improve before talking about a self-assessment. 

If you are having trouble figuring out how to craft a self-assessment to give to employees there are a number of free self-evaluation templates online, like this one .

By using a template, you can streamline the self-assessment process and make less work for yourself in the future if you need to modify any questions on the evaluation. When sitting down to have a person-to-person discussion about employee performance, remember to give constructive feedback .

Tap into the potential of your workforce 

As a result, it’s important to make sure you’re maximizing the potential of your workforce. Self-assessments are the starting point to figuring out what potential lies within your employees (and your organization). 

Whether you’re looking at your own performance or your employees’ performance, BetterUp can help. An employee self-evaluation can be the ticket to building better teamwork , job performance, and work ethic. 

Get started with virtual coaching to help provide personalized support for your employees. The result? A mentally fit workforce that's better prepared for what the future holds.

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Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

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November 30, 2020

How to develop self management skills in students.

As educators, teachers have many tasks that they need to take care of daily. While classroom management is certainly one of these tasks, students should be encouraged to take initiative to manage learning in the classroom. Teaching students to self-manage allows them to develop a growth mindset; learn how to manage stress and impulsivity; and intrinsically motivates them to reach specific goals. In this article, we discuss some tools used by teachers that empower students to self-manage their schoolwork.

What is a self-management plan?

First of all, in order to teach self-management skills to students, you need to set up a reliable and effective plan. Self-management plans can effectively develop key self-reliance skills and independence in students.

In fact, self-management plans are used to teach students to independently complete tasks and take an active role in monitoring and reinforcing their own behavior.

It has also been proven that teaching self-management helps students:

• Improve academic performance
• Gain productivity skills
• Reduce time-on-task
• Change problematic behavior

A self-management plan involves setting up tools for students that can build and promote independence, self-discipline, and motivation; and that allows teachers, school administrators, and parents to monitor student progress.

Beyond the educational aspect, they are essential to guide students to successfully transition into adulthood. An effective self-management plan includes setting goals, monitoring behavior, and evaluating progress.

Why is it important for students to get involved?

Setting up a self-management plan for your students is going to help them build lifelong independence and an ability to deal individually with a heavy workload. It is therefore important for students to get involved in planning their own schedules.

Trying to control a student's actions or behavior can make them rebel, which could make a unilaterally-imposed self-management plan less efficient and behavioral problems more likely to occur. Feeling involved empowers students and helps them develop a feeling of self-control over their own behavior.

Best self-management tools

Inviting your students to participate in their education and empowering them to self-manage can be overwhelming for some of them. Try these easy yet effective self-management tools that will make them feel comfortable and excited to begin this journey.

Enhance your learning with planning tools.

Team operating agreements

Agreements or contracts are a list of rules or ideal behaviors co-created with students to help them own their challenges when it comes to self-management. They can be individually based, team-based or class-based.

Oftentimes, school rules are set by administrators; many students don't feel a strong attachment to them.. On the other hand, when students engage in creating the behavioral norms, they are most likely to stick to them. Furthermore, the fact that agreements can be personalized to students ensures that they meet the needs of students and are not simply imposed upon them.

Time management logs

Time management logs are a great tool to help students track and manage their time. The log allows students to document how long they spend on a specific task, assignment, group project… you name it! They can choose to keep track over a day, a week or longer, depending on your agreement with the student(s). The goal here is to assess working habits and improve them so that they can manage their time more efficiently .

Checklists and rubrics

Checklists and rubrics are one of the most standardized self-management tools but they remain one of the most effective ones. Checking boxes on a to-do list can be especially exciting and rewarding for students, because each checkmark represents a goal completed towards a larger objective.

It’s essential that both the student and professor understand the objectives and co-create the checklists and rubrics. They are indeed, more powerful when they are co-created since it promotes goal-setting and ownership of the work .

As you may know, students, especially younger ones, are full of ideas, especially in collaborative, open-ended projects. To help them organize their thinking, planning and overall work, they can use task lists. Task lists are used to assign tasks to specific group members, teachers, team leaders and everyone involved, so they are able to sign off when a task is completed. They are also great tools for assessment and communicating on equitable collaboration.

Reflection and goal setting

To make sure that all of these tools are utilized in the best way, they need to be paired with reflection time. Just like we spend time reflecting on content learning, it is also essential to take time to reflect on the learning process.

Once all of these tools mentioned above are up and running, they can provide great opportunities for students to reflect on how they have learned to self-manage, what needs to be improved and most importantly their ability to set goals. An additional tool to help this reflection process is learning logs, which allow students to think about how they've learned as well as what they've learned.

Developing the self-management skillset

It is one thing to teach students self-management skills but it is another to develop and maintain these skills for the long run. In order to achieve that, self-management skills should involve the following.

Goal setting

Professors and their students should collaborate in setting measurable, achievable goals that the student can work towards. Goals can be as small or as significant as the student desires as long as they are reachable. This instills a growth mindset that will help the student in the long term.

Behaviour monitoring

Self-monitoring is crucial since it allows students to practice self-awareness and build a record of their behaviours, correcting themselves when necessary. They become more aware of their difficulties but also their successes, which boosts their confidence immensely.

Self-reinforcement

Self-reinforcement is the act of rewarding oneself after achieving a goal or a desired behavior. Rewards may vary from a student to another, but the most important aspect is that these rewards should be personalized to the student and the behaviors you want to reinforce. Rewarding the completion of a goal or a positive behavior motivates the student to do better and increases the likelihood of the behavior repeating itself.

Self-evaluation

While students are most likely looking forward to rewards, reflection on the process proves itself to be the best way to learn. Asking questions such as, “What inspired you to do well?,” “What was the most difficult part of it?,” “How can you do better next time?,” are eye-openers that help both the teacher and the student gain insight on their performance. Self-evaluation teaches students the power of resilience and perseverance; and boosts their confidence and intrinsic motivation. They know that failure may happen, but it is not a reason to give up— It’s a motive to keep trying.

How to Write a Self Evaluation (With Examples)

First step, be honest about your hits and misses.

Self evaluations are performance assessments that bring you and your manager together to rate your performance over a given time span (quarterly, semi-annually, annually) either using a scale (one to 10 or one to five) or by answering open-ended questions. You complete the evaluation and so does your manager. During the performance review , the two of you compare notes to arrive at a final evaluation.

What Is a Self Evaluation?

Self evaluations are performance assessments that both employees and managers complete. They can be done quarterly, semi-annually or annually, and range from open-ended questions discussed to ratings given on a numeric scale.

Writing about yourself, especially if those words are going to be part of your permanent work record, can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, self evaluations give you a voice in your performance review , and they’re opportunities to outline your career goals and get help in reaching them.

Below, we’ll examine self evaluation benefits, tips and examples, plus how both employees and managers can complete them successfully.

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Benefits of Self Evaluations 

1. help employees and managers prepare for performance reviews.

Completing a self evaluation can help guide the eventual performance-review conversation in a structured, but meaningful, way. It also helps both parties get an idea of what needs to be discussed during a performance review, so neither feels caught off guard by the conversation.

2. Give Employees an Opportunity to Reflect on Their Progress

Since self evaluations are inherently reflective, they allow employees to identify and examine their strengths and weaknesses. This helps employees both know their worth to an organization and what they still have left to learn. 

“Self evaluations enable employees to see their work in its entirety,” Jill Bowman, director of people at fintech company Octane , said. “They ensure that employees reflect on their high points throughout the entire year and to assess their progress towards achieving predetermined objectives and goals.”

3. Help Managers Track Employee Accomplishments

Employee self assessments help managers more accurately remember each employee’s accomplishments. “As many managers often have numerous direct reports, it provides a useful summary of the achievements of each member,” Bowman said.

4. Improve Employee Satisfaction

Academic literature indicates that employees are more satisfied with evaluations that involve two-way communication and encourage a conversation between manager and employee, according to Thomas Begley, professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . 

The thing is, employees have to trust that the process is fair, Begley added. If they believe it is, and they’re treated fairly and respectfully during the process, employees react positively to self evaluations.

5. Can Decrease Employee Turnover

Some companies see tangible results from self evaluations. For example, Smarty , an address-verification company, enjoys low staff turnover, said Rob Green, chief revenue officer. The self-evaluation method, coupled with a strong focus on a communication-based corporate culture, has resulted in a 97 percent retention rate, Green told Built In.

Related 6 Ways to Be More Confident in Performance Reviews

How to Write a Self Evaluation

The ability to write a self evaluation is a critical career skill.

“Self evaluations give you a platform to influence your manager and in many cases, reframe the nature of the relationship with your manager,” Richard Hawkes, CEO and founder of Growth River , a leadership and management consulting company, said. “And all results in business happen in the context of relationships.”

Below are some tips on how to complete a self evaluation.

1. Track Your Work and Accomplishments

Daily or weekly tracking of your work can help you keep track of your progress and also prevent last-minute “what on earth did I do the last six months?” panic at performance evaluation time, said Peter Griscom, CEO at Tradefluence . “Strip down the questions to two or three, and just ask yourself, ‘How well did I communicate today?’ ‘How well did I solve problems today?’ ‘What have I achieved today?’” Griscom said. “Get in the habit of writing those things out and keeping track and over time.”

2. Answer Honestly  

For his first self evaluation, Griscom remembers wondering how to best answer the questions. After he asked his manager for guidance, Griscom answered the questions as accurately as he could. “What came out of it was really valuable, because it gave me a chance to reflect on my own achievements and think about where I can improve,” he said. “It forced me to do the thinking instead of just accepting feedback.”

3. Highlight Your Achievements

If your boss has a handful of direct reports, chances are good they haven’t noticed each of your shining moments during a review period. This is your chance to spotlight yourself. Quotas exceeded, projects finished ahead of schedule, fruitful mentoring relationships, processes streamlined — whatever you’ve done, share it, and don’t be shy about it, said Alexandra Phillips , a leadership and management coach. Women, especially, tend not to share achievements and accomplishments as loudly or often as they should. “Make sure your manager has a good sense of where you’ve had those wins, large and small, because sometimes they can fly under the radar,” Phillips added.

4. Admit Weaknesses and How You Have Grown 

If you’ve made a whopper mistake since your past review, mention it — and be sure to discuss what you’ve learned from it. Chances are good your manager knows you made a mistake, and bringing it up gives you the opportunity to provide more context to the situation.

5. Acknowledge Areas of Improvement

Be prepared for your manager to point out a few areas for improvement. This is where career growth happens. “If you want something,” whether it’s a promotion or move to another department, “you need to know how to get there,” said Phillips.

Related What Are Short-Term Career Goals? (With 12 Examples)

Self Evaluation Examples and Templates Answers

Still not sure what to do when you put pen to paper? Here are six open-ended self evaluation sample questions from the Society for Human Resource Management, as well as example answers you can use to prepare for your own self evaluation.

1. Job Performance Examples

List your most significant accomplishments or contributions since last year. How do these achievements align with the goals/objectives outlined in your last review?

How to answer with positive results: In the past year, I successfully led our team in finishing [project A]. I was instrumental in finding solutions to several project challenges, among them [X, Y and Z]. When Tom left the company unexpectedly, I was able to cover his basic tasks until a replacement was hired, thus keeping our team on track to meet KPIs. 

I feel the above accomplishments demonstrate that I have taken more of a leadership role in our department, a move that we discussed during my last performance review.

How to answer with ways to improve: Although I didn’t meet all of my goals in the last year, I am working on improving this by changing my workflow and holding myself accountable. I am currently working to meet my goals by doing [X, Y and Z] and I plan to have [project A] completed by [steps here]. I believe that I will be able to correct my performance through these actionable steps.  

Describe areas you feel require improvement in terms of your professional capabilities. List the steps you plan to take and/or the resources you need to accomplish this.

I feel I could do better at moving projects off my desk and on to the next person without overthinking them or sweating details that are not mine to sweat; in this regard I could trust my teammates more. I plan to enlist your help with this and ask for a weekly 15-minute one-on-one meeting to do so.  

Identify two career goals for the coming year and indicate how you plan to accomplish them.

One is a promotion to senior project manager, which I plan to reach by continuing to show leadership skills on the team. Another is that I’d like to be seen as a real resource for the organization, and plan to volunteer for the committee to update the standards and practices handbook.  

2. Leadership Examples

Since the last appraisal period, have you successfully performed any new tasks or additional duties outside the scope of your regular responsibilities? If so, please specify.

How to answer with positive results: Yes. I have established mentoring relationships with one of the younger members of our team, as well as with a more seasoned person in another department. I have also successfully taken over the monthly all-hands meeting in our team, trimming meeting time to 30 minutes from an hour and establishing clear agendas and expectations for each meeting. Again, I feel these align with my goal to become more of a leader.

How to answer with ways to improve: Since the last review period, I focused my efforts on improving my communication with our team, meeting my goals consistently and fostering relationships with leaders in other departments. Over the next six months, I plan on breaking out of my comfort zone by accomplishing [X, Y and Z].  

What activities have you initiated, or actively participated in, to encourage camaraderie and teamwork within your group and/or office? What was the result?

How to answer with positive results: I launched the “No More Panicked Mondays” program to help on-site and remote colleagues make Mondays more productive. The initiative includes segmenting the day into 25-minute parts to answer emails, get caught up on direct messages, sketch out to-do lists and otherwise plan for the week ahead. NMPM also includes a 15-minute “Weekend Update” around lunch time, during which staff shares weekend activities. Attendance was slow at first but has picked up to nearly 90 percent participation. The result overall for the initiative is more of the team signs on to direct messages earlier in the day, on average 9:15 a.m. instead of the previous 10 a.m., and anecdotally, the team seems more enthusiastic about the week. I plan to conduct a survey later this month to get team input on how we can change up the initiative.

How to answer with ways to improve: Although I haven’t had the chance to lead any new initiatives since I got hired, I recently had an idea for [A] and wanted to run it by you. Do you think this would be beneficial to our team? I would love to take charge of a program like this.  

3. Professional Development Examples

Describe your professional development activities since last year, such as offsite seminars/classes (specify if self-directed or required by your supervisor), onsite training, peer training, management coaching or mentoring, on-the-job experience, exposure to challenging projects, other—please describe.

How to answer with positive results: I completed a class on SEO best practices and shared what I learned from the seminar during a lunch-and-learn with my teammates. I took on a pro-bono website development project for a local nonprofit, which gave me a new look at website challenges for different types of organizations. I also, as mentioned above, started two new mentoring relationships.

How to answer with ways to improve: This is something I have been thinking about but would like a little guidance with. I would love to hear what others have done in the past to help me find my footing. I am eager to learn more about [A] and [B] and would like to hear your thoughts on which courses or seminars you might recommend. 

Related How to Find the Right Mentor — and How to Be One

Types of Self Evaluations

Self evaluations can include rating scale questions, open-ended questions or a hybrid of both. Each approach has its own set of pros and cons to consider.

1. Rating Self Evaluation

Rating scale self evaluations give a list of statements where employees are asked to rate themselves on a scale of one to five or one to ten (generally the higher the number, the more favorable the rating). 

For example, in Smarty’s self evaluations, it uses a tool called 3A+. This one calls for employees and managers to sit down and complete the evaluation together, at the same time. Employees rate themselves from 3, 2 or 1 (three being the best) on their capability in their role; A, B or C on their helpfulness to others, and plus or minus on their “diligence and focus” in their role. Managers rate the employees using the same scale. A “perfect” score would be 3A+, while an underperforming employee would rate 2B-.

At the performance evaluation meeting, managers and employees compare their ratings, and employees ask for feedback on how they can improve.

But rating systems can have their challenges that are often rooted in bias . For example, women are more likely to rate themselves lower than men. People from individualistic cultures, which emphasize individuals over community, will rate themselves higher than people from collectivist cultures, which place a premium on the group rather than the individual.

2. Open-Ended Question Self Evaluation

Open-ended questions ask employees to list their accomplishments, setbacks and goals in writing. The goal of open-ended questions is to get employees thinking deeply about their work and where they need to improve. 

Open-ended questions allow employees a true voice in the process, whereas “self ratings” can sometimes be unfair , Fresia Jackson, lead research people scientist at Culture Amp , said. 

With open-ended questions, employees tend to be more forgiving with themselves, which can be both good and bad. Whatever result open ended questions bring about, they typically offer more fodder for discussion between employees and managers.

3. Hybrid Self Evaluation

Hybrid self evaluations combine both rating questions and open-ended questions, where employees assess their skills and accomplishments by using a number scale and by answering in writing. This type of self evaluation lets employees provide quantitative and qualitative answers for a more holistic reflection. 

Self-Evaluation Questions for Performance Reviews

If you’ve never done a self evaluation, or if you just need a refresher before your next performance review, looking over some examples of self evaluation questions — like the ones below — can be a helpful starting point.

Common Self-Evaluation Questions for Performance Reviews

• What are you most proud of?
• What would you do differently?
• How have you carried out the company’s mission statement?
• Where would you like to be a year from now?
• List your skills and positive attributes.
• List your accomplishments, especially those that impacted others or moved you toward goals.
• Think about your mistakes and what you’ve learned from them.
• What are your opportunities to grow through advancement and/or learning?
• How do the above tie to your professional goals?

Self-Evaluation Questions for Career Planning and Growth

• What are you interested in working on?
• What are you working on now?
• What do you want to learn more about?
• How can I as your manager better support you?
• What can the company do to support your journey?
• How can the immediate team support you?
• What can you do to better support the team and the company? 

Self-Evaluation Questions for Performance and Career Goals

• How did you perform in relation to your goals?
• What level of positive impact did your performance have on the team?
• Did your performance have a positive impact on the business?
• What was your level of collaboration with other departments?
• What corporate value do you bring to life?
• What corporate value do you most struggle to align with?
• Summarize your strengths.
• Summarize your development areas.
• Summarize your performance/achievements during this year.
• How would you rate your overall performance this year? 

Related How to Set Professional Goals

How Should Managers Approach Self Evaluations?

It’s clear here that self evaluations, as a type of performance review, are more employee- than manager-driven. That said, managers are a key ingredient in this process, and the way managers handle self evaluations determines much about how useful they are and how well employees respond to them. To make sure they’re as effective as possible, consider these suggestions.

Train Managers on How to Use Evaluations

“If you don’t, there’s no point in doing them, because the manager is going to be the one driving the conversations,” Elisabeth Duncan, vice president of human resources at Evive, said. “Without training, the [evaluations] will be a checkbox and not meaningful.”

Don’t Use Ratings Formulaically

The results of self evaluations that employ a scale (say, one to five) can vary wildly, as one manager’s three is another manager’s five. Use the scale to identify and address discrepancies between the manager’s and employee’s answers, not to decide on raises or promotions across the company.

Hold Self Evaluations Often

They work best as career-development tools if they’re held semi-annually, quarterly or even more often. “It’s about an ongoing, consistent conversation,” Duncan said.

Tailor Them For Each Department

Competencies in sales very likely differ from competencies in tech, marketing and other departments. Competencies for junior-level employees probably differ wildly from those for senior managers. Self evaluations tailored to different employee populations will be more effective, and fairer.

Stress That the Rating Is Just the Start

The rating or the open-ended questions are the beginning of the evaluation process; they are not the process itself. “These are tools to trigger a conversation,” Duncan said.

Overall, think of self evaluations as a way to engage with your manager and your work in a way that furthers your career. Embrace the self evaluation and get good at writing them. In no time at all, you’ll find that they can be a productive way to reflect on yourself and your skillset.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a self evaluation.

A self evaluation is a personal assessment used for employees to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments and overall progress during an allotted time on the job.

Self evaluations are often completed quarterly, semi-annually or annually, and can include numbered rating questions or open-ended written questions.

How do you write a good self evaluation?

An effective self evaluation is one where you highlight your achievements and instances of growth as well as areas for improvement during your given period of time at work. Tracking specific accomplishments and metrics can be especially helpful for writing a good self evaluation.

Jessica Powers contributed reporting to this story.

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