Summary:
- What is self management
- Why self management skills are important
- Benefits of self management skills
- Types of self management skills
- Ways of developing self management
- 10 quick ways to develop self management
- Self management and the recent COVID crisis.
What would be the use of being a class topper if you are unable to manage yourself in society? Self management skills for students is regarded as one of the most important skills students must possess today.
What Is Self Management?
In plain and simple words, self management can be defined as the art or skill of looking after oneself, by taking responsibility for one’s actions and well-being.
A detailed explanation about the term self management, includes skills such as emotional well being, social skills and Time management skills among others.
The term self management is a vast area that covers your overall personal well being along with your interactions in society.
Why Are Self Management Skills Important?
In today’s world, there is pressure all around. Pressure to perform and generate value to society. In school or college, non performance can lead to failure in exams.
In a job, being unable to perform may render you without work. In every walk of life there is pressure. This pressure only mounts up with every passing minute.
To tackle this pressure, self management skills are a must. Being able to hold yourself up during challenging times has become an urgent requirement for students as well as others in a society.
Types of Self Management Skills
Self management skills broadly contains two categories:
Self consciousness or self analysis and self management.
Both these categories are intertwined and must be read in collaboration with each other.
Self consciousness deals with the emotional quotient or feelings one may go through while facing different situations.
Usually self consciousness or self awareness is tested when you face new situations or when you have anxiety. Let’s understand this with the help of an example
You have been selected by your college cultural committee to perform a dance on stage for the college annual day. You have practiced well.
However, on the day the performance is scheduled you feel apprehensive and uneasy. You experience “butterflies in your stomach.”
You suddenly think that you don’t remember a single step of your choreography. You see the audience and your legs start to tremble. This is anxiety.
Self consciousness deals with this part of your emotional well being. How you are able to cope up with this anxiety and face your fears is an important part of self management.
The second part is self management itself. Self management as discussed above is the way you look after yourself and conduct yourself with others around.
Your social interactions and how forthcoming you are is part of the self management skills for students. It is the art of finding a way to manage your self awareness and behaviour to benefit you and others around you.
As mentioned above, self management skills for students is a vast concept encompassing a wide range of aspects. It includes the following aspects but are not limited to the following:
- Handling emotions
- Tackling pressure or stress management
- Ability to spring back from failures
- Setting long term and short term Goals
- Planning and coordinating
- Forthcoming
- Communication
- Accepting negative feedback and using it to improve
- Self acceptance
- Empathy towards others
Self management is an important skill and can not be learnt overnight. In fact it is an ever learning process that can be mastered only through life’s experiences.
Ways to Develop Self Management Skills for Students
Learning self management skills is a lifelong activity. More and more new skills of self management can be learnt every day. It takes practice, confidence and determination to possess great self management skills.
It is how you self-regulate your living and align it with the world around you, in order to make you and all those around you emotionally happy and at peace.
The question now arises – how to develop self management skills? Here are a few tips on the ways to develop self management skills for students.
1. Be Conscious
When something is happening around you, you must always ask why. Why is it happening this way? Why could it not have happened another way?
Or why did this happen in the first place? When you question things around you, you become aware and conscious of your surroundings. This is the first step towards self management.
2. Set Goals
Setting goals is very important. It gives you a purpose to fulfill your daily activities with more vigour and interest. When you set goals and strive to achieve success you automatically tend to manage yourself.
3. Communicate
One of the ways to develop self management skills is to communicate effectively. Learning to communicate effectively helps you to reduce stress and anxiety especially while interacting with others around you.
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4. Believe in Yourself
Sometimes belief in yourself can take you a long way. When others around you lose hope and feel dejected, remember not to lose sight of your vision and goal however discouraging others around you may be.
In order to believe in yourself, you must think and talk positively. Many time positive words or encouraging words can help you get through challenging situations
Try these for instance
- I can do it
- I am confident
- I am beautiful today
- Today will be a great day.
Positive thoughts are like a steering wheel. It movies our life in the right direction
5. Routine
One of the best ways of how to develop self management skills is to have a routine in life. A routine sets your life at a comfortable pace.The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
When you follow a routine it brings discipline in life and helps you manage your day and its events with ease.
6. Self Evaluate
Like we have said earlier, self management skills are not something that can be learnt overnight. It can be learnt only through life’s experiences.
Life’s experiences are the best way to measure your success. Your current life is the result of your previous choices.
If you want something different, you must choose and act differently today. Without self evaluation, failure is inevitable.
10 Quick Steps to Self Management
- If you think it’s wrong, don’t do it
- If you can not control it, don’t ponder over it
- Don’t hesitate to say yes or no when it matters
- Do things for yourself satisfaction and not to please others
- Trust your abilities
- Stay true to your goals and dreams
- Think and speak positive thoughts about yourself and others
- Stay far from negativity
- Don’t be harsh on yourself
- Spring back in action after a fall.
Why Are Self Management Skills Important?
Life, especially a student’s life can be challenging. There are times when you may feel that the whole world is against you and you may feel like giving up hope.
This is where your self management skills are put to test. It is how you cope up with inevitable stress and anxiety that is bound to come your way in your life’s journey.
Therefore, it is always advisable to arm yourself with the best self management skills so that you are ready to face any obstacle that may come your way. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Be prepared rather than regret.
According to Timothy Shriver, Co founder and Chair of Centre for Advancing Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), “The truth is emotions drive attention and attention drives learning. Our country needs social and emotional learning tools now more than ever.” Advancing Social and Emotional Learning – CASEL
Self Management and Covid-19
The recent pandemic that shook the world is an example of how self management skills of students were put to test.
With an entire change in the schooling concept, students were made to adapt to the changed scene almost over night.
Here, students who possessed a good amount of self management skills were able to adapt almost immediately, with a little effort. While students who lacked self management skills found it difficult to overcome the situation.
School authorities, parents, guardians and scholars rushed to try and fill in the social and emotional learning gap that existed with online learning.
Since it was a sudden and almost immediate change, it was a difficult gap to fill overnight. Students as well as parents suffered because of the lack of self management skills.
Conclusion
As seen above, the benefits of self management skills can not be quantified.
All management starts with self management which is the genesis of intentions and actions. The first and best victory is to conquer yourself.
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