3 tips for better self-management

With more opportunities for a flexible working life, self-management has become reality for more and more people. When you are self-managing, you plan and define your own work tasks, and you therefore have greater responsibility for your own tasks. This demands a lot from you and your skills, because the ability to manage oneself does not just come naturally. However, if you master and develop the skill of managing yourself, it creates value for both you and the company you are part of. It has several advantages for you in terms of co-determination, well-being and a greater degree of freedom to plan your time and carry out your work.
 
Self-management is largely about being able to lead yourself in a shared direction and contributing to your collective success in the workplace. It also involves how you approach a task and your ability to clarify expectations. You must be able to get an overview of the different parts of the task and solve it in a way that satisfies your manager or customer.
  
As a self-managing employee, you must therefore be able to plan and carry out tasks that support the company's goals and involve potential partners, contribute to finding common solutions to problems and articulate difficulties in projects, relationships or work tasks.

To be able to manage yourself, there are five things you need to be able to do:

1. Define your tasks.
2. Know when you succeed.
3. Set goals. Both short-term and long-term.
4. Prioritise. Know which tasks are most important and do them first.
5. Evaluate your own efforts. In which areas did you do well, and in which areas did you do less well?

Self-management requires leadership

Even though it is called self-management, you are not alone. On the contrary. Your development depends on yourself, your manager and your colleagues, and you should therefore focus on getting regular feedback from the people around you.

Your manager therefore needs to work with you to set goals on an ongoing basis so that you don't miss the mark, but know which tasks to tackle and run with. You can also consult with your manager about prioritising your time so that you don't become overwhelmed by the workload and can perform at your best without feeling too pressured.

Ultimately, the responsibility for setting a good framework always lies with the manager. Self-management requires a clear framework that takes into account both your goals and interests and those of the company.

3 tips for self-management in practice

One thing is to know what you need to be able to do to practise self-management.

Another thing is how you actually do it in practice. IDA's management development consultant, Lasse Dallerup, has three good tips for you.

1) Set aside time for self-reflection at the beginning and end of the week

At the beginning of the week, it is a good idea to set aside time to look at what the week has in store and what you would like to achieve. Similarly, it makes sense to set aside time in your calendar at the end of the week to evaluate your week. Did you achieve what you wanted to, and why did you succeed or fail?

Setting aside time in your calendar gives you an opportunity to reflect on both your short-term and long-term goals. Self-reflection creates overview and motivation in your daily life, while in the long term you can consider what you want to achieve in your position – e.g. in terms of skills, areas of work and what it takes for you to be most motivated and thrive.

2) Set clear goals and make an action plan

Based on the reflection you did in connection with the previous tip, you should now divide your goals into smaller sub-goals and make an action plan. This gives you a clear direction, but also a method for measuring your progress and maintaining your motivation. Remember to be realistic about your time management and adjust your plan if your ambitions do not match your time, goals and tasks. When you are clear about your time management and priorities, you can reduce or perhaps even avoid feeling overwhelmed.

3) Continuously align expectations with your manager

Do you agree on the goals and priorities? By continuously aligning expectations, you avoid unnecessary misunderstandings with your manager and give them an opportunity to help you achieve your goals. Use your one-to-one meeting or your performance review to align expectations.