Self-management is one of the most important conditions for achieving success. By learning to properly manage your time, you can work more effectively towards achieving your goals.
Definition of self-management
When asked which resource is the most limited in human life, many answer incorrectly. This is not money or other benefits, but time. Only by learning to correctly distribute it to perform certain actions can you get as close as possible to achieving your goals.
Self-management is a technique that involves rational use (also called time management). This technique allows you to achieve better results with less load. We are also talking about using effective methods in work that save resources.
If we take into account the goal of self-management, then it is to make maximum use of all available resources and reduce the time spent on performing certain operations.
The essence of self-management can be expressed in the following provisions:
- defining goals (they must be realistic and, preferably, specific);
- creating a picture of success in your mind (include your environment and other aspects here);
- using the “big leaps” technique, which involves a quick transition to specific actions;
- unconditional belief in one’s own strength and achievement of success;
- focusing on the main goals and eliminating secondary ones;
- the ability to control oneself and start actions again in case of a bad experience.
We can say that at the moment self-management is an objective necessity not only for business managers, but also for any other person who wants to use their time effectively and manage to do as much work as possible. It should become a kind of habit, which is achieved through long-term work on oneself, developing perseverance, as well as the ability to think rationally.
Self-management functions
While solving certain problems every day, we sometimes don’t think about the fact that we are engaged in self-management. However, to achieve truly significant results, it is important to approach this process consciously and consistently. The following functions of self-management can be distinguished:
- goal setting (you must clearly understand the end result in real terms that you would like to achieve as a result of your activities);
- drawing up a plan (developing a detailed “road map” that will determine your steps towards your goals);
- decision making (each step is accompanied by the presence of several alternatives from which you must make a choice);
- organizing your working time and space (you must develop a convenient work schedule for yourself and strictly adhere to it, without being distracted by extraneous activities);
- constant self-monitoring (it is important to analyze the compliance of the achieved results with the planned ones not only at the final, but also at intermediate stages of work);
- establishing communications and information channels (this is perhaps one of the most important functions, which is closely interconnected with all others).
The above functions in the specified sequence can also be perceived as stages of self-government. It is worth noting the exceptional importance of each of them, and therefore it is unacceptable to step over one point or another. It is important to understand that, despite the fact that at first glance this looks difficult and also takes a lot of time, over time these actions will become automatic. Please note that self-management is not just a responsibility, but a developed habit of an effective and successful leader.
What determines the need for managerial self-management?
The concept of self-management was developed due to the fact that not every person knows how to properly organize their working time and space. As a result, some goals remain unattainable. Thus, we can identify the following factors that impede success and necessitate such a phenomenon as manager self-management:
- inability to rationally spend one's time and physical resources;
- lack of clear priorities both in life and in business matters;
- inability to determine one's own goals;
- freezing work on self-development (having reached a certain level, a person considers further self-education inappropriate, and therefore begins to lag behind business trends);
- lack of skills in making management decisions;
- using a pragmatic approach to solve problems and the inability to use creative methods;
- inability to communicate with people, as well as to exert proper influence and pressure on them;
- lack of knowledge in the field of management activities;
- inability to manage subordinates and effectively organize their work;
- devoting insufficient time and attention to both your own training and the training of employees;
- lack of skills in the field of forming an effectively working team (we are talking not only about the selection of personnel, but also about placing them in jobs).
It is worth noting that self-management of a manager is important not only in the context of his personal career achievements, but also to ensure the successful operation of the enterprise as a whole. Only an effective manager can lead an organization and its employees to success. Only a person who has learned to effectively manage himself and his time will be able to cope with a large organization.
The Essence of Self-Motivation
Self-management and self-motivation are one of the most important aspects not only in the work of a leader, but also in the everyday life of a person who strives to achieve success. It is important not only to learn how to manage your time, but also to develop an internal desire to work, conditioned by certain incentives. The function of self-motivation should not be underestimated. Sometimes a person can be unsettled when those around him do not believe in his success or deliberately underestimate his merits. This mechanism spurs you to further actions regardless of external circumstances.
You can achieve real success only if your activities are accompanied by mechanisms such as self-management and self-motivation. The fastest way to push yourself is to listen to your inner stimuli. So, pay attention to your physiological needs. To satisfy most of them, you will certainly need certain funds that simply cannot be obtained if you sit idle on social networks or watch television programs.
Higher level needs are security and confidence in the future. Thus, a person constantly needs housing, clothing, entertainment, as well as a certain supply of funds to satisfy other needs. The power of motivation depends only on how high your bar is. Live in a rented apartment or in your own house, dress at the market or in a brand store, relax in a country house or prestigious resorts, save a small amount or an impressive capital for the future - the strength of internal incentives will depend on your aspirations.
Despite the fact that many deny the influence of public opinion, it is sometimes the main factor in self-motivation. So, for example, a person can go to work so as not to be branded a slacker and at the same time be content with a low position and an average salary. Self-motivation encourages some people to actively move up the career ladder, obtain high social status, and also significant monetary income.
Thus, self-motivation is based on human needs, which are described by Maslow's pyramid. At the lower, basic level are physiological needs. After they are completely satisfied, a desire appears to feel confidence in the future, strength of position and security. Also, each person strives to occupy a certain social position and create a corresponding opinion about himself.
Self-management technique
Self-management methods can be divided into several categories:
- The organizational management method involves planning future activities based on an objective analysis of the current situation. We are talking about both internal and external factors.
- The technique of self-regulation of stress is to learn to resist external negative influences, while maintaining psychological balance and performance.
- Autogenic training is one of the main procedures on which self-management is based. Briefly, it can be described as self-hypnosis and self-conviction in one’s own strengths and abilities.
- Meditation is often used to quickly restore strength and emotional balance in between stressful work.
We can say that self-management is continuous work on oneself. This is not only about developing certain professional skills and the ability to spend your working time effectively. This also means working on your own psyche. As a result, a person must become confident in his own abilities, and also learn to maintain composure in stressful situations.
Implementation of self-management
Self-management technology represents a certain sequence of stages that is consonant with its main goals. First, you need to decide on the goal, as well as the criteria that will indicate its achievement. To do this, it is necessary to clearly analyze the current state of affairs, after which realistically achievable future indicators will become obvious. It is important that the final result has some clear expression (for example, quantitative).
At the next stage, it is necessary to pay attention to the factor of information that is necessary in order to realize the goal of self-management. Data can come from both internal and external sources. At the same time, they must be relevant (that is, correspond to the real picture of what is happening).
Planning consists of developing a clear algorithm of actions to achieve your goals. At the same time, it is important to foresee possible fluctuations in the internal or external environment in order to determine alternative algorithms that will avoid negative consequences and crisis situations.
Decision making is one of the most important stages of self-management. The organization of this process should be given special attention. Comfortable working conditions must be created, as well as full provision of information so that actions are meaningful and consistent with the current state of affairs.
To effectively implement the decisions made, it is important to provide comfortable working conditions. In this case, both physiological and psychological characteristics must be observed. Key tasks must be completed independently, and secondary ones can be delegated to subordinates.
At all stages of work, continuous monitoring of the results obtained should be carried out to ensure their compliance with the planned ones. This will allow deviations to be identified in time and responded accordingly.
working hours
The principles of self-management can be described as follows:
- Only 60% of the working time should be subject to precise planning and distribution of operations. At the same time, the remaining 40% should remain unoccupied in case of unforeseen circumstances, urgent negotiations, as well as contacts both within the organization and outside it. In addition, the things you have planned, purely physically, may take more time.
- Planning work time should not be a one-time thing. This work should be carried out regularly and systematically. In addition, you can constantly make adjustments to the developed action program.
- Plans must be realistic and developed based on the real capabilities of each individual person. You can take reporting indicators from previous periods or special calculations as a basis.
- For effective self-management, the concept of compensation for lost time plays an important role. This means that if you have a “window” today, it is better to spend it on completing some of the tasks planned for tomorrow.
- When compiling a report on the work done, record not the number of actions performed, but the results achieved in real terms. This will help create an objective picture of the plan's implementation.
- In order for the work to be completed in a timely manner, it is important that the plans are clearly coordinated in time. It is advisable to complete the work a little earlier than the deadline in order to be able to make the necessary adjustments.
- If plans are drawn up at different levels (director, line managers, subordinates), then they must be coordinated in time.
Benefits of self-management
Effective self-management provides a lot of benefits to both organizational leaders and people involved in any other field of activity. We are talking about the following positive points:
- a significant reduction in time costs, as well as other resources for performing certain works;
- organizing an effective mechanism for labor activity, which ensures higher economic and other results than under normal conditions;
- absence of stressful situations that are associated with haste due to fear of not being able to complete the work on time;
- if the work is performed efficiently and within the set deadlines, then it brings moral satisfaction to both managers and their subordinates;
- if work has a visible result, then this is a kind of motivation for further active action;
- with each clearly planned step the level of professionalism and qualifications increases;
- in the process of self-management, you search for shortcuts to achieve goals that previously took a significant amount of time to achieve.
It is worth noting that the time spent on planning and organizing work is fully repaid not only by the final results of the activity, but also by the acquired skills in managing one’s own resources.
Components of self-management
A self-management system implies a combination of a number of interrelated elements that ensure the effective organization of the work process. The following main components can be distinguished:
- time management implies the correct determination of the proportions of work and rest, as well as the distribution of the duration of each operation;
- financial management consists of determining available resources, as well as those that need to be used to achieve the goal;
- Communication management means searching for connections and sources of information both in the internal and external environment;
- Workspace management involves the correct organization of the workplace in accordance with ergonomic and other requirements.
It is worth noting that self-management is a complex process, and therefore it is necessary to approach it comprehensively. If you miss one or more components, then so-called bottlenecks arise in the plan, which can negatively affect the quality of the work, as well as the timing of its completion. Preparing to perform a particular workflow requires some effort and may take some time, which will later pay off in results.
conclusions
One of the necessary conditions for successful and productive work is self-management. It lies in the ability to correctly distribute available resources, including temporary ones. It is worth noting that quite often this concept is identified with time management. And this is not surprising, because it is the ability to properly organize your workday that determines the speed and quality of achieving your goals. At the moment, given the modern pace of life, as well as the level of competition, self-management is becoming an objective necessity for those people who are focused on results.
It is worth noting that the functions of self-government largely correspond to the functions of management. First you need to develop a goal that will determine the direction in which you need to move. It is further detailed by drawing up a plan. Its implementation represents a consistent adoption of the chain and the organization of the work process. If we are talking about an enterprise, then communication links must be established between all its divisions. And don’t forget about such a function as control, which can be not only final, but also intermediate.
It is important to pay attention not only to management, but also to self-motivation. In order to understand when achieving certain goals, it is worth studying Its basis is physiological needs. This is food, clothing, etc. Having provided the necessary minimum, a person thinks about feeling safe. The point here is to have confidence in the future (most often this means financial well-being). The highest category of needs that motivate a person to activity is social status.
Every working modern person spends almost a third of his adult life at work, and many more. Time spent at work in modern management psychology is not considered as a way of earning money for one’s everyday and family personal life. This is an absolutely independent and very significant part of our life. It is denoted as "professional life". And this part of life has the legal right to be interesting, attractive to the employee, provide opportunities for self-realization, and bring satisfaction.
The right to an interesting professional life is an inalienable right of every person.
Over twenty years ago (in 1984), Irish professor Charles Hendy published the book “The Future of Work.” Analyzing trends in labor relations in the 19th and 20th centuries, Hendy came to disappointing conclusions and gloomy forecasts. In the dynamics of labor, the author noted a decline in the possibilities of personal self-realization. Work for the most part does not provide either a sense of self-worth, a state of security, or a worthy material reward. To make up for this, many participate in volunteer (social, unpaid) work in addition to their main job.
In the dynamics of the structure of society, Hendy pointed to the growth of unemployment and the emergence of a “declassed” layer that cannot classify itself as any class—managers.
The noted trends, left unattended, according to the author, can explode the basic foundations of society. Hendy saw top management as a “healthy force” capable of stopping negative social trends. This is top management and “golden collars” » – general managerial profession. Handy called this social group “the non-class of non-producers.” In other words, this is what lies behind “productivism.” It is this group that is capable of constructively transforming society. These people have a colossal influence, comparable to leading politicians, on the national and world economy and, as a consequence, on national and world politics.
However, it is not only top management that plays a huge role in society. Today, about 15% of workers in the world can be classified as managers. These people, as a rule, are the masters of their own lives. They hold the “bird of happiness” in their own hands. In addition, the well-being of their subordinates greatly depends on them. Based on the above, we can formulate the role of modern management in the tasks of its subject.
Tasks of a modern manager:
Make your professional life interesting;
Make the professional life of subordinate personnel interesting;
“Make money”, that is, ensure the efficiency (profitability) of the work being led;
Make your personal and family life interesting.
The stated tasks assume that a manager is a person who is internally (psychologically) positively disposed towards his work. Moreover, it brings him satisfaction. Working as a manager “under duress” is not only undesirable, but also harmful. Harmful for yourself and for society. Such a person himself experiences discomfort and also creates psychological stress for his subordinates.
In the further ranking of tasks, the manager must put people - his subordinates - in first place. After all, the professional success of the company ultimately depends on them, on their state of mind. And finally, the last task. A modern manager is, first of all, a specialist in the field of human relations. Exactly. And if this is so, then he is quite capable of demonstrating his managerial, regulatory and tuning qualities in the sphere of his relationships in the family and circle of friends. Otherwise, one should question his managerial professionalism in the modern sense. And if the manager himself has troubles at home and problems with friends, then he will not be able to solve those tasks that are listed first above.
Until now, our conversation has been conducted without taking into account the gender of the manager. But about a quarter of managers are women. The problem of sex in management theory is called “gender”.
For a long time it was believed that the most important qualities for a leader are logic, prudence, and emotional balance. And these, in turn, are typical qualities of that mentality and character that is commonly called masculine.
However, 15-20% of women fully possess the listed qualities. This means that they can be successful leaders “playing in the field of men.” This is exactly what political people were like. leaders Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto and many others.
But modern management theory does not at all encourage women managers to “be men.” On the contrary, a female manager can successfully lead using precisely typically “feminine” qualities. Among such qualities are an emotional attitude to work, practicality in life, and dedication in business. Modern theory and practice of management have even substantiated the above-mentioned special management style - interactive.
The interactive style of management is the involvement of the leader of subordinates in emotional unity based on both an interested attitude towards work and non-productive affairs of each other. In this case, the boss is a “friend-conspirator.”
Thus, in the modern profession of manager there is no need to change “sexual orientation” at all. A woman may well “play by women’s rules” of management, and a man may “play by men’s rules.”
Concluding the conversation about the role of management in modern life, we can once again refer to the interpretation of the state of happiness. Our satisfaction with our professional life largely depends on our immediate supervisor. Another important part is the atmosphere in the family. Based on what has been said, we can better understand the psychological formula for happiness given at the beginning of the chapter.
In the age of innovative technologies, with the rapid growth of various fields of activity, management has become a familiar part of life. It was even equated to art and science.
The rapid growth of global production has increased the need for management. With its help, some aspects of life are controlled. This can be leadership over the staff and over the production itself.
Any manager in his organization must clearly plan and direct his type of activity to improve and achieve high productivity in the labor market.
Every year management grows more and more intensively and becomes a necessary element. His responsibilities include excellent knowledge of consumption and demand in the market, to produce a sellable product at a very low cost, but with high profits.
When managing staff, it is imperative to know psychology, sociology and be able to put the plan into action and achieve the goal. In large companies, a responsible manager plays a huge role in achieving a high production rating. Sometimes the manager understands all the nuances of the company better than the director.
Every year the management structure expands. Its types have their own development, which clearly achieve the goal. Management is divided into strategic type (the main focus is human resources and works with long-term goals), organizational (development of quality management and rules, their compliance), tactical (development of the necessary strategies) and operational (based on the goal that arises during production).
Depending on how each type functions, the following types are distinguished:
Marketing management. Engages in in-depth research of money markets, finds the latest sales methods, and creates the opportunity to formulate a pricing policy.
Personnel management. It includes high-quality personnel management and full use of work activity. Hiring and subsequent training of a person.
Production management. This is control of all production processes of the company. Ability to improve their core tasks. In the field of sales. An organized approach to increasing product sales performance. Drawing up various contracts.
Anti-crisis - protects the company from financial collapse or raises the company from the consequences of the crisis.
Due to the rapid growth of productivity in the labor market, new types of management are appearing, for example, virus, attack, and many others. etc.
Financial. Here, the development of all possible goals for managing all financial transactions in a known organization takes place, and the search for the most effective methods for solving financial issues.
The innovative type deals exclusively with investments, profitable investment of capital to increase profitable channels.
Accounting management. It includes obtaining the necessary information, carefully selecting and analyzing it so that the company does not lose out.
The adaptive view monitors all changes occurring in the labor market. His goal is to adapt to a new environment.
Time management is possible not only at work, but also in everyday life. After all, when we come home or think through our plans for the week, we also set ourselves a number of tasks and solve them. In order to properly plan your time and not bend under the routine of household chores, the very first and most important thing is to calculate the amount of time you spend on a certain activity.
When it becomes clear that in the half hour that the washing machine will handle the laundry, you can iron clothes for the next week, then this half hour will not be so difficult to find in the evening after work. But don't try to do more than you can! Half an hour is enough. Because if you spend the whole evening ironing, then all the other tasks that can be solved today will be distributed throughout the week.
Gradually, it is worth finding out the amount of time spent on other routine tasks. You can even write it down so you don't get confused. When you are not able to keep everything in your head, use a diary. This is not a stupid activity, it is saving your own resources. Just don’t try to fit one week’s tasks into one day. It won't be possible to complete them anyway. You need to listen to the voice of reason and everything that you want to fit into a day - on the contrary, on occasion, divide it into two.
The simplest example of using a diary is, for example, calculating food consumption for the week. In order not to discover after a trip to the store that it turns out that you have run out of two essential everyday products, it is better to immediately write down which supply has run out. So, if in the middle of the week you write in your notebook, say, “onions”, “sunflower oil” and “sugar”, then there will be an absolute guarantee that all this will be bought on the weekend, and next week you won’t have to run to the store because there is nothing to fry dinner on.
If you don’t have the skill of planning your day, try to start with a simple algorithm: identify the daily routine that you cannot do without - hygiene procedures, basic work tasks, cooking dinner. And every day add to this list one work task, one household task, and one self-care task. To begin with, you can distribute these three points over three days. Over time, it will become clearer what time is left for today, and by organizing your schedule, one day you will see that all tasks for today have been completed and there is free time left.
Thus, it is worth planning almost every area of life. Planning is a tool that seems tedious and complicated, but over time makes life much easier. His main rule is to do everything in advance. If you prepare in advance three options for what to wear to work, wash and iron these things, then you will have time for self-care all week in the morning. If you help your child get ready for school in the evening, then early in the morning there will be no shouts like: “Mom, where are my notebooks?” If you provide your husband with a week's supply of shirts on the weekend, you won't have to panic and help him with ironing half an hour before going out, when your manicure is drying.
There is one science, even a skill, without which it is very difficult for a person to survive in the modern world. This is time management, or, in simpler terms, the art of organizing your time and disciplining yourself. When you learn to manage your time correctly, everything will become much easier, you will get everything you need done, and at the same time, the question of time slipping away from you like sand through your fingers will no longer arise. Many scientific and journalistic works and articles have been written on this topic. I will allow myself to summarize the basic principles, based on my own many years of experience in introducing time management into work and everyday life, and I hope that this will be useful to someone and change their life for the better.
1. Your planner is your best friend. This is true. But it is also true that not everyone is able to use it; some experience some kind of psychological rejection. For example, no matter how many times I give my mother diaries and teach her how to use them, explaining all the benefits, she still can’t get used to it and quits after a couple of days. But she always has stacks of small pieces of paper with the same to-do lists. My advice is this - of course, it is much more convenient to keep a daily to-do list and your schedule in a beautiful, functional diary, where you can also enter the contacts of the necessary people, store the necessary receipts, notes and other pieces of paper in a special department and keep additional lists. But this is not suitable for everyone, so it is important to determine which method is closer to you - it could be an electronic organizer in a gadget, a regular notepad, or the already mentioned diary. As a last resort, separate sheets - but they are very easily lost, and this already leads to chaos in your life, which you so want to get rid of. But writing down your tasks for the day is a must, it will help you understand which ones to do first, and this will help you...
2. ...the Eisenhower matrix. This is a really great, easy-to-use chart that allows you to break down your tasks into four categories and determine which ones you need to tackle first.
1) urgent and important matters. These may be things from other categories that you did not complete on time and that “lit up red.” This also includes the resolution of some crises, or simply a deadline. For example: a work project that urgently needs to be submitted; a broken water pipe at home; preparation for an exam, etc.;
2) non-urgent important matters. These tasks require a lot of thoughtfulness and careful approach; they are important to you, but they do not have to be done immediately and completely. It makes more sense to break these tasks down into smaller subtasks and do them gradually, without piling up, reaching a deadline, or allowing them to become the first category. For example: writing a thesis; general house cleaning; repairs, etc. This also includes matters related to interpersonal connections - communication with family and friends, as well as long-term training, current work issues. It is very important to set for yourself (if they have not been set by someone else) deadlines for completing such tasks in general, and for specific segments of them - a diary or matrix-type calendar helps with this. As a last resort - a sticker on the monitor or refrigerator with the exact date of completion of the task;
3) not important and not urgent matters. This, first of all, includes time wasters: meaningless surfing on the Internet, computer games, TV, chatting on the phone. This is all called rest and is also necessary, but it is worth correctly prioritizing between this point and the previous two. This also includes reading fiction and hobbies;
4) urgent but not important matters. Everything that arises suddenly, but does not in any way affect your achievement of your main life, educational, economic, work and other goals. These could be phone calls that are of no interest to you, uninteresting letters that you don’t have to answer, or some kind of optional work. All this can either not be done or delegated. If you still have to do this, spend a minimum of time on them.
3. So, having understood the Eisenhower matrix, it becomes clear how prioritize your day. If you use a diary, I recommend highlighting these categories with markers of different colors (the last category should not be included in the list at all, it is better to eliminate such things right away), and perform them in order of importance and urgency, starting with the first and ending with the third. Don’t forget that things from the second category do not have to be completed in full right away; it will be much more productive to break them down into stages. For myself, I also always highlight routine, obligatory daily tasks so that I don’t miss them when planning my time: self-care, sports, checking email, keeping a diary, and the like. Don't forget about food! You need yourself healthy.
4. Experts recommend placing for each day three main tasks-goals that you want to achieve during the day. If the tasks are small in volume and time, you can select five, but no more. For example, for me it might look like this:
1) send the client a complete calculation;
2) pay rent;
3) write and submit an article for approval for the website;
4) washing bed linen;
5) French classes.
Once you have completed these tasks, the day can be considered well spent, and everything else will be a pleasant bonus.
5. It also helps me a lot plan ahead, on Saturday next week, and make a rough list of tasks for each month. Periodically, I check in with them and make sure everything is going according to plan.
6. When you have decided on the tasks for the day, distributed the tasks by importance and urgency, determine how much time each of them will require and distribute them for the day. Don't forget about breaks! They also need to be planned. For example, if you are writing a thesis, then your daily schedule might look something like this:
6.00-8.00 - morning routine, breakfast, road to the institute;
8.00-8.45 - meeting with the supervisor;
8.45-9.15 - coffee with classmates;
9.15-10.00 - way home, on the way go to the dry cleaners and pick up things!
10.00-11.00 - second breakfast, reading/cinema
11.00-13.00 - work on the diploma
13.00-14.00 - lunch, rest
14.00-16.00 - work on the diploma
16.00-17.00 - road to the gym, along the way you can read, listen to music or audio language courses
17.00-18.30 - classes in the hall
18.30-20.30 - meeting with friends
21.00-22.00 - reading materials for diploma
Of course, this is all approximately. And it is not necessary to schedule everything by the hour; it is important to have such a plan in your head and understand how much time you have for this or that task, and what needs to be done earlier.
Loading...
