17 Quick Tips for Personal Effectiveness and Self-Management

Do you generally turn up late for appointments? Leave reports and work to the last minute? Struggle to complete tasks on time? If you answer yes to the above questions, maybe the following quick tips for personal effectiveness and self-management can help you!

 

17 Quick Tips for Personal Effectiveness and Self-Management

Following are 17 quick tips for personal effectiveness and self-management –

1. Choose Wisely –

Many people have been quoted over the years as saying where we are today is the sum total of the choices we have made up until now. So it is important we choose wisely and check-in with how those choices feel. Do you really want that extra piece of dessert? How is it going to make you feel? Is it really going to make you happy and take you closer to your intentions? Or will it take you further away? Remember there is always a choice.

Rollo May writes in the Courage to Create –

“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness.” (p.76).

2. Be 100% Responsible and Accountable –

Being 100% responsibility and hold yourself accountable for where you are in all areas of your life. Yes I mean ALL areas of your life – from your health, fitness, work, relationships, fun, adventure, to your finances – no excuses. Taking responsibility means no blaming people or justifying why things are the way they are. Right now, what would it mean to you if you started to be 100% responsible and held yourself accountable for your life?

3. Learn to Say “No” –

You don’t have to overcommit or take on more than you can handle. Sometimes a “no” can be “no not now”, not “no” completely! This also links in to knowing our own priorities and commitments.

4. Use an Organiser –

Your organiser can keep you on top of the things you need to do and see where you spend your time. You can include your doing (or being) lists, birthdays, reminders etc.

5. Use a Calendar –

Using a calendar can keep you on top of your schedule and important dates. Some people prefer to use a paper diary and some prefer electronic (i.e. iCal, Outlook or Google calendar). The most important aspect here is to identify what suits your lifestyle best and then develop a habit around using your calendar.

6. Create a Plan –

Have a plan about what needs to be done daily, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, six-monthly and yearly. Then schedule it in your diary.

7. Know Your Deadlines –

Schedule out your deadlines in your calendar, that way when you create your daily plan you know what commitments you already have. This will also help with not overcommitting yourself.

8. Know Your Boundaries –

You know those areas of your life that are non-negotiable (i.e. taking time out for yourself)? Boundaries you choose not to cross or even areas you need to include in your life. For example – learning to say ‘no’. Sometimes learning to say ‘no’ is a big lesson in itself – especially if you are quite a capable person. It is important to know our own boundaries and share and act upon them when/if required.

9. Batch Similar Tasks Together –

As you are going about your day, week or month, notice that there are different tasks that are repeated and require similar energy. For example – it can save you time and energy if you batch your phone calls together a couple of times during the week instead of going from one phone call to the next without preparation or planning.

10. Prioritise and Put First Things First

We all get 7 days in a week, 24 hours, 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds in a day – however, one of the main differences between the people that are happy, successful and healthy and the ones that are not is that they decide, prioritize, schedule and take action towards health and happiness. So where is your time going? Are you filling your day with activities that are draining you or energizing you?

11. Block Out Distractions –

What is distracting you in your work and life? Is it text messages going off? Phone constantly ringing off the hook? Messages from Facebook? Social Media? Once you know your distractions, how are you dealing with them? If you find yourself being constantly interrupted during the day and not getting the things done you would like too, maybe you can choose to turn off your phone for a period of time whilst you focus on your important work or remove social media apps from your phone so you are not distracted?

12. Know Your ‘Why’ –

Why is it that you want to be happy, successful and healthy? What fuels your desires? What gets you out of bed each morning? Knowing the answers to these questions relate to your why! If you ask the successful people in this world they will more than likely let you know the thing that drives them to success is more than just money. Money can be a spin-off from living your life on purpose, however for the majority of people it is not the driving force. What is your why?

13. Do a Time Audit –

Do you know where your time is currently going? Sometimes we can underestimate the amount of time it takes to do a task (we can also overestimate as well). There are many online tools where you can track where you are spending your time – including Rescue TimeTime Doctor and E.ggtimer. Each of these tools work in a different way, but they can help you keep track of the amount of time spent on different activities and projects. You can also have a look at our simple manual time audit.

14. Ask for Help

Would you agree there are some things you really enjoy doing and are good at? Then there are other things you just don’t like doing and are possibly not so good at? The good news is some of the things we do not enjoy doing are other people’s strengths and gifts and this is one of the reasons why it is important to ask for help.

15. Allow People to Help You –

Yes you read that correctly – allow people to help you! Maybe you think you can do it all yourself? Can you really? If you do all things for yourself, you are blocking people from supporting you and this can have an impact on your health, success and happiness. I really believe we are all here for a reason and we have strengths in all different areas and therefore we cannot be great at everything. So allowing people to support you is important! Who can you let support you move forward to towards your success and happiness?

16. Focus –

Do you know where you would like to go? Are you multi-tasking so much you are not getting anything done? Maybe it is time to focus on one task and complete that and then move to the next one? Some ideas to help you focus on one thing are close the tabs in your browser, switch off automatic delivery of e-mails and close applications in your computer that you are not using.

17. Know Your Values –

Do you know what is important to you? If so, are you spending your time in relation to those values? If you don’t know you values, you can find them out here and then start aligning to them step by step.

 

Over to You…

Do you have any other tips for personal effectiveness and self-management? If so, please share them below! There are also 8 Tools for Personal Effectiveness here.

If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heartwhy not join our Toolkit?

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