A message from Sandy. Self-management skills are those abilities that allow a person or team member to feel more productive when doing daily routine tasks, regardless of your work environment. Well-developed self-management skills will help you efficiently communicate with co-workers, patients, and family; help you make the right decisions, plan your working time, and keep your body healthy. It is highly important to develop self-management skills and abilities because higher productivity paves the way for personal and professional advancement.

The following is a list of the key self-management skills required to be your most productive self:

• Stress Resistance: The first and foremost skill of self-management refers to your personal ability to resist any stressful situations,being resourceful, and your ability to bounce back quickly, this is the way to avoid many mistakes that people usually make when they are stressed out. Stressful situations can block our ability to think and make rational decisions, coping with even the simplest of tasks can be difficult, creating frustration.
• Problem Solving: This self-management skill requires you to use your brain to make the right decisions. Even the hardest tasks and challenges can be efficiently handled if the mental process in your head is always in progress. Problem solving requires you to evaluate the facts, analyze the situation, review the problem, and find effective solutions.
• Communications: The way that you communicate information to others will determine your success. Communications is a key ingredient needed for both personal and work related issues. Being able to communicate information efficiently and with minimal distortion, in the fastest way possible. You learn to  understand the value of clearly and timely delivered information.
• Time Management: Producing expected results in a timely manner defines the success of our efforts. There are a great deal of  time management techniques available to help you develop this skill–just start researching this topic to see what ideas feel like a good fit for you.
• Memory: The ability to memorize events, names, facts etc allows a person to remember everything he/she needs to know to do their daily tasks and duties. This skill requires your personal effort  for developing your minds abilities to remember things that are important to your job and your life.
• Physical Activity: Keeping your mind and body in good shape is a critical self-management skill. When you feel healthy and have a positive attitude you can do more things and cope with more challenges.

Here’s a small check list for developing self-management skills and abilities:

• Make a Task List: You can’t efficiently plan anything without a to-do-list.
• Prioritize Tasks: You may have a lot on your to-do-list, so which task do you start first? To do this you need to consider all the tasks and set priorities (based on your current need or deadlines)
• Schedule Tasks: Scheduling allows you to set deadlines and time-frames. Most software packages or smart phones have scheduling programs to help with this.
• Be Flexible: Regardless of your intentions, there will be days when the outside world or circumstances won’t allow you to work your plan. Don’t get frustrated–just re-evaluate your priorities and get back on track as soon as possible.

Developing self-management skills can become the best management practice and activity for those people who have decided to be as productive as possible.