From purposeful application to managing focus and (re)learning to ask yourself why – these are the self-management tips, techniques, skills and steps to improve self-management for yourself, students or colleagues in the workplace
The brain science of time management. Supercharged productivity. And (re)discovering your voice at work. We’re building a big collection of self-management tips, techniques and strategies to help improve your self-management skills.
See some awesome tips here, with endless applications: for students, in the workplace, etc. Plus: Find out what it’s all about, the benefits and discover a science-based pro self-management course you can sign up for right now.
Note: We’re constantly updating this page with new entries. And if you see anything you feel should be included here, or want a deeper understanding of a topic, let us know at solutions@lifexchangesolutions.com.
SELF-MANAGEMENT TIPS & TECHNIQUES TO BOOST YOUR SKILLS
NEWEST TIP #9 BECOME A PRO-PITCHER
We get it. Almost all organizations out there are not structured for trust and autonomy. And like Tip #7 says, we are mostly happy to have it that way. But what if you’ve decided you are no longer content with this status quo? What if you’re sick of the complaining rut you’ve found yourself in? What if you want to take steps to live out your adulthood, freedom and responsibility at work? You see things that frustrate you and you want to bring new ideas to the table that could make work-life better. In fact, you’ve even tried and been knocked down in the past. Your supervisor didn’t like your idea, or didn’t even give you the time of day to explain your tension. And now you’re back to square one.

Well, let us introduce you to the “pitch.” There are several reasons why we suggest this tool is what you’ll want to pull out of your toolbox when you’re speaking to your supervisor. Firstly, when we first start speaking up about the problems we see at work, we tend to find ourselves focusing on the negative – what’s not working around here. Supervisors and leaders are generally not going to make much time for that; they are more interested in solutions. So, pitch your idea of how to fix something that’s not working and you might find them start listening! Furthermore, sell them on the outcomes of your idea. You might think it’s a great idea because you can see the results in your mind – but they might not see what you can see. Convince them by describing the future of how things could look or be if they let you run with your idea. And lastly, a pitch has the energy of someone without authority talking to the person with authority. Sometimes, when we’ve let our frustrations run so high we bring that negative emotional energy into our communication with a manager or leader. Try to keep your words in line with a sales pitch and not as an authoritative ‘this is how it should be or else.’
(Also see the effects of poor communication in the workplace.)
And what if after you’ve delivered your well-crafted pitch you still get turned down? Well, we can teach you how to deal with a ‘no’ in healthy ways that allow you to continue to enjoy your work and remain hopeful for positive change within your workplace.
WANT TO MASTER SELF-MANAGEMENT?
Discover our new online self-management course. Do it at your own pace and time, or get a discount for your entire team. Try for free right now.
TIP #8 GET CLARITY ON WHAT IS NEEDED
Do you find meetings to be your most unproductive time of the day? Maybe you have some wafflers in the team – people who just like to use the opportunity given to talk about all the details that don’t need to be brought up right now? Or how about a loudspeaker – someone who feels the need to share their opinion about everything that’s just been said? How often do you leave a meeting having no clear idea about what has been decided or what the next steps are for you or anyone else?

Since we made the switch to a Holacratic management system, we found a breakthrough tip for bringing focus, clarity and efficiency to our tactical meetings. It’s a simple question: “What do you need?” Put that question to an agenda-item owner in your next meeting and you will see the magic happen. Suddenly, all the wafflers’ vague ideas or thoughts don’t matter – just tell us what you need from us! And that loudspeaker – ask them what they need and together you’ll both be amazed how quickly it shuts them up since they don’t really need anything! Whenever you find yourself frustrated and losing focus in the middle of the meeting, just put the question out to the group: What do you need (from us)? It will bring the clarity you are all looking for, and cut your meeting time in half. Our team can often even get through meetings in 20 minutes!
And for a bonus, why not keep the question handy as a responder. Whenever you find yourself unsure or confused about what a supervisor or team member is trying to communicate to you, pull it out: What do you need from me? Voilà, instant clarity, and you can both move forward confidently.
See our post on the importance of having work clarity. And, yes, there’s definitely a reason why you keep having bad meetings.
TIP #7 EMBRACE ADULTHOOD
Not many of us want to grow up. It’s not just the ‘getting older and wrinklier’ part that puts us off, it’s also the responsibility. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just stay a child and not have a care in the world, spending our days playing the time away? Of course, there are frustrations when you are young. You can’t just do what you want. You have to listen to the adults in your life, you have to obey. Maybe you were even told that you must be seen and not heard. Of course, as a child there is also not much choice or control given to us over our lives. We have to go along with the choices made for us. But is this a big price to pay?
Many of us have developed a divide in our lives. We have grown up and taken on the adult responsibilities in our personal life – got married, bought a house, had children, chosen a career, spent a lot of money on at least one car, made spontaneous purchases on the credit card we now regret. We’ve made choices and experienced consequences. And become healthier and more mature people because of it, we hope. And then we walk into the door at work, and we are back to being a child. No decision-making authority, have to listen to the boss (i.e. adult) and not allowed to speak back to them, in fact, maybe we are even expected to be seen and not heard! And we accept this. In some cases we even come to expect it. “It’s not my job to figure out how to spend the R2 million annual budget – that’s beyond me,” says the person that probably has a bigger budget to manage for their house bond and all the rest of the family expenses outside of work.

It’s almost like we choose to stay a child at work. It’s easier, with much less to worry about and I can’t be blamed at the end of the day if I don’t have to make the decision. Sure, we also find it frustrating. We complain almost all day long about how the ‘adults’ are running things and the decisions that they are making. But don’t ask us to step up and take on the responsibility. We settle for less freedom in return for a lesser weight of responsibility.
Many workplace cultures don’t even encourage us to be adults. But they also don’t stop us. In fact, we find that management’s biggest frustration is that they don’t see their people stepping up to deal with problems like a responsible adult out in the world. If you want to excel and find the same joyful satisfaction that you have in your personal life at work, start acting more like the adult you are at home. You might just find that work can be a more liberating place then you ever imagined!
TIP #6 TAKE TIME OUT TO PLAN
The best way to describe the purpose of planning is to think of it as a pit stop in formula one racing. It’s regular time that you take out of the busy-ness of everything you’re doing (i.e. driving in the race) to have a look at your car and see if you can make some tweaks or improvements so that ultimately when you get back out on the track you’ll be driving faster and smoother right to the finish line!

We suggest a weekly planning session of at least one hour where you look at all your roles and the work you are busy with, reminding yourself of the purpose (see Tip #1) and reviewing your metrics (see Tip #3). Make a note of the thoughts, actions or projects you need to work on. Get it out of your brain! In fact, this could be one of the greatest benefits of planning: closing the mental loop. Often, our brain becomes so clogged up with things that haven’t been resolved yet that we are not able to run it at full capacity. We are using half of it just to remember things that we mustn’t forget! This is such a waste of our true brain potential. It’s so much better to just get a planner (paper or digital) that you can regularly record things in so that they don’t take up space in your conscious thinking. Trust us, this is an instant energy boost! But in order for it to work you really need to trust that planner system, so you need to make sure you’re coming back to it regularly.
Surprisingly, we’ve also found that planning actually gives you a sense of freedom. By regularly spending time to think about, and capture, the tasks you are expected to do, how you will go about completing them and how long you expect it to take you, you will actually find that you experience having more time in the day than you thought you had. It comes back to the fact that you are closing a mental loop. Instead of worrying about not having enough time, you face the reality of what needs to be done and when, and your brain can stop trying to resolve the issue. It’s sorted: you have a plan! Your brain becomes quieter and freer to focus on the task at hand. You can now cruise to the end of your week.
TIP #5 AIM FOR FLOW
Do you find yourself running from fire to fire, constantly in a space of crisis management? You might be surprised how many of us operate this way! Of course, we hate the stress and disorder it brings to our lives, but there are actually benefits that chaos brings for us that seduce us into an ongoing crisis-management mode.

Firstly, there is nothing like a deadline-induced panic to get us to kick ourselves into gear where we’ve been procrastinating or creatively avoiding a big task. Without having a purpose for the things we are doing, we will need that looming crisis to motivate us to get things done or they will never happen! But more than that, the beauty of being in survival mode is that suddenly our brain makes things very simple for us. It blocks out all the other noise, knowing that we have to make a crucial decision: go right or left? It’s a decision we should have made ages ago, but without the threat of a looming crisis, we’ve been stuck in indecision about which is the best choice to make. And only when we are forced to choose under pressure do we suddenly find the clarity we need to take our next step.
What if you could find this confidence when it comes to decisions you need to make without having to put yourself under stress every day? There is a state called ‘mind like water’ that is practiced and taught in martial arts. The idea is to develop your mind to be similar to a calm body of water. When something is thrown into the pool, the surface of the water is disturbed with ripples, but then quickly goes back to its previous state of calm. This state of flow can be achieved when we regularly take time out to plan and make decisions about the work we are busy with. Instead of delaying these actions, or creatively avoiding them, when we find ourselves feeling stuck or unsure how to proceed, we immediately put time aside to consciously decide on our next step with clarity. And then we can get back to work, confident that we’ve put out a spark before it became a raging fire.
TIP #4 MANAGE YOUR FOCUS, NOT YOUR TIME
Where did the notion of an 8-hour workday come from? You might be surprised to learn that this was a practice first suggested in the 19th century, although it only became widely adopted in the early 20th century. And even more surprising, the idea behind working only 8 hours was an effort to make work more humane from the more typical 10-16 hour workdays of the time!
So, an 8-hour workday suddenly seems like a great idea. But what was the science behind that number? Well, there is none! As far as we know, it was just the Welsh activist, Robert Owen’s, opinion that it would be good for people to spend 8 hours working, 8 hours sleeping and 8 hours in recreational activities every day.

So, is an 8-hour workday a good idea? The latest research suggests that while the average full-time office worker spends 8.8 hours at the office every day, they are only spending an average of 2 hours 53 minutes on focused work! So what are they doing for the rest of the time? You’ll need to look it up for yourself to believe all the other time-wasting and procrastinating that goes on! (UPDATE: According to one index, SA companies lose about R89 billion per year to time-wasting employees – see our post on why only 16% of employees are engaged.)
This begs the question: is it realistic to expect us to work at our best for 8 hours straight, 5 days a week? We don’t know yet…the research hasn’t been done.
Now, do yourself a favour and let go of the idea of an 8-hour workday for a second. Just start to imagine the kind of work routine that would fit you – your lifestyle, your context, and your personality? Are you a morning person that starts with a burst and burns out by lunch time? Or are you a night owl that finds all sorts of inspiration and energy after the sun has gone down? How can you harness the best time of the day for yourself to do your most focused and productive work? And how can you allow yourself time and space to rest and recharge in between? Once you have this vision, you might feel overwhelmed by the fact that you don’t have control over your workday. There are rules and policies and systems in place that manage your day for you. Even if that is the case, there is likely one small change you can make that could make a big difference in how productive and satisfied you feel by the time you leave work. Make that change today!
TIP #3 TRACK YOUR SUCCESS
Work has changed. A hundred years ago, work was different. Instead of working in factories or producing items with our own hands, most of us now work behind a laptop at a desk on projects that are much less tangible. The satisfaction that naturally comes from seeing the outcome of your work in a final product is far removed from our daily actions – sending emails, updating spreadsheets, sitting in meetings etc. If all we are focused on this one process in a big chain of product or service delivery, how can we know how successful we are in our jobs? How can we feel proud of what we are doing?
We can measure this for ourselves by creating our own metrics. This is not a new concept. Most likely you already have metrics set up by your supervisor. But those metrics are not necessarily what this tip is about. Most often, metrics that we’ve been given are also measuring our inputs – how many calls have we made? How many leads have we generated? How many invoices have been sent out? While tracking your inputs might be useful, ultimately what really counts is the output of your work. Are you achieving what your role aims to achieve? If you really want to feel great about your performance you need to design some metrics to track your outcomes.
See how to use your metrics to improve performance.

The easiest way to do this is to go back to your role’s purpose (see Tip #1 below) and think about what you can measure to know if you are achieving it. Let’s say your purpose is “to delight customers”. How will you know if you are achieving this? Be creative! Maybe you want to count the number of customers that leave your store with a smile and friendly greeting every day? Or maybe you want to ask for a quick rating at the end of your emails? Put your amazing brain to the challenge to create a way to measure how well you are doing against your role’s purpose, and you will unlock energy and motivation that you never knew you had for your work!
PLUS: Worried about your reputation? Here’s what’s really going on when you get too many customer complaints.

TIP #2 BE CURIOUS LIKE A TODDLER
The ‘why’ phase of toddler-hood might be one that drives parents and adults up the wall! When children are not satisfied with your first answer, and keep on pestering, “but WHY?” It’s like they discover this secret button that if they push it they know they will get the attention they want. They’ve discovered the power of the question ‘Why?’
Such a simple question, but the answer is never as easy. The first time of asking, you probably have a standard automatic answer to hand. But when your child asks ‘why’ again, suddenly you have to think. You have to think about the obvious answer you just gave. It might take you a couple of seconds but you can usually come back with something that supports what you just told them. But it’s after the third ‘why’ in a row that we become a bit stumped. We are pushed beyond our automatic subconscious response, and suddenly have to resort to our conscious reasoning. These moments are where we really find gold. This is where we are looking at our ‘truths’ and starting to logically reason about them. We might even start wondering whether they really are ‘truths’ that serve us.

There are things that we do at work on a daily basis that we don’t question. At one time they might have been valuable practices or processes, but now we just follow the pattern that was created most likely long before we joined the organization. They have lost their purpose and yet we still do them just because it’s the way we’ve always done it. For example, why do we have ‘casual Fridays’? Or why do we open our meetings in a certain way? It’s time to start questioning yourself like a toddler. You can start with these small things, or you can tackle some bigger questions like why do we have to work at the office? Why do we have to be at work from 8-5? Why do we have strict security when arriving and leaving work? It doesn’t matter what you start to question, it’s just important that you do START TO QUESTION.
Imagine you have a toddler watching you work…asking why you are doing what you are doing throughout the day. Don’t stop at the easy answer. Put your powerful brain to work. What surprising thoughts emerge about your ‘truths’ you are living and working by?
TIP #1 RE-WRITE YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION
Few people might look at the traditional job description and realize how much of a joy-killer it is. The very fact that most people don’t even know where theirs is just shows you how un-useful this construct is for our work. Just think about it, how many times have you felt stuck at work and immediately thought of checking your job description for inspiration?
Job descriptions are written in the style of “Do this (or else)”. Anyone who knows the brain science of motivation (or just raising kids) knows that whenever we feel like we are being told what to do immediately our free will (read: mental pushback) kicks in and causes us to procrastinate, creatively avoid and perform slovenly work. We do just enough to get by. It’s only when we are inspired by the WHY behind the WHAT – in other words, the purpose of the task – that we find the energy to do and give our best. So why not re-write your own job description?

There is such a simple tweak that you can make that could turn this boring, lengthy and formal document into something motivating and energy-giving. All you have to do is think about the WHY behind the WHAT. What is the purpose of your work? Why does your role exist? What would your team, your company or the world look like if your role was being performed perfectly? For example, instead of “Support company operations by maintaining office systems and supervising staff”, what about “Helping the work in the workplace to flow?” Or change “Serving customers politely and efficiently” to “Turning customers into die-hard fans?”
Pull out that musty, crumpled job description from the bottom of your desk drawer and write your purpose statement at the top of it. You feel that change of energy in you already, don’t you? Now put it up where you can see it regularly, and, whenever you need a burst of energy, read it and be inspired by the vision of what you are really working for.
ABOUT SELF-MANAGEMENT
WHAT IS SELF-MANAGEMENT?
In short, self-management is when a person takes responsibility for their own behaviour and well-being. In the workplace, it’s basically self-organising and directing your work.
Why? Well, many people discovered while working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic that they or their teams battled to take control of your own time management and work output. It’s actually natural – we come from a traditionally very controlled study and work environment, which is why so many companies struggle with low employee engagement and poor performance.
And it’s this structure that can hamper performance, work enjoyment and feeling a sense of purpose in what you do – see about mental pushback and the science of employee motivation. Many next-gen companies, like Google and Netflix, operate on a completely different level (that’s why they’re so successful!) that hands the power to the employee.
THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING SELF-MANAGEMENT
Imagine a world where nobody has to tell or ask you what to do because it’s already done or you’ve already developed something new that’s lightyears ahead of that old idea. That’s kind of the essence of self-management.

We all might have different motivations for wanting to up-skill in self-management techniques, but the main universal benefits are:
- To (re)discover the purpose behind your work
- To give you the confidence and autonomy to decide your own next move
- To master your own productivity
- To learn to manage change like a champion

GET SKILLED: SIGN UP FOR OUR SELF-MANAGEMENT COURSE
You can sign up right now for our online pro self-management course. It’s a 1-month course (1-hour time investment per day) of 4 modules (one per week). But, since it’s online, there are no time constraints – you can do it at your own pace!
It includes bonus neuroscience and psychology insights you might not get from other courses, and it costs $175 (around R2950). Enrol right now.
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