Building Self Management skills as a Young Professional This presentation aims to help young people better understand the ways we can build our self-management skills, why having good self-management skills are important and how we all can build and develop our self-management skills throughout our lives.

What is self management? Self management isn’t about managing your own business but managing the business of you! It’s all about taking responsibility for your own actions, there are some skills you need in your self management toolkit: Organisation - is all about being prepared, knowing all the things that are needed and making sure you have a plan in place for it! Accountability - is all about taking responsibility for your actions. Owning up with things go wrong seeking help when you need it. Initiative - is all about thinking for yourself and taking action. We can get into bad habits of expecting other people to manage us, our parents, teachers we expect them to tell us what we need to do and where. Some young people dont get enough opportunities to develop their self management skills as the adults take responsibility. But this is a skill needed for life. So how do young people start to build it?

Self management: have you got what it takes? Here is a great example: - It's a Saturday morning, you have got to return something to the library, meet a friend at 10am and then another at 12pm for lunch at the opposite side of town, you also need to run into the bank to put that cheque in from your birthday (the bank closes at 12). You promised your mum you would hoover the house and you aren’t entirely sure where your bus pass is How are you going to manage all of this? There are so many things that could go wrong here, starting with setting an alarm to go off at the right time! Talk the day through with your young people, would they use their initiative to get themselves organised the night before and plan ahead, would they ask someone to help them or expect someone to help them or would they take responsibility for getting everything done?

Self management in education, work and life Being able to plan, organise and take charge of yourself is a skill you will always need. Even more so as you start to get ready for work and living independently. Employers rate this really highly when looking for staff, they want their employees to be able to come to work, complete their jobs and tasks in a day and manage their responsibilities. Self management is about making a choice to do more than you need to, and it is a great skill to build for life and work. Employers can often be heard criticising young people for not being work ready, for not having the ability to manage themselves and take responsibility. For turning up late to not getting tasks finished without being closely supervised. Of course not all young people are like this, but the more young people can develop these skills the better.

Building your self management skills The great news is that once you start there are lots of ways to improve your self management skills. You’ll need to use your initiative to plan how you will get everything done and make sure you do, that one is on you. Being organised is probably the best place to start, using a diary, notepad or your phone to keep track of your to do list, appointments, and responsibilities. Once you’ve got your organisation and initiative sorted you can start to see your responsibilities and start taking accountability for them - there’s plenty of time to build this up step by step! There are so many tools that can help. Its important to find the one that works for you, ask the young people you are working with what methods they use - post it notes, alarms on their phone etc. How do you manage yourself, share your best and worst examples. As we juggle more and more responsibility it is a skill we often need to keep developing and improving throughout life.

Develop your skills - Top Tips Take on a project and set out the things that need to happen and when. Use your initiative to find creative ways to make sure you meet all the deadlines. Plan your whole week, homework, chores, meeting friends, clubs and activities. Use a diary to set out what needs to be done and when. Do you feel more organised and does all seem more manageable? Reward yourself for staying on task for the week. Remember to take responsibility for your tasks, if you fail to meet a deadline put your hands up and recognise that you could of managed things differently and look at ways to improve. We all need to take responsibility for the tasks set for us. We are accountable and need to find the best way to manage ourselves so that we don't let us and others down.

Practice like a Young Professional There are so many ways for you to practice - Starting a project or activity on your own. For example, if you always wanted to start your own blog, then go for it. Volunteering at a charity shop or reading with your little sister every week shows initiative and also proves you understand the value of service to others. Getting homework out of the way will leave you stress-free and with more free time on your hands – that you can enjoy without the shadow of homework hanging over you. As an organised person you will keep your timetable secure so you can attend classes and lectures on time. Identify some opportunities for the young people you are working with to develop their skills in your setting or a setting they are familiar with (volunteering, youth clubs, sports, National Citizen Service etc). Make sure that you and the colleagues you work with recognise it when the young people you work with use good self management skills. Recognising and praising good skill use will help them to know they are doing something well and boost their confidence. Ensure that the young people you are working with register as a Young Professional Member and have the time to complete the weekly challenges and explore some of the articles on the site to help boost their skills.

Next Steps: Sign up to be a Young Professional at Youth Employment UK Read more about self management skills and how you can develop them on the Young Professional Members pages. Undertake the Youth Employment UK weekly skills challenge. Ensure that the young people you are working with register as a Young Professional Member and have the time to complete the weekly challenges and explore some of the articles on the site to help boost their skills. http://www.youthemployment.org.uk/young-professional-training/