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Which door would you open?

To start the Managing Yourself at Work series, there are many places we can go. With many ideas to explore and opportunities to consider, how do you choose where to start?

Start with yourself
To make this series useful and deliver insights, it needs to start where you are. That means you need to do some thinking about what you want to gain. An open “what do you want?” question is too hard to answer most of the time. Instead, I will guide you to consider different topics and the areas that may interest you.

Self-reflection is a valuable practice to engage in. Skill at forming accurate self-assessments develops with practice. Leading up to that, you may need to engage the support of others for a perspective check. This may mean drawing on trusted peers or friends, to share their observations with you.

Think about your work
Think about your own work place and your current role or job. Take some time to think about the aspects that work well for you, that you enjoy or perform well in. Likewise, list aspects that you would like to change if you could.

Download this Worksheet to capture these ideas.  Spend a limited time on this but keep it handy so you can come back to it.

Make this enjoyable. Use colour, graphics, different font styles/handwriting styles. Keep it interesting for yourself. Your brain likes variety and colour.

Use it to capture your thoughts and questions about how to manage yourself at work. This will provide a launching pad for your engagement with the ideas presented in this series.

Making time for yourself
The series will provide some material to for your to consider, activities to engage in and potentially provide new directions for you to pursue further learning in. Make some time for yourself to do this. This commitment to yourself and your professional development is important.

How do you do this? Organise a time for yourself to engage with the material here. If something else happens with a higher priority to take that time slot, reschedule it. Ensure you get your “you time”.

Your first task
Complete the worksheet. Do this over a few days. See it as a “work in progress”. It is a snapshot of where you are now.

Have fun!

Please send any questions you may have or ideas to mary@wordfromabird.com