Do you want to know how to develop the life management skills necessary for your best adulting?
As you may know, developing life management skills to adult is no easy feat. It requires dexterity and flexibility to accomplish all the to-do’s and to-don’t’s of adult life.
As a thirty-something, I have learned how to build the skills and habits that sustain my life. Forging a new life in New York on my own, and resettling in my hometown gave me the experience of learning on the fly. Teaching me how to establish relationships, form skills, and build practices that could support my life as an adult person.
This post is the how-to guide for you to build the life management skills for your very best adulting.
Adulting is Hard Yet Important
Having the life management skills to support adult life is not easy. When I read the statics discussed by Opportunity Nation and Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants describing why adulting is hard, my heart was overcome with compassion. Adults and youth transitioning into adulthood struggle with mental health, joblessness, financial stability, and substance abuse. Fortunately, I had many strong examples and teachers who prepared me to enter the world and sustain an independent life. There are many people across socio-economic backgrounds, family structures, education levels, and ethnic identities who struggle to forge independent adult lives. Believe me, I understand why. Adulting is no easy feat and can challenge us in ways that are beyond what we’ve experienced in youth. Leaving the comforts, structure of childhood, and parental guidance into the great wide world can be daunting.
We all can to attest to the rigor of adulting, it is still important that we learn how to adult. Building life management skills will help you to manage your life so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and spend time doing the things that fulfill you. Adulting does not make up all of our lives, but adulting does help us to function well. Neglecting your adult responsibilities can exacerbate hardship.
For example, not paying your bills on time can add pressure to stretched finances, not visiting your physician regularly can give way to health conditions that are more difficult to address, or simply neglecting to clean your living space can curate an environment that becomes unhealthy and unlivable. You don’t need to be a neat freak or oversee every penny in your budget, but having the life management skills to support your life will give you greater opportunities to find fulfillment and enjoy life fully.
Life Management Skills You Need to Master Adulting
Before getting into the “how”, of life management skill building, first review all the basic skills that you will need to manage your adult life. Some or all of these skills may seem incredibly easy to you while some or all of them may be quite challenging. Regardless of where you fall on your comfort with these adulting skills, you need them to function well in society. For a more in-depth view of the individual skills and ways to perfect them see the life skills article here.
- Paying Bills
- Goal Setting
- Organizing
- Cleaning
- Cooking
- Time management
- Personal Care
- Career Aptitude
- Major purchases
{Related Article: Life Skills for Adults}
Developing Life Management Skills
Step 1 – Know Your Why
The cardinal rule for most things that I do is to, be intentional. What is your reason for wanting to know how to develop your adulting skills? Knowing why will help you to act on the advice and keep the habits that I share in this article. This will also serve as a post that you can refer back to throughout your life when you want to learn something new and you need to figure out how to learn that skill.
You should also develop a compelling why for the adulting skills you want to learn. Think about why you want to learn these skills. Consider the ways it will impact your life. This can help you stick to developing the skills you need to thrive.
A few reasons why you may want to learn how to develop life skills:
- Improve your quality of life
- Improve the management of one or more areas of your life
- You are struggling to learn adulting skills
- Discover new ways to develop skills
- Expedite and streamline the learning process
Step 2 – Plan Ahead
Think about what you need to do for the year ahead. No matter where you are in your year consider the things you need for each day, week, month, and quarter to sustain your adulthood. This may take some time but I recommend using a yearly calendar to lay out what your needs are for the time ahead. Whether you plan your year based on your birthday or New Year’s this method can give you a general outline of what needs to be done in your life. Consider what you need to do to keep your living space, maintain your wellness, advance your career, and develop strong relationships.
For example, it is recommended that you see your dentist every 6 months, pencil in two dates within the calendar year when you plan to visit your dentist. Make sure you write down key dates like birthdays, anniversaries, and other momentous occasions for loved ones. You might want to schedule some time for spring cleaning and winterizing your house and wardrobe. Check out my adulting checklist here for a general list of all the adulting things you should get a handle on for the year.
Step 3 – Build a Bank of Trusted Resources
Now that you know some of the things that you should do as an adult person you can begin to build a bank of resources that speak directly to these tasks. Determine if you are a kinesthetic learner, visual learner, or auditory learner. This will help you to determine the resources that will best suit your learning style.
The world is full of resources that can give you an in-depth explanation of adulting responsibilities or a macro overview. For now, you can start by developing a basic understanding of these concepts and responsibilities. Some of the resources I use when I need to learn or perfect an adulting skill:
- YouTube (Cooking, Cleaning, Life Hacks)
- Google (Life Hacks, Advice)
- My Older Sister (Advice, Major Decisions)
- Friends (Advice, Major Decisions)
- Resources from Job (Financial Planning)
These are a few of the resources I use to build my will house of skills to manage daily life.
Step 4 – Organize
Organize your resources and the materials you need to do your adulting in a convenient and safe place. For example, if you need to clean get the materials you need to clean and find a place for them. If you need to make an appointment with your physician ensure you have your health insurance information at the ready. If you need to cook a meal, gather and place the materials you need to prepare the food.
Another way to look at this is to organize the work that needs to be done into smaller steps. Do you need an oil change? Break that larger task down into smaller steps. 1) Find the location for my next oil change. 2) Call to make an appointment 3) Set aside the funds for the oil change. Do your best to break down your larger adulting tasks into smaller to-do’s to organize them into more approachable pieces.
This step is critical because it is a huge barrier to starting. The number of times have I held off on doing something because the resources and steps were not at the ready can not be understated. In order to eliminate this barrier take some time to gather the resources that will help you to complete the tasks at hand.
{Related Post: 10 Essentials that Every Adult Should Have}
Step 5 – Do It
This on of my favorite parts! You may feel uncomfortable talking to your physician about your health. You may not know if you are cleaning your toilet the right way. It may look like your risotto is unappetizing. Regardless of your level of comfort, doing the adulting is what improves your skill and helps you to function. Lean into the discomfort of something that is foreign or unconventional to embrace the potential to grow and expand your knowledge. See this as a choice to become more independent and a better version of yourself whereas stagnation and inaction are the choices to take a less evolved path.
In my case, I started to hold off on having the thermostat on my car fixed because I was apprehensive about the amount of money, coordinating transportation, and being ripped off. Deciding to use my resources, I reached out to my sister to determine who she found as trustworthy. Then, I organized my car inspection information, transportation, and finance. Therefore, I was finally able to execute the task confidently. My car was ready within hours, and it cost me less than $500.00. After going through this process, I realized that if I ignored this problem, the thermostat could start to send incorrect information about the temperatures that would impact the functions of my car engine. Potentially exacerbating a problem with an easy fix. The process was much easier than I thought, and I started to forge a new relationship with a business I could lean on in the future.
The goal of this post is to encourage you to do the adulting things that are intimidating so that you can live life on your terms. There is so much in life that we can not control, so why not take advantage of the things that are within our control to help steer our lives on the course we choose?
Step 6 – Reflect
After you have adulted, I encourage you to reflect. Reflection is a powerful tool for learning. In this article, Harvard Business Review reported reflection as the competency that makes professionals exceptional. When you take time to reflect on the things that you did to order your life, it helps you to cement your learning for future occurrences.
Reflecting often reveals that you are more resilient and the roads of adulting are not as scary as they seem. After you do your adulting don’t forget to consider what you’ve learned along the way so that you can continue to build upon that knowledge and maybe pass it on to an apprehensive friend in the future.
Keep Going
Adulting does not end here. For each stage of life, you’ll discover new areas that you must maintain while still needing to keep up old responsibilities. This is our life as adults. However, this life is ours and we can choose to have say so in these areas. Keep making strides in taking care of your personal business so that you can lead the life that you desire. Continue to build on your knowledge so that these tasks become easier and you can provide guidance to other adults who need direction. Your responsibilities won’t end and the better you get at mastering them the greater your opportunity to enjoy your life will become!
This post is all about the life management skills you need to succeed at adulting.
