Top 10 Personal Development Activities to Improve Yourself

Finding time for your personal development activities is even more challenging.

When you're running a company, it can be difficult to find the time to get to everything on your to-do list. Due to the various work and family obligations that busy managers face, self-improvement is often at the very bottom of their priorities. However, making time for yourself is an important part of a well-balanced life – and even if you don't have a lot of free time, there are small, simple things you can do every day to work on your personal development.

To learn more, we asked a group of Forbes Coaches to share some personal development activities and techniques that even the most time-crunched leaders can squeeze into their days. Here's what they recommend and why:

1. Taking online courses

The best personal development technique I recommend most often to busy managers is online learning. This type of learning can be accessed anywhere at the convenience of a manager's schedule. Executives can access almost any course to develop and improve their skills from the comfort of their office or home.

2. Invest in emotional intelligence coaching

A large part of a manager's competence is directly related to emotional intelligence. In addition, employees often leave the company because they do not get along well with their boss. Similarly, lack of commitment is related to poor management of leadership teams.

3. Practicing "tuned" speaking

Change your speaking style so that you're not talking off the top of your head, but to actually tune in to the person you're talking to. Before you say or respond, think about how your words might affect the person. It is a very different style of speaking that requires specialized practice to become proficient. A leader's words are far more powerful and impactful than you ever realize. - Andrea M Luoma, Accommodare Consulting

4. Listening to podcasts

Podcasts are portable and short-lived. It's not like reading a book or watching a speech or presentation where you're "trapped" for a certain amount of time. I personally like the Freakonomics podcast. This podcast allows you to download the transcripts of the interviews, so if you heard something you wanted to respond to, you have easy access to that information and can save it to your own place. - Nanette Miner, Medical Practitioner, LLC

5. Limiting Your Decision Making

My best advice to executives is to avoid getting in their own way by creating an environment that limits decision-making. I'm a big fan of intentional habits and rituals because they put us on autopilot. I use the word intentional because we all have traditions and rituals, but not all of them serve us. I worked with a CEO who wanted a better pulse in his organization, wanted to exercise to burn off stress, and spend more time with his wife, but didn't create an environment that facilitated those things. A non-negotiable weekly staff meeting, a weekly workout outfit in his car, and putting specific “date with the wife” activities on his calendar made these things easy to achieve. - Cindy Barber, The Dash Group

6. Take one step towards a focused project

Do one thing each day for your major project, whether it's big or small. Consistency will keep the project moving forward and help it gain momentum, and continued focus will allow your subconscious to keep generating new ideas. - Colleen Hauk, Balance Point Coaching

7. Being present

I recommend developing your own sense of presence. Many leaders express this sense naturally, and this ability may be entirely or partially invisible to them. However, it can be harnessed to new potential by deliberately raising awareness of this superpower. It is especially valuable because you can use it, modify it, modify it, and turn it up or down according to the situation at hand. - James Glasnapp, James Glasnapp Coaching

8. Meditation

I recommend using an app called Headspace. This approach is especially valuable because it allows you to slow down your mind and quiet the many thoughts that run through the heads of people in authority. It will also help you focus and think more creatively, as you will have developed the skill to calm your mind. - Gabrielle Leonard, Gabrielle Leonard Studios

Read more in Four Ways Meditation Brings Mindfulness to Business Leaders

9. Thinking about your strengths

I believe that each of us can live and see life in our own unique way, which means there can be 7 billion ways to live life. That being said, how can we value the uniqueness of the individual and connect it to the larger purpose of the organization? We need to move away from the herd mentality and robotic life. When each of us can begin to look at our strengths, rather than our weaknesses or flaws, we can all move from being good to being great.

10. Developing trust with your team

The personal development technique I recommend most often to busy managers is to become better teammates. When executives adopt strong principles, best practices, and a common language to be better teammates, they can take that back to their current or future teams. This personal development technique teaches the concept of trust based on vulnerability, helps leaders understand the benefits of healthy conflict, shows how clarity and commitment are key to achieving commitment, emphasizes the importance of mutual accountability, and emphasizes that collective results are more important than individual goals.