10 basic life skills you should know and hone before your 30’s

Last Updated on April 13, 2025 by Timileyin Awogbade

What are Skills?

Skills as opposed to abilities are learnt. 

No one is born
with skills. 

Skill is the capacity to do something well. Just like a person
goes to fashion school to learn the skill of fashion, a person goes to the Vulcanizer to learn the rudiments and basics of fixing a car. 

To have skills
is to have knowledge or understanding; to know how (to), to have personal or
practical knowledge; to be versed or practised; to be expert or dextrous.

Basic Life Skills are skills that are needed to live life
adequately. 

They are the skills needed to do life. These basic life skills can
determine how successful one’s life can be.

Important of Basic Life Skills?

As important as these basic skills are, they play a very important
part in our lives at different stages. 

You would realize that a skill that is
of great importance to a student would be of little importance to a 9-5 worker,
same as a skill which is of great importance to a 9-5 worker would be of less
importance to a Mother.

For instance, a student has to develop great study skills
and habits to excel tremendously academically, skills like drafting out study
time, healthy sleeping habits, healthy eating habits and more. 

These
aforementioned skills, however, would be of little priority to a 9-5 worker.

A 9-5 worker aims at being efficient in communication,  job relationships with colleagues and
executives, skills like drafting of resume, negotiating with landlords,
business owners, traders etc, finances and building a healthy financial life.

A mother, on the other hand, strives to be the best homemaker, she hones her cooking skills, decision-making skills, and skills that
pertain to the care, safety and health of her children.

At various stages of our life, some skills become must-haves,
while some become ‘don’t worry, it has little or no effect in this stage’.

Let’s take a look at how these 10 Basic Life Skills were
useful to these imaginary individuals. 

If any name seems familiar, assume the
person in the light of whatever skills are attributed to them.

Ready?

Let’s hit the ground running on 10 Basic Life Skills Every Person Should Know

1. First Aid Skill 

Faith was out in the care of her two
cousins, one of them, Ada while eating choked on her food. Faith, remembering
one of the first aid treatments you had learnt, immediately applied it and saved
the life of her female cousin.

First aid is the first treatment given to the sick person
before the arrival of a specialized medical doctor. 

In a case where the action
of first aid is not given, if care is not taken, can lead to the worsening, or
in extreme cases, the death of the victim.

Some schools give students the privilege to learn first aid
skills using the Red Cross Organization. 

However, there are various videos online that can also put one through the administration of first aid
treatment.

2. Negotiation 

Ngozi goes to the market on Saturday to get
ingredients to cook for the weekend. On getting to the market, she saw a very
beautiful blue dress. 

Blue has been one of the colours she had been desiring to
add to her wardrobe. She walked up to the seller and asked for the price ‘Oga, how
much is this gown?” this one is #5,000’ he replied. ‘No o haba, na #3,500’,
‘oya bring money’. That was how she was able to bag herself the gown.

Negotiation has to do with making the other person agree to
your terms. Most times, people shy away from negotiating. 

Apart from the
excessive negotiation technique used by the Typical African Mother, negotiating
helps to cut costs.

3. Etiquette 

‘Do not talk while eating.”Do not pick your
nose in public.”Do not speak loudly over the phone in public.”Do not dump
trash on the road.’ Enoch reminded his sister. 

These sound more like a primary
school’s rules and regulations. Even at that, we still see going adults and
adults violating these crucial etiquettes.

The five magic words are very quickly sloughing off their magic. ‘Please’, ‘Excuse me’, ‘Sorry’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Pardon me’.

4. Emotional intelligence skill

This is the ability to
understand one’s feelings and by extension, the feelings of others to make the right judgements. 

It’s knowing why people act in particular ways.

One fateful day, Edward came home from home and he knew
something was absolutely off. 

First, he had knocked severally before he got
down to open to gate himself. On getting to the sitting room, he noticed the
pillows that were to be on the couch everywhere in the room. ‘This is so
unusual’ he thought. His wife had called earlier before he left the office, so
he was certain she was in the house, where could she be? On reflex, he checked
his phone, and immediately it clicked. ‘Oh my God it’s her time of the month’.

5. Time management skills

As important as this skill is, it
still draws a border between the intentional people and the unintentional ones. 

Time management is the effective and judicious use of time in any situation.

Some people are a hundred per cent accurate in time
management. 

Attend events hosted by them, and at the mark of time, the chairs
are stacked already, while some on the other hand, may be thought to deliberately
keep people seated on their chairs. Teniola could no longer stay put in her
seat, she had checked the flyer before leaving the house and had confirmed the
event was set for 9am to 3pm. It’s 3:05pm and the event does not look like
it’s going to be over soon.

It’s quite important to hone one’s time management skills. A
master of time is a person of integrity and such a person is worthy of people’s
trust.

6. Listening skill

Listening, a pivotal aspect of communication means paying attention to a sound or speech. Laban on his way to
work, got on a call with this boss after a proposal that was due for approval.
Due to the noise from the bus he had boarded that morning, he got distracted
and so, missed specific instructions from his boss.

Apart from this scenario. Many times, we get into a conversation where we want, by all means, to air our views, even when our opinions
aren’t even asked for. 

We do not take time to first hear, and then ruminate on what
the other party has said before interrupting. 

Listening is a skill everyone is
to work effectively at practising.

7. Money skill

From making a list before going to the
market, buying the best insurance plans, and saving for both the short and long term. 

From the pages of different books written by proficient authors, Mayowa despite
his Science background, was able to make great money and financial decisions
effectively, without getting into losses. 

You can also read this comprehensive guide on how to self-finance your education

8. Technology skill

After her final examinations at
secondary school, Titilayomi went ahead to acquire some basic computer
skills like typing, and also the use of Microsoft software. 

These skills
enabled her to excel in her JAMB the following year because she had gained
mastery of the computer.

9. Writing skill

Drafting a formal letter to apply for a job, drafting your CV(Curriculum vitae), writing an apology letter and many related writings can be
done without paying a dime to experts. Writing, as opposed to speaking can
require great effort.

10. Communication skill

As broad as communication is, let’s
look at a specific aspect of it.  Just as
chatting on WhatsApp or Facebook can be, some certain languages and abbreviations can and cannot be used for certain sets of people. 

Anyone
like Clara who has not gotten another job elsewhere would not text his or her
boss with ‘Aw do u do, Sir?’. Outrageous right? Not all though. 

This type of
language isn’t all bad right? Since the person reading the text understands,
then communication has been established right?

However, the context in which it is used is very crucial.
Clara could text her bestie this way, and hell would still be bound, but not
with her boss! 

Think about the difference between a formal letter and an
informal letter.

10 Basic Life Skills Every Person Should Know FAQs

1. Is cooking a skill? 

Since it relates to living- everyday
living. It sure is. In as much as ordering food can be a nice expenditure,
cooking is inarguable, a best skill which everyone should have

2. How to improve basic life skills? 

These life skills can
be improved by learning better, new and easier ways to effectively use the
skills. Reading books, and listening to podcasts can also help

3. Examples of basic life skills? 

Basic life skills include
time management, technology, negotiation, and finance amongst others.

Wrapping Up

As basic as these life skills are, they really can be one’s lifesaver. 

So do you have these skills already? 

Keep honing it. 

Are you in the category that does not have some of these, do well to have them, and in all you have, home them. It would sure make you stand out.

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