So this month, the shortest month of the year, us at YDA decided to look at the subject of time for our blog post. Our time is very precious but what about when the month is very short ? We have regularly talked about time when we introduced you to corporate concierge services, but today let’s talk about a practical case.
How can we get organized in our daily lives ? And above all, how to deal with an agenda that is full of long to-do lists ?
Indeed in your companies you are constantly obliged to add processes, actions, tasks. How do your teams manage this extra work, is it well planned in their job description, is it feasible? It is therefore time and planning that we are going to talk about this month in the blog and to be concrete we are going to talk about a department in your companies that we think is key to achieving your goals: the Human Resources department.
1. Getting organised: the key to good functioning
Yes, it’s obvious that you have to organise your working day to be able to see clearly, but this won’t speak to everyone. It’s not as simple as scheduling your days, especially in a world where everything is moving too fast and files are constantly being added to your desk. Time management, priority management, responding to emergencies, strategy….
So we decided to give you some tips that we use in our daily lives, at Your Daily Assistant, to be able to answer the question of time.
First of all the key to organisation is filling and updating your diary.
It must be beautiful, colorful. In fact, it must be efficient, which is why colors are our allies. We classify our time at Your Daily Assistant. Whether you’re a business owner, an employee of an organisation, whatever the situation, you need to be able to visualise. This is how it looks to us:
Recurring tasks : administration, accounting….. in black
Commercial tasks: market research, phone calls….. in blue
Marketing tasks: communication tools, writing posts …. in pink
And appointments: IN RED
This gives us the visual possibility to see what takes us the most time, what we have to do every week, what has to be done in a specific time slot….and what cannot be flexible: like appointments.
So we gradually adapt our time according to the time of day, our concentration, our priorities. And our priorities, of course, are determined by our goals. And this is an important point, the most important point: building your agenda according to your goals. This way you can easily find out which tasks are the most important, which ones should be done right away and which ones are less important.
2. Determine the work needs to be done: Review your job description?
So now that your diary is full, there’s no more room and you’ve just realised how much there is to do in a perfect world, let’s look at the actions. It’s true in your schedule the more time passes the more new tasks you have.
If you are a business owner: you probably manage a lot of your business. You are a bit of a salesman, a bit of a communications manager, a bit of in administrative tasks…. but can you do everything?
Us at Your Daily Assistant are convinced that to be successful you have to concentrate on your core business, which is what makes the value your company.
If you don’t have time for the rest, think about delegating. Everyday tasks that take up too much of your time make you less efficient. As soon as you can, get rid of the things you can’t handle. Have you ever imagined what you could produce (by proposing your offer) if you didn’t waste 3 hours on market research per week or if you didn’t have to post on social networks for 2 hours?
In fact, by focusing on your core business, you get to the heart of the matter and have real strength.
If you are in a company: you have chosen a job with a specific mission and little by little it is true that you are entrusted with more and more tasks. Look at your job description if you start to feel underwater or if you lose your core business or if you feel less efficient. Eventually, as you go along, you may be overwhelmed by parasitic tasks. In business it is sometimes time to realise that jobs change but you can’t do everything. Redoing this diary exercise will allow you to focus on your missions. Leaders and managers, beware of overloading your teams. Indeed, job descriptions are long, but the risk is to lose efficiency.
So let’s delegate tasks with little added value or those that are, on the contrary, important but neglected for lack of time.
This will lead to more serene and efficient staff and delegating will be a profitable investment.
3. Time management: managing our human resources
You can imagine everything in the management of your companies. Except that you can’t do everything alone and that the question of your resources will obviously be a human question, so you have to ask yourself the question of all the missions carried out for the proper functioning of your company.
Your business is an offer, so you have a priority on your core business.
Your company is also an organisation and an image, you must take care of your working methods, your functioning, and your processes.
Your company is also a team, partners: an ecosystem of human resources!
3.1. Report
Let’s start from your core business, you will call on your own know-how but also on experts. You will have understood by now that you need to start by establishing your first processes, in other words start by drawing up a precise job description. Your employees must be clearly aware of their duties and your expectations of them, so we come to your operations and very quickly to your image.
And this is the most important thing for us: THE EMPLOYEES!
The management of your human resources is essential.
3.2. Onboarding
Convinced that your employees are fully building your company with you, let’s go further. Your procedures will have to describe how your company works. Above all, do not neglect the opinion of your employees in the company, of course, and know how to transmit the company culture to them.
First of all, you must prepare for their arrival, welcome them well, show them that they are welcome, integrate them into your values, and prepare an appropriate workstation for them…. But not only that, it is throughout the year that you must take into account their requests, review their integration, understand their functioning….
And unfortunately, if they have to leave the company, you must take care of their departure to improve your image…..
In fact, onboarding is your allied process for successfully developing your structure. It is therefore a key mission in your company. It also starts the quality of life issue for your employee.
However, it is a mission in its own right and requires preparation, a lot of work and time. You can’t just add this task to your HR department without estimating the time it will take. The solution is also to delegate certain tasks.
3.3. QWL and how to set it up
Beyond the time you have available, the most important thing is the conditions in which you will approach your work, that’s the important thing.
It is true that we often talk about QWL, but what is behind this notion? As mentioned above, QWL is about making your employees feel good. That they adhere to your values, your operation and that they can carry out their work as serenely as possible.
So what can we do: set up a relaxation room or a table football ? Yes, perhaps, but it is far from being a solution. As we can see, the recurring problem for everyone is the lack of time, so for us the solution is to help them save time.
First of all, not wasting time means allowing them to get rid of tasks that are not part of their know-how. It means not overloading them with parasitic tasks. Then you can save them time by giving them peace of mind.
Unfortunately, you can’t do much about that. In our daily lives we have many different concerns.
When it comes to professional matters, you have to allow your employees to express themselves within the company, to have a contact person to seek solutions.
When it’s personal, you need to enable your employees to better reconcile their professional and personal lives.
So how can these concerns be resolved ? By delegating once again?
4. Conclusion
TIME
We all need to save time, or at least not waste any. We would like to be more efficient when we have too much to do.
There are two ways to do this: processes and delegation.
The secret is to be aware of the work as a whole and then to focus on our tasks. Anything that makes us less efficient we get someone else to do.
Have you identified all your tasks?
Are you aware of how much time it takes?
Have you determined your objectives?
And finally, have you identified who can help you?
Do you know who to turn to?
Who are the specialists to help you balance everything?
Have you thought about asking your YDAs?
In this month of February, the smallest month of the year, we invite you to reflect on our slogan! And finally think about yourself.
Now you have the time.
