Planning and organizing work - definition, what it consists of, planning own and team's work

Effective and efficient work of the people employed in a company is often a prerequisite for the proper functioning of the entity. Organization of working time in a systemic way from the perspective of the employer can improve productivity by up to several tens of percent, so it is definitely worth your time. Obtained by appropriate planning ofown and team's work efficiency also works in favor of employee development - they can perform their duties in a shorter time, which will allow to maintain the important today work-life balance. How to ensure that the team's time is used to the maximum, and at the same time that burnout does not occur? We answer the most frequently asked questions.

Definition of work organization

To fully understand the mechanisms used to properly organize working time, it is worth first understanding what it is in general. It can be summed up quite briefly as follows: it is the setting of tasks and carrying them out in accordance with an approved schedule to ultimately achieve the set goal. Important from the perspective of achieving the goal is to maintain a precisely defined time for the task, hence the importance of gradual, step-by-step execution of properly planned tasks. Companies, teams and individuals operating according to these principles function within the  framework ofgood work organization. Achieving this state is not an end in itself, it is only to lead to greater efficiency in the execution and final realization of tasks, thus saving additional time that can be used in other ways.

What does good work organization consist of?

     Experts and specialists involved in planning and organizing work have identified a number of stages that must be met in order to really talk about an increase in efficiency and effectiveness of work.

1. Target

This is the first and also a key sub-point. The organization of work in a team, as well as individually, requires a very precise definition of the goal to which specific activities are aimed. The definition of tasks is often implemented according to the SMART principle - an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timed. Fulfillment of these assumptions, for the most part, makes it possible to precisely define the goal set before the team is potentially doable.

2. Planning

Knowing the goal, we can move on to planning our own and the team's work. In this subsection, it is extremely important to properly schedule all the activities leading to the goal. We determine the hierarchy of activities, the importance of individual tasks, and distribute tasks to individual team members. Here it is worth emphasizing the importance of particularly prioritized activities and postponing those that can actually be dealt with later and will not have a negative impact on the whole process.

3. Implementation - decision-making

Decision-making is the element that pushes the task forward. Usually, the responsibility for this part of the project rests with the project manager, but often, during the course of the work, it is the serial team members who have to make decisions that are crucial to the success of the task. At the implementation stage, it is important that each team member performs his or her tasks diligently. Then you can count on achieving small successes leading ultimately to the realization of the set goal.

4. Monitoring

At each of the previous stages, the project manager should conduct reliable, accurate monitoring of progress. This is important because catching shortcomings in the early stages allows you to keep the organization of teamwork on the right track towards the goal. By convention, this is the responsibility of the project manager, but each member of the team should conduct monitoring in terms of their assigned tasks.

5. Focus on the task

Depending on the importance of the task, consider eliminating all factors that slow down the creative process. You may want to put off less important phone calls, close instant messaging for a while, stop browsing social media, or even focus on the task at hand for a short but steady period of time. This is often the basis in good work organization.

Planning the work of the team

In the case of organization of working time for a whole team of people, in addition to the absolute basics mentioned above, it is worth paying attention to the appropriate selection of tasks in terms of employee competence. A person familiar with a given issue will certainly cope with it much faster, and the person ordering can be sure that the goal will be achieved in an efficient manner. Already at the stage of recruitment processes the company can construct the team in such a way that the qualities of its individual members complement each other and form a perfect whole. Organization of teamwork is extremely important in the context of large projects involving a larger number of people.

Organization of own work

Many professions, such as mobile credit advisors are professions with a high degree of independence, which at the same time requires highly developed skills planning and organization of own work. It is, after all, about such selection of individual tasks that the day is filled with effective activities, and the month is full of new customers. The qualities of a sales representative, who cares about achieving adequate financial results begin precisely with good organization of working time. Without this, no representative will be able to effectively use sales instruments. And it is the sales result that is one of the key parameters in evaluating the work of this type of person.