At Profacts we are conducting a large scale study involving a mixed data collection approach, namely telephone interviews followed by a diary. This diary is both available in a classic paper version and in an on line version, offering the respondent the choice to fill it in on paper and sending it back to us free of charge or keeping track of the data with the paper version and then filling it in on line. As Louise Corti describes in her article¹ on the use of diaries in research: “(…) diaries are used as research instruments to collect detailed information about behavior, events and other aspects of individuals’ daily lives.”

Clearly, one of the advantages of the diary method is that it can provide information on events that are difficult to recall accurately or that are easily forgotten. Another advantage is that the diary can enrich the data yielded by the telephone interview. A third advantage is that the data gathering can be spread over an extensive period of time.

Even though the diary data collection has its clear advantages, it holds a few caveats too. For instance, compared to other methods of data collection, diaries are not fast and cheap. They need to be constructed as intuitive and professional as possible. A nice layout and clear structure work miracles. If not, respondents might get frustrated and will not fill in the diary, or fill it in incorrectly. This brings us to a second point of attention. The diary method places a lot of responsibility in the hands of the respondent. As Corti states: “(…) diaries are especially prone to errors arising from respondent conditioning, incomplete recording of information and under-reporting, inadequate recall and insufficient cooperation.”

Well trained data handlers can make up for small inconsistencies or errors in the retrieved data. As said before, the more professional a diary is constructed, the less coding and editing is needed afterwards during data entry.

Adding up the advantages of this data collection method and keeping a close watch on the caveats, we at Profacts believe diary research can provide the necessary data to attain valuable data, resulting in concrete and actionable recommendations towards our clients. Indeed, by using diaries, we can reveal factors for success!

Advantages and disadvantages of diary research:

+

Detailed information on difficult to remember events or easily forgotten

Spread over time

Measures actual behavior

Can enrich data gathered via other data collection methods

-

Expensive

Labour intensive data entry

Data has to be screened rigorously – prone to errors

¹ Corti, L. (1993).‘Using diaries in social research’. Social Research Update, march 1993 (issue 2). Verkregen op 27/03/2012 van http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU2.html.

If you want to know more about the role of Immoweb and how you can reach your target public through Immoweb, please take a look at www.produpress.be.

We did the test on our own online panel …

Apart from socio-demographic parameters like gender, age, region, level of education, social class, etc. which are distributed representatively for the Belgian population in our online panel, we focused this study entirely on parameters that can be linked with so-called “new technologies”. Here are the main results:

• 84% of our panel members say to be surfing on the internet daily, with an average of 14 hours per week. Lower educated persons tend to be longer on the internet (20 hours/week).
  • According to Eurostat 60% of the Belgian population uses the internet on a daily basis. Of all Belgian internet users 76% says to be on the internet daily. (Eurostat, 2010) Given that the internet usage is still increasing and the Eurostat numbers are 2 years old, our numbers are spot on.
• 51% of the respondents say they never go to Photo sites like Flickr or Picasa. 47% never visits a blog or forum. Video sites like YouTube and especially news sites are more popular. The latter is visited on a daily basis by 58% of our panel. Games sites are more visited by younger and/or less educated people.
  • According to Eurostat 51% of the EU internet users read newspapers online or visit news sites on a regular basis. According to the same source 45% of all EU internet users post often messages to chat sites, blogs and social network sites. (Eurostat, 2010). Again our numbers are completely in line.
• Social Network sites are popular – 60% has a Facebook account – but nevertheless says 35% never to be on such a website.
  • In December 2011 there were 4.5 million Belgian Facebook-accounts (42%) (Belgian Social Media Monitor, 2012). So once again, if you correct for small  children and elderly people, spot on!
• Some have a blog (8%) or website (11%) of their own, but the large majority hasn’t.
• Smartphones are still used by only a small minority (13%) to go online. Most people use desktop and/or laptop to fill in an online survey.

So, to conclude we can say that although we have “specialists” in our online panel, who have their own blog and use a smartphone, the majority doesn’t. Just like in real life …

Recently, I encountered an article entitled “Why Our Minds Swap Out Hard Questions For Easy Ones”. As we are in the business of asking questions, this article immediately caught my attention.

Market researchers & marketers already know for a long time that people not always do what they say, and vice versa. That is for instance why in concept testing, we usually apply a correction for “overclaiming”. E.g. when 35% of the respondents claim they would “certainly buy” the new product or service, we know that in reality this will never be the case. So we apply a weight to get a more realistic view on the concepts’ potential.

But why is this? Why are consumers not as rational as we sometimes think, or would like them to be?

The article illustrates why consumers sometimes make irrational decisions, highlighting an experiment with a wheel of fortune. The outcome shows how judgment is often influenced by partially reliable or even totally insignificant information. This is what psychologists call “the anchoring effort”. In short, this means that answers are anchored by previous information, even when there was no link between them.

The reason for this is that, when confronted with a problem, the human mind does the best it can. If a person has relevant experience with the problem, he will recognize the solution, and the intuitive solution that comes to mind is likely to be correct. But when the question is difficult and a skilled solution is not available? We answer an easier and related question.

The authors claim that this is the essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution. The example they give is the following: if the question is “Should I invest in Ford Motor Company stock?” the easier question to answer is “Do I like Ford cars?”

It is clear that not only this effect, but also other unconscious processes, are interesting to take into account when conducting market research. One well known application of this is eye tracking, a tool that Profacts had already integrated in its research designs (also see another interesting blog article about this).

But we are convinced that there is a lot more to be discovered in the world of the unconscious, so we are looking forward to future developments in this area! Nothing more than logical if you consider that Profacts had been founded by 2 doctors in experimental psychology

Oh yes, for those of you who are interested in reading the full article, here’s the link. Enjoy!

Recently, I encountered an article entitled “Why Our Minds Swap Out Hard Questions For Easy Ones”. As we are in the business of asking questions, this article immediately caught my attention.
Market researchers & marketers already know for a long time that people not always do what they say, and vice versa. That is for instance why in concept testing, we usually apply a correction for “overclaiming”. E.g. when 35% of the respondents claim they would “certainly buy” the new product or service, we know that in reality this will never be the case. So we apply a weight to get a more realistic view on the concepts’ potential.
But why is this? Why are consumers not as rational as we sometimes think, or would like them to be?
The article illustrates why consumers sometimes make irrational decisions, highlighting an experiment with a wheel of fortune. The outcome shows how judgment is often influenced by partially reliable or even totally insignificant information. This is what psychologists call “the anchoring effort”. In short, this means that answers are anchored by previous information, even when there was no link between them.
The reason for this is that, when confronted with a problem, the human mind does the best it can. If a person has relevant experience with the problem, he will recognize the solution, and the intuitive solution that comes to mind is likely to be correct. But when the question is difficult and a skilled solution is not available? We answer an easier and related question.
The authors claim that this is the essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution. The example they give is the following: if the question is “Should I invest in Ford Motor Company stock?” the easier question to answer is “Do I like Ford cars?”
It is clear that not only this effect, but also other unconscious processes, are interesting to take into account when conducting market research. One well known application of this is eye tracking, a tool that Profacts had already integrated in its research designs (also see another interesting blog article about this: http://www.profacts.be/blog/?p=368).
But we are convinced that there is a lot more to be discovered in the world of the unconscious, so we are looking forward to future developments in this area! Nothing more than logical if you consider that Profacts had been founded by 2 doctors in experimental psychology
Oh yes, for those of you who are interested in reading the full article, here’s the link: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/improvisations/. Enjoy!

Staking van 22 december: Ouderen en Walen staken, jongeren en zelfstandigen zijn de dupe

-    4% van de Belgen heeft gestaakt op 22 december 2011: slechts 1% van de Belgen heeft naar eigen zeggen actie gevoerd en og eens 3% heeft gestaakt maar is thuisgebleven. 96% van de Belgen hebben dus niet gestaakt.
-    De stakers zijn bijna exclusief te zoeken bij de vakbondsleden. Onder de mensen die aangesloten zijn bij een vakbond staakte 10%, terwijl dit minder dan 1% is bij de mensen die niet aangesloten zijn bij een vakbond.
-    Er zijn ook geen stakers te vinden bij de zelfstandigen (0%). Alle stakers waren werknemers (5%).
-    In Wallonië werd door dubbel zoveel mensen gestaakt (8%) als in Vlaanderen (3%).
-    Er is ook duidelijk een effect per sector: in de publieke sector werd door 8% van de mensen gestaakt, terwijl dit slechts 3% is in de private sector.
-    Het zijn ook vooral de oudere Belgen die hebben gestaakt: terwijl 7% van de 50-plussers heeft gestaakt, is dit bij de dertigers en veertigers maar 5% en bij de jongeren (18-30) minder dan 2%.
-    Ongeveer 1 op 3 van de Belgen (32%) heeft last ondervonden van de staking. Bij de jongeren is dit zelfs de helft (50% van de 18- tot 30-jarigen). De vijftig-plussers hebben het minst last ondervonden (slechts 23%). Ook bij de zelfstandigen beweert de helft (49%) last te hebben ondervonden, terwijl dit bij de werknemers slechts 1 op 3 is (33%). Doordat er meer gestaakt werd in Wallonië, waren het ook vooral de Walen die last ondervonden van de staking: 41% van de Walen heeft last ondervonden, terwijl dit bij de Vlamingen slechts 25% is.
-    Mensen ondervonden vooral last doordat de NMBS staakte (11% van de Belgen), door de staking van De Lijn (7% van de Belgen) en door wegblokkades (6% van de Belgen). Bij de jongeren had zelfs 1 op 4 last van de staking bij de NMBS en 15% van de staking bij De Lijn.
-    De meeste Belgen (53%) stonden negatief tegenover de staking en 1 op 3 zelfs heel negatief. Een minderheid van de Belgen (19%) stond positief tegenover de staking en slechts 7% heel positief. Ongeveer 28% stond neutraal tegenover de staking. De negativiteit is vooral sterk bij de zelfstandigen (74% negatief vergeleken met 50% bij de werknemers), de mensen die niet aangesloten zijn bij een vakbond (66% negatief vergeleken met 37% bij vakbondsleden), de Vlamingen (60% negatief vergeleken met 41% bij de Walen) en de mannen (60% negatief vergeleken met 42% bij de vrouwen). De attitude tegenover de staking wordt minder beïnvloedt door leeftijd: de negativiteit ligt rond 50% bij alle leeftijdsgroepen).

Staking van 30 januari: Negativiteit tegenover de staking is vooral gestegen bij de vrouwen en bij de Walen, maar stakingsbereidheid blijft het hoogst in Wallonië.

-    Ook tegenover de aangekondigde staking van 30 januari staan de meeste Belgen negatief (55%). Slechts 20% staat positief. 23% is neutraal. Opnieuw is de negativiteit vooral sterk bij de zelfstandigen (78% negatief vergeleken met 55% bij de werknemers), de mensen die niet aangesloten zijn bij een vakbond (69% negatief vergeleken met 38% bij vakbondsleden), de Vlamingen (60% negatief vergeleken met 49% bij de Walen) en de mannen (60% negatief vergeleken met 52% bij de vrouwen).
-    Vergeleken met de attitude tegenover de staking van 22 december 2011, is de negativiteit ten opzichte van de staking van 30 januari in alle groepen gestegen. De stijging is echter het meest frappant bij de Walen, waar 8% meer mensen negatief staan (van 41% naar 49% negatief), en bij de vrouwen, waar  10% meer vrouwen negatief staan (van 42% naar 52%).
-    5% van de Belgen is van plan om actie te voeren op 30 januari. Nog eens 6% is van plan om te staken, maar om thuis te blijven. 89% van de Belgen zegt van plan te zijn niet te zullen staken.
-    Opnieuw zal de staking het meest uitgebreid zijn in Wallonië (17% versus 7% in Vlaanderen) bij de vakbondsleden (23% versus 2% bij de niet-vakbondsleden), in de publieke sector (17% versus 7% in de private sector) en bij de ouderen (14% bij de 50-plussers, 11% bij de dertigers en veertigers en 6% bij de 18- tot 30-jarigen).

6 op 10 Belgen vinden dat het stakingsrecht aangepast moet worden

-    61% van de Belgen vinden dat het stakingsrecht aangepast moet worden: 31% vindt dat het stakingsrecht lichtjes ingeperkt moet worden, 27% vindt dat het sterk ingeperkt moet worden en 3% vindt dat het volledig afgeschaft moet worden.
-    Het aanpassen van het stakingsrecht vindt veel meer steun in Vlaanderen (65%) dan in Wallonië (54%). De vraag om het stakingsrecht resoluut af te schaffen is bij alle doelgroepen minimaal, maar vindt vooral een aantal supporters bij de zelfstandigen (10%).
-    Welke aanpassingen vraagt de bevolking dan? De Belgen zijn vooral voorstander van een minimale dienstverlening in ziekenhuizen (84%)en door de politie (79%). Een grote meerderheid is ook voor een minimale dienstverlening van het openbaar vervoer (73%) en een verbod op wegblokkades (73%), een verbod op wilde stakingen (68%) en een verbod op blokkeren van bedrijven (68%). Een kleine meerderheid is voor een minimale dienstverlening door het onderwijs (62%) en een minimale dienstverlening van de post (52%).

De meeste mensen vinden dat de Belgische economie erop achteruit is gegaan door de staking van 22 december.

-    We legden ook een aantal uitspraken voor over staken die naar aanleiding van de staking van 22 december op sociale media (twitter, linkedin, etc.) en blogs en fora van mediasites werden vermeld en vroegen aan mensen in welke mate men ermee akkoord ging. Behalve met de stellingen die stakers lui en egoïstisch noemden, gingen meer mensen met de stellingen akkoord dan niet akkoord:

• 76% akkoord met “Stakers zouden beter acties bedenken waarbij de bazen gepest worden en niet de klanten (bvb. bij de NMBS of De Lijn).” (11% niet akkoord en 13% neutraal)
• 68% akkoord met “Stakingen treffen vooral mensen die er niets mee te maken hebben.” (17% niet akkoord en 15% neutraal)
• 64% akkoord met “Wegblokkades door stakers zijn pesterijen.” (18% niet akkoord en 18% neutraal)
• 51% akkoord met “Door de staking is de Belgische economie erop achteruit gegaan.” (22% niet akkoord en 27% neutraal)
• 45% akkoord met “Als stakers zouden betogen op zondag of op een feestag, zou hun actie geloofwaardiger zijn.” (34% niet akkoord en 21% neutraal)
• 44% akkoord met “Staken lost niets op.” (34% niet akkoord en 22% neutraal)
• 27% akkoord met “Stakers zijn egoïsten die enkel aan zichzelf denken” (46% niet akkoord en 28% neutraal)
• 15% akkoord met “Mensen die staken, zijn te lui om te werken.” (58% niet akkoord en 27% neutraal)

De meeste Belgen blijven de vakbonden alles bij elkaar genomen nuttig vinden

-    De meeste mensen vinden de vakbonden alles bij elkaar genomen nuttig (56%). Slechts 18% van de Belgen vinden de vakbonden alles bij elkaar genomen schadelijk. 25% is neutraal tegenover de vakbonden. In Wallonië zijn er meer mensen die de vakbonden nuttig vinden (61%) dan in Vlaanderen (53%). Zelfs bij de mensen die zelf niet aangesloten zijn bij een vakbond vindt 42% de vakbonden nuttig (28% onder hen vindt de vakbond schadelijk). Vooral de zelfstandigen (41% onder hen) vinden de vakbonden schadelijk.
-    Ook over de vakbonden werden een aantal (positieve en negatieve) stellingen voorgelegd:

• 44% vindt dat de vakbonden voor een gezond tegengewicht zorgen tegen de belangen van de bedrijven. (36% niet akkoord en 21% neutraal)
• 43% vindt dat de vakbonden opkomen voor de belangen van de zwaksten. (29% niet akkoord en 28% neutraal)
• 37% vindt dat de vakbonden voor een gezond tegengewicht zorgen tegen de politici. (37% niet akkoord en 26% neutraal)
• 36% vindt dat de vakbonden enkel aan zichzelf denken en niet aan de maatschappij. 35% niet akkoord en 29% neutraal)
• 29% vindt dat de vakbonden nefast zijn voor de Belgische economie. (38% niet akkoord en 34% neutraal)
• 25% vindt dat de vakbonden de toekomst van de jongeren schaden. (45% niet akkoord en 30% neutraal)
• 21% vindt dat de vakbonden vooral het belang van de oudere generaties dienen. (44% niet akkoord en 35% neutraal)

Pensioenhervorming van Di Rupo I wordt door de bevolking weggestemd

-    De meeste Belgen (42%) staan negatief tegenover de pensioenhervorming van Di Rupo I. Ongeveer 1 op 4 staat positief (26%) en ongeveer een derde is neutraal (33%).
-    Als ze zelf parlementslid zouden zijn, dan zou 36% voor stemmen, 42% zou tegen stemmen en 22% zou zich onthouden.

Details van het onderzoek

-    Wat? Profacts nam een online kwantitatieve vragenlijst af bij een representatieve steekproef van Belgen.
-    Wie? Een steekproef van 1054 Belgen, representatief op leeftijd, geslacht, provincie, opleidingsniveau en beroep.
-    Hoe? De studie werd via een online enquête uitgevoerd op het panel van Profacts dat 120.000 Belgen bevat en waarvan een representatieve steekproef bevraagd werd.
-    Wanneer? De enquête liep tijdens de eerste twee weken van januari 2012.

Profacts

-    Profacts is een full-service kwantitatief marktonderzoeksbureau, dat in 2006 werd opgericht door dr. Timothy Desmet en dr. Stijn De Rammelaere. Profacts is gevestigd nabij Gent (Eke-Nazareth) en telt momenteel 22 werknemers. Profacts voert zowel online, telefonische en face-to-face studies uit. Profacts is lid van Febelmar, de Belgische Federatie van Marktonderzoeksbureaus.
-    Voor meer informatie over Profacts: www.profacts.be.
-    Voor meer informatie over deze studie: contacteeer Timothy Desmet, Co-Founder en Managing Partner van Profacts via tim.desmet@profacts.be of 0473 444 905.

18 months ago, I was a senior year student at Ghent University, trying to achieve my Master degree in Experimental Psychology. But life starts only after graduation (they say…), so I was wondering what to do with that life.
Because I had no idea what possibilities I had with my education, I wanted my internship to bring clarification. I choose for an internship with 2 parts.

The first part took place at the department of Experimental Psychology at Ghent University. Here I could discover the academic possibilities of my degree. I did some priming research on brands. Priming is a method to discover how concepts are linked in our memory. In the priming procedure 2 words are shown with rapid succession. Participants have to do a task with the second word (e.g. decide if it’s a word or a nonword). When the 2 words are related, participants can execute the task faster than when they are not related. So reaction times can be used to reveal the fact that words are related or not in the human memory.By using this method we wanted to discover to what concepts brands are related. Several experiments revealed that brands are related to their product category (e.g. Maes -  beer), competitive brands (Telenet – Belgacom) and the logo (Electrabel - ).
Although this experiment was done in an academic setting, it could also be interesting in “the real world”. The priming technique could be used to reveal all sort of relations with brands (or the lack of it). There’s more to it than just a cognitive theory.

During the second part of my internship, I wanted to discover what is going on outside the walls of Ghent University. And so, I became a temporary member of (you’ll never guess) Profacts. Timothy, my internship supervisor, told me this about Profacts before I begun: “You’ll see that it is a hard job working at Profacts. People are really motivated, work long hours and have to do (almost) everything to please the customer. But nevertheless, working at Profacts is great fun.” Being a student, I could not image the combination of fun and that amount of work to do. So I was a little afraid starting my internship here.
Really soon, I realized that Timothy didn’t lie: Yes, people here work hard and long, but yes, it is fun! I had my own project to work on for my internship, but I also wanted to know what all those other people were doing here. So I also started helping people on their job. And doing all this, I realized: “This is what I want to do!”
During my time here, Timothy and Stijn saw that I liked working here and I confirmed! So after my internship, they promised me to keep me posted on new vacancies!

After my internship, I returned to my student life: working on my master thesis and studying for the final exams. That’s when I met “the black hole”. After my time at Profacts, I was used to have a lot of input, noise… So being back a student felt like a shock!
So time passed by, I graduated and I started looking for a job… At the beginning of August, Timothy called with great news: “We might have a job for you! Are you still interested?” Of course I was! So I came back to Profacts, to present myself (again). Four days later, Benjamin called with the revealing words: “You’ve got the job!”

And that’s how I became the newest member of Profacts!

To us, conducting a survey is not limited to just asking a list of questions, but each time we grasp the opportunity to truly connect with our clients and their products or services. We develop an open mind towards everything related to the survey topic: the product/service itself, its competitive situation, the communication & marketing actions etc.

Recently, we gave a presentation on the satisfaction & expectations of the users of mobile internet on tablet.

What’s the best way to fully identify with the customer and thus interpret the survey results? Yes indeed: get a tablet for Christmas . And so I did: The Samsung Galaxy Tab is mine .

A very patient & friendly salesman explained flawless all the advantages & pitfalls of tablet use. Furthermore he installed the tablet for immediate use and sends me home very satisfied and eager to start playing (euhm “working”).

Or at least this was my intention. Within the 2 minutes upon my return home, the tablet was out of my hands and my 14-year old brother took the lead. He smoothly installed all “must have” apps: from “Angry Birds”, “Fruit Ninja” to “Tom, the talking cat (seriously: a cat that repeats your sentences in high voice)”.  Together we further discovered other tablet applications such as taking pictures, making movies, Skype & Facebook or even scanning barcodes and QR-codes. The sky is the limit!

Distimo recently published a list of the top downloaded apps in 2011: the Angry Birds are far ahead on common social media such as Skype & Facebook. The addictive game was downloaded more than 300 million times up till now. The game involves using gestures and taps to catapult cartoonish birds at different block-based structures. You can progress through levels based on how many birds it takes you to finish knocking down the structure.

Okay, nevertheless, I agree with the majority of the tablet users in our survey: a tablet is fun, it’s addictive and it’s very user-friendly. I can’t wait to include it in my working and leisure habits. But I’ll need to get it out of my little brother’s hands first .

With the end-of-year rush we would almost forget that the holidays are coming, but luckily we have a few ‘Profacts-reminders’:

-    The piles of New Year cards and presents that are waiting to be delivered to all the people we want to say thanks to.

-    Secondly, at Profacts we are blessed with a neighbor who takes care that nobody forgets that it is Christmas.

-    Then we also have our annual Profacts Christmas dinner! Those who remember the pictures of our summer event already know that the young and dynamic Profacts team knows how to turn a work related event into a fun experience!
Valerie, our office manager, reserved us a separate room at KorenleiTwee in Ghent. Tim and Stijn, the managing partners, directly brought us into the right mindset with a little quiz. A week before, all Profacts employees had to write a little report about their performance interview. Now we had to guess who of our colleagues was the first to send his report, who used most diminutives, who illustrated his report by 4 html-links, … Apparently, we spend too much time together as some people answered all questions correctly .
Afterwards, we enjoyed our dinner and drinks while the voices got louder and the conversations got more interesting, … Anyway, the waitress definitely enjoyed our company: “What a fun company you work for!”.
Below some atmospheric pictures:

-    And last but not least, while I was writing this blog I got interrupted by clinging bells and a loud “HO HO HO”: Yes indeed, we got a visit from Santa Claus at Profacts!! Santa Claus had a personal message for all of us written in his book: funny things that we have done, typical characteristics or personal accomplishes to be proud of! He even made us sing some Christmas songs.

With  all these reminders, we sure cannot forget that a New Year is coming our way so let me finish by wishing you all the best for 2012. May you find your own factors for success!!

For those among you who don’t know Rotaract, this is Rotaract in a nutshell:

Being part of the Rotary family, Rotaract is a service club which – as the name implies – services others in our society. However, Rotaract doesn’t really give financial support but engages itself in organising events to raise funds and Rotaract uses these funds to do something for the needy in our society.

Organising events implies looking for sponsoring. And of course I could only try and ask if Profacts wanted to support Rotaract Gent-Haven. Profacts helped to realise some of our events. ‘Now Playing’ which is a music contest for starting bands, our movie nights –always at a special location– and Rotaract’s ‘Mini Football Cup’ each turned out into a success. With the revenues, we were able to give ‘Sinterklaas’-presents to needy children, paint a red school into white for children with an autistic disorder, …

Being part of this group of youngsters (18 – 30 y.o.) really enriches my own life experience: As member of Rotaract I get acquainted with a lot of people from other Rotaract and Rotary clubs. Being president of Rotaract Gent-haven helps me in developing my own social skills, learning to manage projects, motivating other members, … and it makes me more aware of the existing problems in our own neighbourhood.

Not only in my spare Rotaract time, but also during work, my professional skills are trained. Profacts recently organised some training sessions for its employees. Implementing the tips & tricks we learned during these sessions and being given several presentation opportunities, help to improve my professional abilities.

I am very happy to learn that the combination of being a Profacts employee and president at Rotaract, is fruitful for my employer, my Rotaract club and of course… myself.

On October 21st, I attended with some of my colleagues a training, organized by our team leaders,  about internal communication and improving  productivity.

As expected, the training turned out to be very interesting, interactive and of course (it’s Profacts ) … a lot of fun !

A topic I found very interesting was prioritization, an essential skill to make the very best use of your efforts and time.  Not only to create calmness in your work, but also in your personal life.

I think a lot of the young people (like me ) with a job and a young family know the problems of combining a busy life at work and at home.

To-do lists  and day-planners  are very common strategies. But sometimes those lists keep expanding and expanding…  Therefore you need to know what is important and what is urgent.

The urgent/important matrix (= Eisenhower matrix)  is a useful tool for thinking about priorities and helps to quickly identify the activities to focus on. Listing your activities and assigning importance and urgency to each of these activities can help you to plan and minimize stress.

The matrix can help to make a good, efficient list of A-tasks (necessary and important), B-tasks (necessary and less important) and C-tasks (not necessary and no profit).

As an office manager and mom, my lists are very extensive .

At work I’m responsible for the administration of projects, HR-business, incentive handling and contact with suppliers. As a mom, wife and friend my days are occupied with pottie training, playing with my child, the household, social events, and many other things.

I’ts a lot, but planning helps me manage my time-for today and the next week(s)- and makes me enjoy the things I do !

Like someone said : Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan !