“Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition, we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.” Stephen Covey
Do you know someone who seems totally unfazed by any deluge of challenges, while you go nuts when one new task is asked of you by management or the CPS?
The input is the same. The demands upon the individual’s time are potentially the same. So how come it’s like water off a duck’s back to some, and an excuse for ‘stress-induced depression’ for others.
Their approach – or, more accurately, their pre-planning.
‘How can you plan for what hasn’t happened, yet?’ I hear you ask.
By having a system for dealing with it, I reply.
Years ago, I was blessed with a boss who knew what I learned a lot later. When input comes at you at light speed, catch it, stop it, write it down and deal with it at your speed. I swear on one evening shift about five or six jobs landed on our Divisional CID team of four plus this DS. Cue ‘WTF’ from four of us; but cue some careful, proactive decision-making on his. He made notes of what was to be dealt with, considered each in turn in terms of what might be required and which took priority, and then in partnership with us he delegated and instructed and motivated us all within a short space of time – and his lack of dismay gave us the opportunity to catch up with how deliberate and considered he was. And we coped.
Funny thing is, in the main we always cope with what comes at us – it’s just the initial rush of ‘stuff’ that we let cause our stress. Yes, I did use the expression ‘let cause’ because you can decide to NOT be stressed. Stress is often a default state based on the fact that we are constantly being told we are stressed.
For example: anyone over the age of 50 reading this will recall no occasion whatsoever when they were exam-stressed in school, because it hadn’t been invented, yet. Now every pupil is being excused exams because they are potentially stressed. Bless.
I’m not saying you aren’t busy – that is a consequence of the job. But being stressed is NOT an automatic by-product because someone says it should be. It need not be, and you can decide, now, not to be stressed. And you can serve that new approach by deciding how you are going to cope with all new input.
By writing it down and dealing with it calmly and appropriately, with the requisite attention and speed. Your speed. And the more you exercise that proactive approach to new input the better you will get at dealing with it, and the less busy you will feel.
I cannot emphasise enough how good input on time management – the physical and philosophical approaches to managing your workload – can reduce the feelings you experience about being busy.
I guarantee that David Walliams, comedian, raconteur, author, actor, judge and exponent of multiple other activities, is busier than you. His output suggests he’s on duty 24/7.
Are you not at least as good as him?
Police Time Management 