Tag Archives: gwent police

You lie because you’re busy. But you’re busy because you lie.

One of the biggest time-wasters I have ever experienced in policing – and as I write this I feel a compunction to confess that I have done it myself – is telling lies. Not perjury-type lies, though. The little white ones. The one where you tell the victim of a crime that something can’t orContinue reading “You lie because you’re busy. But you’re busy because you lie.”

Time Mismanagement – Involuntary?

You’re busy, right? But how much of it is your own fault? You may think that your workload is entirely influenced by circumstance, and therefore take the view that the level of tasks you are stuck with are entirely out of your control. You may recall, from your rookie years, the old ‘self-generated work’ approachContinue reading “Time Mismanagement – Involuntary?”

Dealing With The Dreaded CPS Memorandum….

Ah, the dreaded CPS memo. Often a long list of truly amorphous blobs of undoability (a term I have stolen, I confess). You’re busy, this document arrives in your in-tray and you immediately enter the depths of despair. You read it, and the following thoughts go through your head: I don’t have time. They don’tContinue reading “Dealing With The Dreaded CPS Memorandum….”

You may think you’re a Widget-Cranker. You’re not.

And you aren’t (necessarily) an executive, with a secretary – sorry, personal assistant – to manage your tasks and appointments. You fall somewhere in between, and if you compare yourself to other professional service providers you’ll find that you can easily match your working style to other professionals whose work requires constantly managing appointments, tasks,Continue reading “You may think you’re a Widget-Cranker. You’re not.”

Like it or not, investigators are Project Managers.

Are you investigating anything? If you’re a police officer or a civilian investigator then the answer is, “Of course I am, what else do you think I do all day?”. And what is an investigation? It is a project. A project, as defined by the Project Management Institute, is a ‘temporary endeavour with a startContinue reading “Like it or not, investigators are Project Managers.”

Relationships and Police Time Management

It is a fault of many (most) time-management books and courses that an important influence over how well we spend our time is completely ignored. I don’t ignore it as much in Police Time Management . Although that said, more could be written – but then this 300-page ‘practice manual’* could easily turn biblical inContinue reading “Relationships and Police Time Management”

PC Winston S. Churchill. (If only……)

I have just finished a 982-page, teeny tiny font biography of Winston Spencer Churchill. It took about a month to read at about a chapter a day. Mammoth effort, amusing and informative experience. For example, did you know that when the Free French Army needed a wartime HQ in 1940 they were allocated Trafalgar HouseContinue reading “PC Winston S. Churchill. (If only……)”

You won’t read this to the end. Pity.

If you are, or know, a serving police officer or civilian, please read the foreword in my Amazon ‘LookInside’ page (CLICK HERE) before you read further. Is that your experience, or that of your acquaintance? It was certainly mine. I spent years listening to colleagues bemoaning the ‘time/task’ imbalance – too little of the former,Continue reading “You won’t read this to the end. Pity.”

Are you up to date?

A surprising number of people object to on-the-job training and to attending courses. I know that some of their reluctance is down to a perceived interruption to the work that they are already doing, that mounts up inexorably while they are away and, occasionally, the belief that the training is unnecessary and irrelevant. We hadContinue reading “Are you up to date?”