I recently got a temporary job as an election supervisor for the city of Denver. It was a lot of hours. 11 to 16 hours a day for eight out of nine days until the election. I helped administer state-wide ballots for those who weren’t in the correct county, oversaw the registration judges, support judges, and tech judges, and liasoned between the Denver Elections Commission and the Voter Services Polling Center I managed. Every morning, I would open the VSPC and every night, I’d close it.
I hated it.
The job itself was not hard, but stressful. I’m not used to getting up early (4:30am, so I could get in a workout before work). I’m not used to dealing with the public. And I’m not used to working such long hours anymore. Heck, I’m not used to working, period.
It just wasn’t possible to do all the things I wanted to do with the hours I received on the planet during those days.
How I want to spend my day currently
Here’s my current resolutions chart
1. Work out
2. Swim
3. Put on lotion
4. Eat eggs and salad
5. Read 25 pages
6. Weigh myself
7. Write 250 words
8. Take a picture
9. Compliment Mark
10. Don’t buy anything
11. Talk to mom
12. Floss
13. Wear dress
14. Sew something
15. Go outside
16. Make sure the bathroom is clean
17. Don’t drink alcohol
18. Don’t go on reddit
19. Plank for some amount of time.
20. Don’t eat after eight. pm
21. No white food
22. Wash my face
23. Perform the evening tidy up
I know I have a lot of resolutions. I’ve been adding on every month and keeping the old ones. It’s been a fun challenge.
But, I’m digressing. Have you heard of the first rock in the bucket?
Prioritize the first rock of the day
So you have all these different rocks of things you want to do. You have to make whatever you can fit in the bucket. But you only have so much room. So you have to put the most important rock in first. What’s your first rock? What’s your main priority? The first rock is the only rock you’re absolutely guaranteed to fit in the bucket.
For most people, their first rock is work. When your biggest priority is work, you don’t have enough space for all the other rocks. It can take up the entire bucket. And that goes throughout life. The more space you allocate for work, the later you retire, the less time you have for everything else. Learning Spanish. Writing a book. Raising your kids.
During election weeks, my rocks were work, working out, and sleeping. That’s all I had time for.
But in early retirement land…
In my real life though, I have enough space for all my rocks and that’s what I love about my reality.
I think early retirement can make you a more well-rounded person. At least for me. I have a hard time leaving things at the office. Must finish the to-do list!
I think it’s good to get a job every once in a while to show you what you’re missing and to prove you don’t miss it. The paycheck was fun. Denver paid me $1,983.81 for the nine days I worked and for in person training and online training. Compare that amount to what the market “paid” me in that same time period and you’ll find a shocking difference.
Your money can work harder than you can.
I love what you wrote. Simple but inspiring.
Well, thank you! I love what you wrote. 🙂
I know exactly what you mean — I also worked Elections, though not as the supervisor. It was stressful enough, being a regular judge! I also had a houseful of hunters to feed and tidy up after nearly every day. Just glad it’s done and over with,, although I liked many of the people I met and worked with.
why couldnt the hunters feed and clean up themselves????
I was a regular judge two years ago and found that stressful, too. I thought supervisor might be a little better for some reason. At least different.
Thank you for doing this important work, especially when you don’t have.
All the guilt trippy emails bullied me into doing it.
Wow that sounds like it was an intense time! Granted it’s not life changing money, but it was important work and you can put it towards your dress 🙂
I keep wanting to make exercise the first rock I put in my bucket, but have been really struggling with this. After getting the kids to school I drink coffee and wordle, connections, strands while cuddling with the dog. Hmmm, maybe I could make that my reward for after the workout rock goes into the bucket…
Oooh, I am a big fan of Worlde and Connections. I did strands for a while, but got bored of it. Maybe I’ll try it again. That’s also my first (tiny) rock. I do them in bed before I really wake up.
Stands is my least favorite of the three, but it can be a nice break if i don’t get the other ones right away. I decided I’m doing it tomorrow – renewing my membership to the local rec center and heading in for a workout. I have hereby declared in the comment section and so it must be!!
Hooray!
Back in 2020 I volunteered to work as a poll worker. I’m not really a “dealing with the public” person either. While the majority of people were fine there was just enough to take this as their opportunity to “grind the axe” of whatever political grievance they had. It’s highly unlikely I’ll volunteer to do this again.
People were mostly lovely, but there were some that weren’t. That was the problem.
I did this is 2022 and said I wouldn’t do it again, but here we are.
Also, you volunteered? You weren’t paid?
I should clarify, I volunteered for the position but, yes I was payed. Not that much but the money was not the motivator for me (I’m already retired).
Samsies, kinda.
After a year of doing nothing in early retirement I realized a few things:
1. Missed helping people(out of my own self-interest)
2. Missed the weird people I used to work with that you can only find in such professions(I looked high, I looked low, I even looked middleish…)
3. I was getting soft. Got used to doing whatever I wanted every day and entitlement insidiously crept in. Like if my day didn’t go exactly as I wanted I’d get as bummed as I used to after a crappy day at work.
So I went back to a part time job in a similar field. Work 4-8 hours a week on average, but super lumpy. There are days I hate it; but then I really relish the next few weeks off.
Wish I could be a super well adjusted human who didn’t benefit from occasional work, but then it’s still beats the hell out of working full time.
Glad you’ve filled the work sucks tank for awhile!
You don’t appreciate the highs without the lows, right? Also, 4-8 hours a week seems kind of perfect.
True market pays when it goes up, but sometimes it goes down =( have you ever had a job which required you to pay in 🤣?
That is an truly excellent point! LOL.
Congratulations on your recent wedding!
Best wishes for a bright future together!
Thank you!
Oh wow! I also worked the election and hate not being able to get in all the other things I love to do in my regular retired life. But it is less than 2 weeks total, and I think I am good at it…and it is important…and it reminds me how good I have it. So I do it. I am one of the leads at an in person voting site and I love the problem solving and meeting people. But this year election day was more than I handled before and it was rough. And yet I know that I will do it again because the good outweighs the bad for me!
That’s a good way of looking at it. I think it was just overwhelming on election day. The first day I worked, we had forty voters. The final day we had over 900. It was constant for 16 hours.