Is It Time to Rest?

Is It Time to Rest?

For many of us, we’re taking a deep breath after finishing up another election cycle. But is it time to rest? Can’t we just close our eyes and kick back for just a little bit?

There’s ALWAYS a need to refresh your soul and keep your body healthy. It’s important to care for yourself, so you can then care for others. The phrase “love your neighbor as yourself” implies that your neighbor is in trouble if you aren’t healthy first!

Yet in our election space, now is actually a pretty good time to take action to prepare for the next season. If we don’t purposefully take time to review and critique, we might lose some valuable information. And are we “storing” these assessments in a place that is accessible to others?

Here are a few other thoughts:

• Have you taken time to thank those on your team? It just takes a moment to let your poll workers and elections team know they are appreciated.
• Have you done an in-depth Security self-evaluation? What are your standards you are comparing yourself to? An annual self-assessment against the cyber security standards such as NIST 800 publications seems to be the best practice.
• Have you updated your “checklist” for election prep? Keeping a written checklist, with your notes for the future, is helpful at all levels.

Yes, now is BOTH the time to rest AND the time to lean in. While trying to find a life-balance may be elusive, managing the tension of recovery and betterment is worth the work!

And if you are looking for an all-inclusive tool to help manage your election ecocycle, consider Integra – designed by election officials for election officials.