Looking at what tags to use for this post, it surprised me that it’s been over two years since I posted about taking recharge (basically a short sabbatical).

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…

Some reorganizations happen at work, but I’m still basically working upstream on Linux distributions. I have a US passport now, which means traveling to the Schengen area is now straightforward; on the other hand it does mean more travel and more jet lag… and I got promoted!

Which brings us to the point of this post – working hours. Between being held to a higher bar and wanting to have some time off for family and personal hobbies (in that order), I am making some changes to allow myself to work more sustainably:

  • I am paid to work on community projects - that means I’m already spending a significant portion of working hours on them. ∴ unless an emergency comes up, I do not check mailing lists and the Fedora Matrix after hours and on weekends
    • My Fedora README has some of these, that I will revise over time. I have a similar document on the company-internal wiki
    • My Fedora Matrix is tagged with the timezone I’m in and an activity indicator. Likewise with the Fedora discourse. If something is sent to me when I’m away and it’s not in a more persistent form (Matrix UX is horrible), assume I missed it and try again during my work hours
  • Finding my voice and saying no more often in technical meetings, if someone proposes something that is ill defined, risky, or can foreseeably alienate people unnecessarily
  • Triaging what work to continue doing, and what to let go to refocus on other matters
    • I’m about to start my second stint at the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee - congratulations on my fellow incumbents who all get reelected this cycle!
    • I’m co-chairing the new CentOS Proposed Updates SIG that addresses a gap that CentOS Stream users have been struggling with since the start
    • Doing some desktop work to try and build a community around the CentOS Hyperscale SIG
    • To make time for this, I voluntarily stepped down from the EPEL Steering Committee. This reminds me of my side conversation with new Fedora Project Leader Jef Spaleta - we need new faces in projects. Congrats to Robby Callicotte who is taking over my seat
    • I’ve been slowly automating the release process for packages I maintain, and dropping some that are too much trouble, to try and keep my package load under control

Also - this likely merits its own future post - I’m generally taking myself off Matrix (due to performance and safety issues) and Telegram (crypto, AI, etc. issues). If you have Signal or Delta Chat or IRC (but you have a bouncer set up so I won’t be replying into the void), send me a DM or email and we can exchange contact information. Life is too short to keep fighting broken tooling.

This post is day 29 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

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