On being slow

Okay, wow, yeah that was a lot ! I think this week I'm really appreciating the slow times. The announcement that Bluesky were giving me a US$39,000 grant to work on FedCM standards development for a year has seen my week packed with meetings and social engagement being 100x what I normally get.

Now, I'm one of those weird ambiverts, I can absolutely love socialising, but I also know it absolutely leaves me exhausted once it stops. It's as if you're being caught by a seatbelt in a crashing car, suddenly jerked back to normal pace.

I'm also thinking about something Heather (the FedID Co-Chair and W3C TAG member) wrote:

Standards work is a long game. Sustained contribution matters more than occasional flashes of insight.

Trying to "slow down" sometimes is a hard but necessary skill. It can be intoxicating to move fast, but you often cannot sustain that pace. Then there's also the impacts in the rest of your life: when you're moving fast in work, it can be difficult to slow down and relax, which can affect many things, including sleep, which in turn can lead to burn out.

Sometimes I'll end my days early just like "nah, I need a break" and then maybe later I resume at a slower pace.

Much of my work over the past three years has been me setting my own pace, so I'm not used to pace matching others. This is okay, and kinda what happens when you work independently. You can slow things down to remove stress & exhaustion.