On context catchup

One behavior change that has decreased my burnout risk: when someone asks for help, i now place the burden of explanation on the asker instead of taking it on myself.

For example: people often tag me in super long threads with "Hey Kat, can you help us here?"

I used to respond with, "Sure let me catch up on context first"

But when i'm oncall and have many teams pinging me at once with "urgent" issues, this context catch-up is a huge burden

Now, i respond with - "Sure, can you tl;dr your ask?" That question alone has reduced so much of my workload and allows me to helpful to more people, quickly.

Another example: people often tag me with "hey kat, can you check on this?" I used to spend so much time deciphering what "this" meant in that context and what "check on this" meant.

Now, i respond, "Sure, how can i help?"

And then i continue whatever i was doing until they provide an answer.

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