I wasn't gone for good, I hope you didn't think so. I just took a well deserved break from posting daily on Hive and at least 3-4 times a week on Leo Finance.
The reason is simple: 2023 will be a huge year for Leo Finance and Hive in general. Despite the bear market, the Hive Blockchain has a community like no other chain out there, and even though activity has dropped like on every bear market, I can see the community leaders using this time to build and make their projects become better versions of themselves to be ready for activity once the tide shifts. On the LF side of things, I am bullish as fuck after seeing how much engagement and activity we are getting in spite of the bears.
I took a break because I wanted to avoid burn out syndrome from writing, something I have gotten more than a few times on Hive over the past 6 years.
I have plenty of auto voters on Hive and Leo, and one might argue that I just lost a big chunk of votes and the opportunity to stack cheap $hive and $leo by not posting at least once a day. You're right, I did miss on rewards by not posting, but I rather miss on them than to post crap or to publish just for the sake of publishing. In fact, posts like this one are not ideal in my books. Posts made just for the sake of announcing I'm back are the self aggrandizement type of posts I have never engaged with, voted or shared. If you are back, just be back, there's no need to announce it.
Unless you are using the topic to write about something else, and the I'm back concept is only used to prelude or introduce another topic, the real topic of the post.
Man, it always used to be funny and cringe at the same time for me when a company pretty much halted during the December/January holidays due to the fact that 90% of the people literally stop giving a shit after December 15 and begin to give some fucks about getting crap done around January 6. I always thought that these people were mediocre and those who can keep a go-getter mentality while everyone else daydreams about what they'll eat or what presents they'll get, have the world at their feet.
But this year I was forced to get a cold shower and realize most of the people who think of December and January as holiday months think like that because family time is important and at the same time, even if they don't want to waste time and want to keep getting shit done, the overall feeling and vibes make it extremely harder for them.
My extended family spent ten days in the holiday house and I was obviously invited. I didn't want to go, I actually wanted to stay at home in my office, with my dogs and my peace and use this time to get ahead of the curve and the competition and make the most out of 16hr workdays without anyone around to distract or bother me. If you have a wife or a family and you celebrate Christmas you are probably laughing at me, because you know that if you tried this you wouldn't have a family by January.
Normies prioritize Christmas family time too much for their own good. But they are normies, you can't ask much from them. But one thing I can actually side with: Family is the top priority and no amount of work done or job title is worth more than family. So I decided to go with them for the full ten days and enjoy some holiday time, having spare time, taking some sun, playing some board games and all that shit.
I brought my laptop though, and I woke up at 5am every single day to get done as much as I could before the family kids woke up. I knew that once a single entity woke up, I wouldn't be able to work on anything because I don't have an office in the holiday house (of course I don't) and my workstation was set in the kitchen. The moment a kid or an in-law had woken up, I would be their one and only source of distraction, which meant I had to finish anything urgent by 8-9am or I would be screwed. Hell, I even had to escape one full day and drive 1hr to my house just to be able to work on urgent matters surrounded by peace an quiet.
Don't get me wrong, I love family time. It is the prolonged holidays mindset that I simply don't sympathize with.
I was listening to a podcast by 
I've been thinking about renting a space outside of my house to have an office instead of working from home. Being one room away from my family is a double edge sword, and even though I love it, I believe it will be a wise decision to get a separate office this year if I ever want to be as efficient and productive as I can be.
Right now it is 6am and I've been awake for more than one hour, but I know that in around 2 hours I will start getting distracted and I will be asked to get stuff done or things like that. Even if I close my door, the fact that I am one room of distance away from getting distracted is not ideal.
