Twice a year , Mozilla gathers employees, volunteers, and assorted hangers-on in a single place to have a week of planning, working, and socializing. Being as distributed an organization as we are, it’s a bit rare to get enough of us in a single place to generate the kind of cross-talk and beneficial synergistic happenstances that help us work smarter and move in more-or-less the same direction. These are our All Hands events.

They’re a Pretty Big Deal(tm).

So here you are, individual contributor or manager, staff or volunteer, veteran or first-timer. With all these Big Plans, what are we littler folk to do to not become overwhelmed?

I have some tips.

Before You Go

Set up a mail folder/label for relevant email: You’ll be getting some email with details about where you should be, what you should be doing, and when. Organizing these into one place is helpful for reference, so come up with a label (maybe “201807-sanfran” or “mozsf2” or “fogzilla” or something) and organize those emails as they come in.

Act on those emails immediately: If they contain instructions or an announcement that bookings or registration is now open… then do that thing right then. Do not file the email and forget. Do the thing while you are looking at that email. Only then should you file that email and get back to where you were in your brain. If you absolutely can’t just then (have to synchronize with family or what-have-you), put a calendar reminder in that repeats every weekday until you handle it.

Do not upgrade Nightly: You’re running Nightly, right? You’ll be travelling through a land of uncertain connectivity, and the last thing you want is to use it downloading a multi-MB Nightly update that might have accidentally disabled Captive Portal Detection. If it works, keep your Nightly build until you’re certain you have the bandwidth to download a new one. All else fails, keep it until you get back.

Make sure your laptop is in shape: My laptop is often neglected in favour of its Desktop comrade: updates may be pending, credentials may have expired, the source code checkouts might be weeks old, and there may have even been a new version of Mozilla Build released since the last time I tried to compile Firefox. With luck, while at an All Hands you won’t have to compile Gecko on a laptop in your hotel… but we make our own luck, we who are prepared. Prepare your laptop.

Prepare your family: If you don’t live alone, you’ll have non-mozilla prepwork to do. Spouse and kids or roomates and pets, there are lifeforms who normally expect to see you that won’t. Clear the family schedule for the week you’re gone, and do as much preparation ahead of time as you can. Laundry, meal planning, groceries, sitters, dog walkers, even lawn services are things you can arrange to lighten the load that your absence will place on those around you. Even if you’re bringing them with you.

While You’re There

Do not fear missing out: You will not be able to attend both Boardgame Night and your team dinner. There will be karaoke parties you won’t get to, or be invited to. This is fine. This is expected. This is unavoidable when you have so many people disorganizing so many things simultaneously. So don’t fret about it. Prioritize.

Say no: Speaking of prioritizing: prioritize for yourself. You may very well be operating as a Level 100 You for hours at a time. So many people to talk to, so many talks and social events to organize, deliver, and attend… No. You don’t have to stay the entire length of the party. You don’t even have to go. If you feel yourself fading, get out while you have the strength. Regroup. Find a quiet corner or go to sleep early… At my first All Hands, I napped on both Wednesday and Thursday. And I wasn’t even in a different timezone. It really helped.

Wash your hands: Lots. Before meals. After meals. You’ll be talking, working, eating, and otherwise hanging out with a thousand of your closest coworkers. It’s probably your best bet for not catching mozflu, and it’s definitely your best bet to not transmit it.

After You’re Back

Consider taking a day: Generally speaking you’ll be flying back on Saturday and returning to work on Monday. Depending on distance to travel, available flight times, and cancellations, this may result in only a few hours between stumbling through your door and stumbling back to work. Consider booking that Monday off (or, honestly, if your trip back was heinous, don’t even book it off. Just take it. Get some sleep. Work can wait until Tuesday.)

Check in: If you live with family, you haven’t seen them for a week. Even if you brought them with you, you’ve been in meetings and talks and stuff most hours. Check in with them. Get up to speed on what’s been happening in their lives while you’ve been away.

Get excited for the next one: Even immediately back from an All Hands, it’s still only six months to the next one. Take stock of what you liked and what you didn’t like about this one. Rest up, and try not to get impatient :)

:chutten

(( Great minds think alike, because Seburo recently wrote a Wiki article covering even more excellent tips for All Hands events. Check that out, too! ))