That coat hanger trick was the real MVP of every hardwired job. We'd all act like we had some secret tech, but it was just a straightened piece of wardrobe wire with tape on the end. The true art form was not cussing loud enough for the homeowner to hear when you snagged it on a fire block for the tenth time. You really did feel like a genius when it finally popped out of the tiny hole you cut. I don't miss the dust, but that feeling of a system you literally built into the walls beats any app notification.

Wait, does aiming it down the slope really work best? I had nothing but false triggers when I tried that, @the_vera. My dog would set it off just walking across the room. I found you actually want the sensor to point parallel to the slope of the ceiling, not down it. That way its field of view covers the whole room flat instead of pointing into the floor on the high side. Otherwise you get dead zones and it reads movement on the far wall as being closer than it is. A ceiling fan on low speed kept turning my lights on and off until I re-aimed it.

Ever had someone ask for just a "quick edit" on something, not understanding it's still real work? Like @river_hart18 said, I started naming a small fee even for friends. For example, I'd say helping with a resume or a flyer would be a flat twenty bucks. That tiny charge made them see it as a real task, not a favor. It stopped the "while you're at it" requests and they valued the result more.

My friend swears he went to Disney with his brother, total ghost memory.

Sounds like you're trying to find that magical goldilocks zone where you don't look like a pushover but also don't come off as a total monster. Good luck with that committee meeting! Maybe just flip a coin and prepare for half the team to grumble no matter what you pick.