A return goes better when expectations match the hours and energy actually available.

Coming back after illness, leave, grief or a long absence usually looks like a switch being flipped: you are back, so the previous volume resumes. The person returning is often working with less than before, at least for a while, and the mismatch gets discovered only when something is dropped. Naming the real capacity early stops that from being read as unreliability.

If you are returning to something, say what you can genuinely do this month rather than what you hope to. If you are receiving someone back, ask, and build from their answer rather than from memory.