diff --git a/hosts/common/systemd.nix b/hosts/common/systemd.nix
index 35d661df..af872563 100644
--- a/hosts/common/systemd.nix
+++ b/hosts/common/systemd.nix
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
-{ ... }:
+{ pkgs, ... }:
 {
   systemd.extraConfig = ''
     # DefaultTimeoutStopSec defaults to 90s, and frequently blocks overall system shutdown.
-    DefaultTimeoutStopSec=25
+    DefaultTimeoutStopSec=20
   '';
 
   systemd.user.extraConfig = ''
     # DefaultTimeoutStopSec defaults to 90s, and frequently blocks overall system shutdown.
-    DefaultTimeoutStopSec=25
+    DefaultTimeoutStopSec=20
   '';
 
   services.journald.extraConfig = ''
@@ -18,6 +18,41 @@
     Compress=no
   '';
 
+  # decreasing the timeout for the manager itself ("Stop job is running for User Manager for UID 1000").
+  # TimeoutStopSec gets stripped from .override file for `user@`, so can't do it that way:
+  #   systemd.services."user@".serviceConfig.TimeoutStopSec = "20s";
+  # adding just TimeoutStopSec to `user@1000` causes it to lose all the other fields, including `ExecStart`:
+  #   systemd.services."user@1000".serviceConfig.TimeoutStopSec = "20s";
+  # so, just recreate the whole damn service as it appears with `systemd cat 'user@1000'`
+  # and modify the parts i care about.
+  systemd.services."user@1000" = {
+    description = "User Manager for UID %i";
+    documentation = [ "man:user@service(5)" ];
+    after = [
+      "user-runtime-dir@%i.service"
+      "dbus.service"
+      "systemd-oomd.service"
+    ];
+    requires = [ "user-runtime-dir@%i.service" ];
+    unitConfig.ignoreOnIsolate = true;
+
+    serviceConfig = {
+      User = "%i";
+      PAMName = "systemd-user";
+      Type = "notify-reload";
+      ExecStart = "${pkgs.systemd}/lib/systemd/systemd --user";
+      Slice = "user-%i.slice";
+      KillMode = "mixed";
+      Delegate = [ "pids" "memory" "cpu" ];
+      DelegateSubgroup = "init.scope";
+      TasksMax = "infinity";
+      TimeoutStopSec = "20s";  #< default: 120s
+      KeyringMode = "inherit";
+      OOMScoreAdjust = 100;
+      MemoryPressureWatch = "skip";
+    };
+  };
+
   # allow ordinary users to `reboot` or `shutdown`.
   # source: <https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Polkit>
   security.polkit.extraConfig = ''