diff --git a/pelican/__init__.py b/pelican/__init__.py
index a4f5b38e..e0526b1f 100644
--- a/pelican/__init__.py
+++ b/pelican/__init__.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ from pelican.plugins._utils import get_plugin_name, load_plugins
 from pelican.readers import Readers
 from pelican.server import ComplexHTTPRequestHandler, RootedHTTPServer
 from pelican.settings import read_settings
-from pelican.utils import (wait_for_changes, clean_output_dir, maybe_pluralize)
+from pelican.utils import clean_output_dir, maybe_pluralize, wait_for_changes
 from pelican.writers import Writer
 
 try:
diff --git a/pelican/tests/test_utils.py b/pelican/tests/test_utils.py
index 7ff1af7a..d8296285 100644
--- a/pelican/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/pelican/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ import locale
 import logging
 import os
 import shutil
-import time
 from datetime import timezone
 from sys import platform
 from tempfile import mkdtemp
@@ -14,7 +13,6 @@ except ModuleNotFoundError:
 
 from pelican import utils
 from pelican.generators import TemplatePagesGenerator
-from pelican.readers import Readers
 from pelican.settings import read_settings
 from pelican.tests.support import (LoggedTestCase, get_article,
                                    locale_available, unittest)
diff --git a/pelican/utils.py b/pelican/utils.py
index 23c6fe1c..1225e479 100644
--- a/pelican/utils.py
+++ b/pelican/utils.py
@@ -760,7 +760,9 @@ def order_content(content_list, order_by='slug'):
 def wait_for_changes(settings_file, reader_class, settings):
     content_path = settings.get('PATH', '')
     theme_path = settings.get('THEME', '')
-    ignore_files = set(settings.get('IGNORE_FILES', []))
+    ignore_files = set(
+        fnmatch.translate(pattern) for pattern in settings.get('IGNORE_FILES', [])
+    )
 
     watching_paths = [
         settings_file,
@@ -780,9 +782,7 @@ def wait_for_changes(settings_file, reader_class, settings):
 
     return next(watchfiles.watch(
         *watching_paths,
-        watch_filter=watchfiles.DefaultFilter(
-            ignore_entity_patterns=[fnmatch.translate(pattern) for pattern in ignore_files]
-        ),
+        watch_filter=watchfiles.DefaultFilter(ignore_entity_patterns=ignore_files),
         rust_timeout=0
     ))