Setting Boundaries at Work: How to Protect Your Time and Energy

Setting boundaries at work is about more than simply finishing on time or saying ‘no’ to additional projects at the expense of your current to-do list. While these basic boundaries are important when it comes to creating a sustainable workflow, setting other, more habitual boundaries on a day-to-day basis, can be helpful in saving you time, protecting your energy, and enabling you to keep enjoying your work, stay productive and avoid burnout. Some of these habits include physical, emotional, time-related, and mental boundaries, which we’ll explore in more detail below.

Productivity Boundaries: Blocking Out Your Calendar

The line between home and work life can be easily blurred, especially if you’re a remote or hybrid employee. This could be due to boundaries you feel are being crossed (such as meetings that are scheduled during unsociable hours or feeling as though you have unachievable deadlines to meet).

Blocking out time in your calendar can be a good time boundary to set. Making your schedule visible to your colleagues in your calendar, not only means that those you collaborate with can physically see when you are (or aren’t) available but can be a great time management tool for yourself as well.

Physical Boundaries: Wearing Headphones

For those who work in an office or shared space, wearing headphones can be a great physical boundary to set. Physical boundaries can be anything that’s related to your physical workspace and/or body. In a busy, open-plan office, it can be challenging to stick to your dedicated focus time. Putting headphones on during these times is subtle way of saying, ‘do not disturb’. Headphones can help signal to those around you that you’re ‘in the zone’ and are likely unavailable for unplanned interruptions. Wearing headphones when working from home is also a good tactic to avoid being disturbed by the rest of the household. Some even find that playing their preferred ‘focus’ playlists while working can boost productivity, so there’s that benefit too!

Social Boundaries: Avoiding Gossip

Socialising with your colleagues is natural and beneficial. It’s a personal decision how much of your life you choose to share with them and vice versa. Sometimes, boundaries can be crossed when information gets shared around the team, and idle chat can easily turn into gossip or even bad-mouthing. If this happens, avoiding involvement could be a mental boundary you might want to set for yourself. In doing so, you’re not only saving your energy and preserving relationships, but you’re also putting out a clear message that you’re not interested in this activity. Please note, if you have concerns about for further resources.

Self-Care Boundaries: Using Your Annual Leave

Annual leave is there to be taken, yet the majority (over 60%) of UK workers don’t take all of their holiday allowance. * It might be that you feel you don’t need a break, or perhaps you don’t want the hassle of catching up on missed work on your return. Regardless of your reason/s, consistently not taking time off can lead to burnout and further blur the line between your personal and professional life.

Taking time off is a great first step in creating a workplace boundary. But, when you’re off work, you may want to ask yourself how much time you’re actually spending not working… It can be all too easy to take a peek at your emails or quickly answer a message on Slack/Teams. but to ensure you and those around you take this boundary seriously, think about completely switching off. This may take some preparation beforehand, such as meeting with colleagues to discuss what to do should XYZ occur and communicating that whilst you might usually be available during your annual leave, on this occasion, you won’t.

Wellbeing Boundaries: Communicating Issues

Your wellbeing is fundamental to your performance at work and at home. However, when emotional boundaries are crossed, your wellbeing can take a dive, negatively affecting you and those around you. One way to protect your energy and time by setting emotional boundaries is by talking to a team member or your line manger about something that is bothering you.

If this isn’t something you’re used to, raising an issue can feel like conflict, but really, you’re simply communicating. For example, perhaps you would like to receive feedback in a way that it’s not currently being provided to you. Or maybe you don’t feel supported by your team. By setting these emotional boundaries, you can better process your emotions in the workplace by serving as a defence against the emotional load of others. Read our previous article on picking the right language to evoke solutions at work for more support with this.

Pushback isn’t Always Personal

When you go from having little or no boundaries in place to acting on them, you may experience some pushback. This isn’t necessarily personal, but perhaps those around you are trying to navigate your new way of working.

Setting hard and soft boundaries in advance can help with any attempted boundary-breaking. A hard boundary is a non-negotiable, whereas a soft boundary is something you’d like to achieve, but there is some flexibility if necessary. For example, a hard boundary might be that you do not work on weekends. A soft boundary could be you’d like to take lunch at noon, but this might have to be adjusted depending on schedules or workload.

Ultimately, being clear in how you communicate your boundaries can make all the difference. This ensure you’re able to safeguard your time and energy in order to be your best self in and out of the workplace.

*Annual Leave Statistics UK 2023 & 2024: How Much Time Do We Take Off Work? (timetastic.co.uk)