Establishing work boundaries can be taboo for most.

How many of you have sent an email well past “normal” business hours in the past few months? There was one of two reasons for this email (unless your normal hours extend well into the night. One, you were responding to a late request or email from a co-worker that figured you might respond at that hour. Or, two, you requested something from a co-worker knowing they might respond at that hour.

We are all finding “scope creep” happening on a regular basis now that working from home is standard operating procedure. There are no more defined “business hours”; your office is your home and you work where you eat, relax, workout, and socialize.

First, to combating this grey area of work and life converging later in the day is to establish better work boundaries.

Ultimately, you teach people how to treat you.

If you are willing to respond to email at 10PM, your boss and peers will send you emails at 10PM. You’ll normalize that behavior and create an expectation you’ll respond (which, under normal circumstances, would feel like an intrusion on your life outside the office). If your Monday through Friday has turned into a seven-days-a-week affair, it’s time to improve your communication game.

Setting better work boundaries starts with effective communication.

Communicate to your team your expectations about “working hours” (however, be reasonable, do your job, and get your work done). Communicate your needs around movement (e.g. take a workout class during your lunch hour), family time, “vacation” (whatever that might look like), and time away from your computer.

Where once you had the buffer of (physically) leaving the office, communicating for you that your work day had completed, you no longer have that divider up where email, text, and Slack notifications can ping all day (and night). You must create your own by explicitly stating your needs.

If you’ve always had a flexible work arrangement (e.g. you work 8 hours in the office and then finish up some items in the evening), this must also be reiterated. Respond when it is appropriate to do so (hint: this will downplay the insane idea that every project, email, and deadline in corporate America is “IMPT: URGENT”).

In short, you are NOT available 24/7. Do not (inadvertently) communicate that you are.

Work hard. Set better work boundaries. Create balance. Practice self-care on a daily basis.

This is the best day ever.

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