Creating Boundaries

Image by Spinstah via Flickr

For the past six months, I’ve let other obligations rule if and when I could devote time to my blog. Yes, even I forget that as a business owner, I can call the shots about when I’m available and when I’m not. This especially hit home when I recently helped a client try to organize her daily schedule.

She was also feeling like her outside commitments were pulling her in so many directions that she couldn’t get work done and she couldn’t exercise.  As a result, various body parts were giving her chronic pain and she felt like her business was slipping out of her grasp. So we sat down to figure out a few things:
1) what are all her commitments,
2) what would she like to do if she had more time in the day, and
3) when are her productive times and when are her down times.

Her commitments fell into about 4 categories:
1) spiritual learning
2) meeting with clients
3) meeting for business-to-business networking
4) personal time (e.g., exercising, spending time with her husband and pets)

All of these commitments were important to her and she wasn’t willing to give them up. However, she complained about how the Bible group she met with would turn the 2 hour class into a 3-4 hour long social hour. Her meetings with other business owners would happen during times she needed to be in the office working.  Her work days were lasting longer (and personal time was getting shorter) because she needed to make up the time lost earlier in the day from meetings. On top of that she would take work home with every intention of doing something and then not get anything done. When I asked her about productive times, she talked about how the morning was her best time and then she hit a wall in the early afternoon when she could never be as productive. Luckily, she would hit her second wind in the late afternoon.

So what did I suggest she do to change her schedule?

1. Talk with the leader of the Bible group to express her desire/enthusiasm for taking the class but the need to get to work. Suggest that the class start on time and leave the socializing for when the class ended and she could slip out.
2. Take back her productive time for business. Create 3 chunks of time in her day. Use the morning to meet with clients when she was the most lucid and energetic. Use the afternoon lull to corral all the networking meetings and various errands (getting out of the office at that point would get her out for some fresh air and change of pace). Come back to the office in the late afternoon to work a few more hours to get some projects done and prep for the next day.
3. Leave work at work. Once she leaves the office, she needs down time to recharge the batteries, so to speak. That’s when she needs to go exercise, spend time with the husband and pets, and take care of herself.

After I told her the plan, she was shocked. “It is okay to tell people that I can only meet with them between 2 and 4PM during the work day?”  Yes!!! Business owners are always in the business of making the customers happy but unfortunately they take that mindset too far by letting everyone else schedule when they should work, meet, or relax. They forget that if they are miserable and unhappy, they are not going to be able to serve their customers well. I encouraged her to advocate for herself and her schedule, creating boundaries that were clear to her friends, family, customers, and colleagues. Creating the time boundaries was not going to limit her potential nor did they have to be as steadfast as the Great Wall in China. Some exceptions were okay but only in emergencies, not every week.

We set it up that she would try out this new system for a few weeks and get back to me. The result: “Yes your hints are working quite well! They have really helped me manage my days especially around doctor’s appointments.”

Yay! Another happier business owner. So what boundaries are you going to set up in your schedule to confine business time to business and personal time for yourself?

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Tagged as: Business, Decision Making, Google Calendar, Planning, Time management