How can I establish boundaries with colleagues or clients who constantly demand my time?

Today I'm going to be talking about something that I know plenty of people in tech are struggling with, and that is how to establish these boundaries with colleagues or clients who constantly demand your time.

Listen to the podcast version here

Learn to Say No

As a young professional tech, the skill to set boundaries at work is essential to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Here's how to say no to colleagues and managers without compromising the work you get done or how you're perceived. First off, look at everything that is expected of you and how they impact the product and yourself, and the team. Prioritize according to which ones are most important. Then whenever your manager asks you to do something, you'll be able to tell them, "I would really like to get this done, but I have other things that require my attention and with a much greater impact." "Can we talk about what I should deprioritize in order to get what you're asking me to get done?" More often than not, you'll find them willing to drop the issue.

Use Routines

Working from home makes maintaining a healthy work-life balance pretty challenging. Creating a routine that shifts your mindset from work to home mode can help you transition between the modes of being at work and just relaxing at home. Having a startup routine really can help with that commute from the bedroom to the office, which can feel pretty daunting.

To help you feel energized and ready to start work, create a startup routine. It may be as simple as doing some yoga, drinking a cup of coffee, or taking a cold shower. The idea is to tell your brain that it's time to start the day. Similarly, have a shutdown routine, which is just a sequence of actions that signals the end of the day to your subconscious mind.

This can help prevent burnout and set firmer boundaries. Remember that the actions you take matter less than doing them consistently every day and in the same order; this will wire your brain to switch modes appropriately.

Time-Block Your Schedule

One universal thing can be said about the modern workplace, especially the tech industry. If you don't control your schedule, it will control you. We've all been there.

How do you balance your workload while making time for whatever is essential? As someone in tech, staying on top of meetings, emails, team chats, and other communication channels can feel overwhelming. But there's a simple strategy to help you stay focused amid all these distractions. And that's where time-blocking comes in.

By scheduling dedicated blocks of time for specific tasks, you can increase your efficiency, reduce distractions and achieve a better work-life balance. To get started, divide your day into chunks of time; you can do this by the hour, two hours, or whatever interval is convenient for you. Then assign a specific task or group of tasks to each time block and only do those during that time block.

Unplug to Recharge

Now I hear it all the time. "I have so many responsibilities. I have no concept of work-life balance." We check our messages before even getting out of bed and reply to one last email before going in for the night. But this constant connectivity is a surefire way to set you on a path of burnout. Instead, make time to disconnect, so you have the opportunity to recharge.

To set healthy boundaries. You have to become curious about your technology and work communication habits. Ask yourself, what's driving you to stay connected? Are you afraid of letting your team down, or do you feel the need to prove your productivity? Once you've identified the underlying motivations, you can set appropriate boundaries, such as checking emails only on weekdays or letting colleagues know when they can expect to reach you.

By appropriately limiting your availability, you can support your team while maintaining a healthy work-life balance by taking care of yourself.

Look for Win-Win

People generally don't like it when you tell them no, especially when they are managers or supervisors. If you are concerned about how your team or manager will perceive your boundary setting, reframe your response as an opportunity to find a solution that benefits everyone involved.

For instance, if your manager asks you to work on a project over the weekend, explain that you have conflicting plans and suggest a time to review the project Monday morning. This approach shows that you are still committed to delivering good work while respecting your personal time. This example may sound contrived, but more often than not, you will find that any conflict can be turned into a win-win situation so long as you understand the other party's underlying motivation and can communicate clearly. You just have to get creative.

Conclusion

Setting these boundaries is so important. When I talk to developers and engineers, they're afraid to set these boundaries because they're used to being high achievers; they want to do good.

But if you don't set these boundaries, you will reduce your productivity, and people might even walk all over you. It is true that if you set too harsh boundaries, you will lose respect. But these types of boundaries are pretty mild, and they are so crucial to getting the work done that you need to get done while also taking care of yourself. So remember to always take care of yourself first; your career will follow wherever your health goes.