I’m certain that every entrepreneur and business owner has undoubtedly encountered these emotions while managing their business ventures. I can definitely admit I did. Consequently, as a seasoned entrepreneur, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is the significance of establishing boundaries to shield myself from these emotions and to savor both my personal and professional life. Here are the most important boundaries I’ve set that have made the biggest difference in my business life:

Scheduling time to check (and not check) my email and socials.

This one is real tough for me but believe it or not, it was the game-changer when it comes to me getting stuff done and staying sane. I had a bad habit of obsessively checking my email and scrolling through Instagram for the tiniest whiff of something new.

The problem is that, not only was this an extremely distracting habit, it also left me feeling anxious all the time. It left me not wanting to respond to an email, make a call or talk with someone right away and then thinking about it for hours, or days, until I did or required me to leave something else to do it.

I tell my staff all the time, “we’re not saving babies here. Our work does not require an immediate response from me. Checking and responding to email once in the morning and again in the afternoon easily fits in to an acceptable response time. And Joanna and Chip are not going anywhere on Insta.

I also have a killer auto-responder that stops people in their tracks, makes them think about their own time management and gives me some grace. Contact me if you’re interested and I’ll copy and paste it for you.

DO NOT DISTURB

This boundary is basically my way of enforcing the first boundary. In an ideal day I enjoy a super focused, productive work time. I finish everything on my to-do list in the scheduled work time and have spare time to do whatever else I’d like. The only way that’s possible is by avoiding distractions and focusing on the task at hand. I have a DO NOT DISTURB sign I hang on my office door. Example below.

Keeping notifications silenced and temptations away from me is the only way I can accomplish this. The days that I end up giving into distractions I feel like I spend the whole day trying to get work done that could’ve taken half the time.  

Working in my office or in a designated area

This is a real adult move on my part. I WANT to work under the covers, in my warm cozy bed but I know I can’t. I am self-aware enough to know I need to remove myself from my house in order to get in the right headspace to be produtive. When I’m at home I just don’t have the same level of attentiveness. When I’m in my office or a coffeeshop, I can limit to the amount of time I want to spend there so I need to wrap up my work before I go home. And that time limit is key. 

Knowing my most (and least) productive work times.

I am not creative or focused in the afternoons.. And when I try to be I end up just wasting so much time and hardly getting anything done. So now that I can set my own schedule, why am I still trying to force creativity to happen in the afternoon? In the morning and night I’m so inspired and excited to create, whether it’s on paper work or a personal project. So when I allow afternoons to be filled with fun, to get outdoors and/or take a nap, the day flows much more smoothly. Don’t fight your natural tendencies. Embrace them. 

Taking all of my meetings on one day of the week.

This is a new boundary I implemented this year and it has been the most effective change I’ve made. I love batch-working, but meetings were the one thing that got in the way of that. It felt so hard to get into a creative zone when I had to break for a meeting. 

I do love me some meetings, but sometimes meeting with people can drain me. Having a meeting in the middle of a Monday left me not wanting to do creative work the rest of the day. Having all my meetings on Thursdays lets me get in the right headspace and stay there for a single day of meetings

I’m always learning new ways I can improve my mental health, creativity, and productivity and these have been the best I’ve come up with at this point. Of course I’m not perfect at keeping all of these boundaries, but it’s so noticeable when I do.

What boundaries do you set for yourself?