How to Set Boundaries at Work

Boundaries are the metaphorical lines you draw to establish healthy limits that protect something you care about, such as your time or mental health. Various types of boundaries exist, including physical, emotional, and time boundaries.

Setting different types of boundaries at work can positively impact your life, helping improve your relationships with coworkers, reducing stress levels, and boosting your on-the-job satisfaction. With work boundaries, you develop guidelines that determine how you perform your work and how you expect others to interact with you. Continue reading to explore strategies for setting workplace boundaries for a happier work life. 

Types of work boundaries 

You can set three primary types of boundaries at work to help establish healthy limits. These include the following: 

• Physical: Boundaries for personal space, touch, and health, such as hunger and energy.  

• Emotional: Boundaries about your feelings, how you handle colleagues' feelings, and your mental energy.   

• Time: Boundaries about how you manage your time and how you handle requests.

Setting boundaries at work involves two steps: effectively communicating your boundaries and taking action to ensure that your team respects them. For example, let's say you do not want to respond to emails you get after 6 p.m. First, you'll need to notify your team about your availability after hours. Then, you'll need to take additional steps, such as adding a note to the bottom of your emails as a reminder and not responding to any emails you get after work.   

How to set boundaries at work

It’s essential to start by reflecting on your job, office, coworkers, manager, and day-to-day tasks. What doesn't feel like it's working well for you in those areas?

Identify the problem (or problems) so you have a clearer understanding of where to set boundaries. For instance, maybe you work in a different time zone than your manager, who often emails you during their work hours, expecting an immediate response when it's much later for you.

Once you know where to focus your efforts, you can follow the tips below to establish better boundaries at work. 

1. Start with small boundaries.

If you are new to setting boundaries in the workplace, it helps to start small and build from there. Rather than make sweeping changes, you can begin with a few small steps to protect your time or environment at work. 

• When you need quiet time, close your door or wear noise-cancelling headphones. 

• Move any flexible weekly meetings to biweekly. 

• Set clear meeting agendas and stick to them to respect everyone's time. 

• Focus on a project’s objectives when you’re working alongside difficult coworkers.

• Rather than say what you think people want to hear, offer genuine preferences to work-related or project questions. 

2. Build breaks into your schedule.

It’s easy to sit down at your computer and get caught up in a task. However, taking breaks can help energise you. If you use a digital calendar, add a lunch break so your colleagues can’t schedule meetings during that time.

If possible, block out time on your calendar throughout the day or week to complete your work. A hold on your digital calendar lets your team and others know you're unavailable at those times and gives you uninterrupted time to focus on your tasks.  

3. Prioritise your work tasks. 

You may need to prioritise your tasks when you have a heavy workload. When you have too many tasks and insufficient time to complete them, start by identifying urgent tasks. Then, if possible, determine which tasks you can delegate to others on your team or seek more time to complete.

However, if you need more than prioritising and delegating tasks, speak with your manager about your workload and see if you can set aside a specific project while focusing on critical priorities.   

4. Use digital tools to help. 

A lot of office work relies on digital tools to help foster productivity. Think about ways to use your company's existing tools to establish boundaries. For example, if you’re working on an important task and don’t wish to be disturbed, put an away message on Slack and turn off notifications.

You can also use several apps that help you minimise distractions, such as Freedom or KeepMeOut, which may help you block out your time while you work.  

5. Delay your response time.

Thanks to email and other virtual tools, you may feel pressure to be available or respond to communication quickly during—and even after—work hours. But, unless a message is exceptionally urgent, that demand may interrupt the structure you’re attempting to create—and can distract you from more important tasks.

Where possible, delay how quickly you respond to emails and other requests. Dedicate time to check your email throughout the day, but avoid responding outside those blocks.  If you work in a different time zone than others on your team, add a note to your email setting expectations about your availability or response time, such as:

I am sending you this email at a time that works for me. Please respond at a time that works for you.

6. Only say "yes" when you mean it.

Without boundaries, it's easy to grow resentful. Saying “no” is crucial because someone may ask you to participate in tasks you do not have time for, such as attending an extra meeting, taking on a last-minute project, or heading a new committee. 

When you feel pressure to say “yes” but would rather say “no,” consider these questions:

• Are you the only person who can complete the task?

• Can you re-prioritise your task list to take on this work?

• What will taking on this work cost you? 

When you do say “no”, start on a positive note. For example: "I would really be interested in handling the Johnson account, but I'm wondering if I could pass the Holt Industries file on to Jim to make time for it?"

7. Stay away from gossip.

Setting boundaries with them may be useful if you feel drained when your colleagues complain about some aspect of work. You get to decide what that looks like. Perhaps you enjoy venting, but your coworkers often go too far. Or maybe you'd prefer to focus on the positive aspects of your work rather than the negative.

Either way, you can tell your colleagues about your preferences: "I know it's been especially frustrating lately, but I'd really like to focus on what's been going well." Or, "Venting without a solution doesn't feel helpful right now. I'd rather not talk about our frustrations unless we can identify ways to address them."

8. Communicate your boundaries.

Make sure your coworkers and manager know about your boundaries, whether that’s not responding to emails over the weekend or leaving work early to pick up your child from school. Proactively communicating what you need and what you’re doing to protect it will make it easier to set and keep your boundaries. 

9. Leave work at work.

To maintain a healthy work-life balance, you need to set boundaries when you're not at work, especially when you’re working remotely. At night or on the weekend, try to refrain from taking work calls or answering emails. Let calls go to voicemail and encourage people to call only in case of an emergency, though you may have to clarify with your manager or coworkers what that constitutes. Put text and email notifications on silent when you're not at work.  

Take time off when you receive an offer—and when you need it. A long weekend here and there or a week away with loved ones can help you recharge. 

10. Reassert your boundaries when people cross them.

Setting boundaries is an ongoing process. Chances are, someone at work will cross your boundaries (or ignore them), so it's vital to reassert them and remind people about your needs and expectations.  

Setting boundaries at a new job

While it might feel intimidating to set boundaries when you start a new job, it's one of the most important things you can do. When you begin a new role, it can be beneficial to create a 30-60-90 plan to set yourself up for success during the first few months. As part of your plan, consider what boundaries you can establish from the get-go and how you can communicate those boundaries with your team.

Explore further 

Setting boundaries at work requires healthy communication about your limits and taking action to make sure your team, coworkers, and managers respect them. The payoff? Establishing work boundaries can help you maintain a healthy work-life balance and manage your time and energy effectively.

If you need more ideas for better work-life balance, check out this collection of valuable courses on Coursera, including time management and mindfulness courses. You may wish to enroll in Yale University’s free course on happiness, The Science of Well-Being, designed to help you build more productive habits.