BUILD your boundaries to keep your work-life balance in check. Our last article explained each concept in detail, but here’s quick a recap before we dive in further.
Burnout
You’re stressed, overwhelmed, overworked, irritable or depressed. Check out this post about burnout.
Understand
What is causing your burnout? What are the underlying triggers? Read this article for more information about understanding.
Identify
Now identify what boundaries are needed to address your triggers and reduce burnout. We covered identifying boundaries here.
Leverage
Communicate and implement your boundaries. Keep reading to learn more.
Debrief
Are your boundaries working? Continuously assess and adjust as needed to get them right.
A Closer Look at Leverage
Now that we’ve identified the burnout, understood triggers, and identified our boundaries, it’s time to look at the leverage and debrief concepts of our BUILD acronym.
Communication is key to just about anything in life. It’s the top skill we encourage our clients to continuously focus on. With boundaries, communication is imperative to success. The people in your life need to be aware of what your boundaries are and when they are pushing too hard, otherwise they will never know! Relationships suffer and nothing will change, causing that burnout cycle to repeat.
As you begin to communicate your boundaries, realize they may cause disruptions and potential discomfort for you and those around you. To overcome challenges, make use of communication channels to best align with the boundary or person. Utilize your relationships to strengthen the message, and continue to influence and manage your boundary with kind reminders and clear examples.
My own experience is the perfect example! My colleagues had become used to my constant availability and quick response time, making me feel like I could never disconnect – and the burnout was real. I started the conversation with my manager, and, together, we came up with a game plan to help me pull back and reinstate boundaries in my work. By slightly increasing my response time, and clearly communicating active support hours to colleagues, I was able to take back control over my time, develop better balance, and cut down on burnout.
There was disruption at first, with a handful of complaints about availability and resolution time as I managed system support. However, with clear communication and incremental changes working toward my end boundary, I was able to implement change that not only improved my work-life balance but allowed me to better focus on my work and colleagues. By clearly communicating through multiple channels, utilizing my network and team for support, and influencing others by managing expectations, discomfort was minimized for a successful change.
Let’s Look at Debrief
We don’t always get our boundaries right from the get-go. It takes time, effort, self-reflection, and input from others to determine if they are working. However, this stage of debriefing is imperative to your success in boundary setting. Take time regularly to reflect, debrief, and determine if and how your boundaries are working. Observe and understand any obstacles that are preventing you from maintaining your boundaries. Refine and adjust continuously until you find the right boundary for the situation. Boundaries are an ongoing process that adjusts with time as your situations, and overall life, change.
Embrace the Discomfort
Developing boundaries can make you feel vulnerable in all stages, and it may be uncomfortable. Don’t be discouraged by the discomfort – we promise the grass is greener when you take the time to get it right! Embrace the discomfort and set yourself up for future success. The sooner you BUILD your boundaries, the sooner you’ll get your work-life balance in check.
We’d Love to Work with You
Struggling in your new remote work environment? Not sure how to stay on task? We’d love to help you overcome remote work challenges you’re facing! Contact us and we’ll set up a free consultation call to discuss how we can help.
