The benefits of boundaries

Philip Brophy
Mar 26
3 min read

Lines in the sand • 3 min read

#PsychFact

A study from the University of Illinois revealed that when we have control over our boundaries, it greatly reduces the stress levels caused by work-life balance issues.

The research highlighted how, before the pandemic, the rise in digital technologies made it easier for workers to be on the clock anywhere and any time, thus creating a significant blurring of our work-life boundary.

This has been worsened by the lockdown measures that have forced many of us to take our work home with us full-time.

Introduction

Saying “yes” to everything can make us feel overwhelmed…drowning under a mountain of work, week in, week out, this often stems from our inability to establish clear boundaries and push back on the constant flow of requests to take on more and more.

The result, our stress levels soar through the roof, affecting the quality of relationships with those around us.

This is why it’s important to be clear with our boundaries, letting people understand our limits, while giving them heads-up so that they can adjust their behaviour accordingly. This will establish healthier, collaborative dynamics and increase productivity.

If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

For those of us who have weak boundaries, we tend to be highly empathetic to others’ needs.

Sounds like a positive thing, right?

Well, yes…and no, as it can manifest as people-pleasing and conflict avoidance, letting resentment build up — this can impact our emotional well-being.

So, it’s really important that we establish healthy boundaries. We can do this by focusing on the following:

Building greater self-esteem and developing independence.
Getting clarity on who we are and what we want to be.
Enhancing our mental health and avoiding burn-out.

While setting these boundaries can be tough, they’re crucial to how we grow within our own self-esteem. Our self-esteem can suffer if we feel disempowered by the relationships around us. And quite often, finding power comes in the form of one simple word, “No.”

Hmm…easier said than done!

Ok, admittedly, because of the hierarchical authority, it can be tricky to set professional boundaries. However, there are aspects you can control, like structuring your time.

We all know the stressful feeling of meetings running on way too long, or of unexpected requests coming into our inboxes from colleagues. This can prevent us from executing our priorities, making us get home late. One way to tackle this is by:

Developing a time budget

Similar to when we spend only what money we have to avoid debt and stress, we can also allocate time appropriately. We can do this by making sure we have sufficient time for everything we need to do, making cuts where we can. To start, we can begin by calculating how many hours we have to “spend” each week.

You could start off by realistically breaking up the different actions of our day into percentages, e.g., 20% for answering emails, 50% for project work, and 30% for training activities.

Try to consider the cost for a particular item, but also the associated costs.

For example, a one-hour meeting could come with the related expenses of 15 minutes of travel time.

Creating awareness around how we spend our time will help us to set our priorities and, in turn, our boundaries — helping us to decide how much time we can spend on ourselves, and how much we can afford to give to others.

Key takeaways

Clear boundaries help people to understand our limits. This allows others to adjust their behaviour accordingly, establishing healthier relationships while increasing productivity and decreasing our stress levels.
Healthy boundaries can help you build greater self-esteem. When we feel disempowered in our interactions, our self-esteem suffers. We can find and harness this power through one simple word, “No.”
Creating time budgets helps us to decide how much time we can spend on ourselves, and how much we can realistically give to others.

Think big. act small

We’ve looked at why it’s important to develop boundary-setting skills to achieve a steady work-life balance.

Why not start off by developing a time budget to see where you can prioritise your time better, and how it can help shape your new boundaries?

More ways on boundary-setting to come!

Content sources

Forbes, 2019, Caroline Castrillon, ‘10 Ways To Set Healthy Boundaries At Work’
Harvard Business Review, 2013, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, Stop Work Overload By Setting These Boundaries
Harvard Business Review, 2020, ‘Set “Time Boundaries” to Protect Your Schedule’
Harvard Business Review, 2021, Melody Wilding, ‘How to Set Boundaries with a Chatty Colleague’
Harvard Business Review, 2021, Priscilla Claman, ‘Managing Conflicts’
Huffington Post, Mammekwa Mokgoro, 2021, ‘This Is Why Setting Personal And Professional Boundaries Is Good For Your Health’
Psych Central, 2021, ‘7 Tips for Setting Work Boundaries for Yourself and with Others’
Psychology Today, 2021, ‘How to Set Better Boundaries at Work Without Feeling Guilty Stop letting guilt prevent boundaries from being placed around work.’