[unlocked] The 30 day boundary setting challenge! Let's go

You'll be unrecognisable this time next month

At the ripe age of 26, I was:

• A director in a FTSE100 £2bn company

• Managing 5 teams, across 3 product areas (marketing/product/success), in 2 countries (UK/US)

But none of that is either impressive or important to me.

The bit that I am proud of, and the story that needs most sharing, is how I wasn’t stressed, at all.

I wasn’t overwhelmed. My laptop was shut at 5. No sunday-scaries.

The reason - I got very strict with boundaries.

Setting boundaries is not easy.

You have to say no a lot. You have to piss people off. People will talk about you behind your back. But ultimately, they will respect you so much more in the long run.

And most importantly of all, you’ll respect and value yourself.

But you have heard 1000 times that “you need clear boundaries”

But what you will never see is a comprehensive, practical list of actual boundaries that you can write down and tick off.

So that’s what I’ve pulled together for you today.

The exact boundaries I had to fiercely set, over and over again every single day, to ensure I was the happiest, most fulfilled and most effective version of myself.

With a sprinkle of consistency and courage, you’ll be un-recognisable in 30 days.

Bonus message - If you’re worried about what your manager is going to think, let them know the journey you’re on (and see if they want to get involved too!).

In their interest, it will allow you to:

• Prioritise more effectively

• End toxic meeting culture

• Increase your engagement, happiness, and retention

All the explanations of the boundaries are below, I can’t wait to see your results! Make sure to drop a comment (an emoji will do!) on the post to let me know you’re getting involved.

There are just 2 resources you need:

1. The boundaries list below - A more in-depth explanation on each one

2. The 30-day tracker spreadsheet - Click and create a duplicate

I’ve also just posted a video version on Instagram so go get involved in the comment section over there too!

Let’s goo….

2 rules BEFORE I give you the boundaries:

1. you have to write these down, they can’t just be in your head
   Write them on a sticky note and stick them to your laptop, you have to have them in your vision as a constant reminder

2. You have to track when you honor them and don’t
   I’ll attach a spreadsheet boundary tracker at the bottom of this post, over the next 30 days, I want you to commit to tracking exactly when you do and don’t honor them (no shame here, but you need to be super honest with yourself about them)

The 4 boundaries all managers need to set

1. Time Boundaries

   You need to set some very clear restrictions around your time to be the most successful manager you can. The restrictions I set were:

   • Don’t respond to team outside of work hours

   • Zero work allowed when on holiday/lunch breaks

   • Before clicking ‘accept’ on a meeting invite, review the true importance of it, is it worth your precious time? Can the time be reduced?

   • Never send meeting invites without a clear agenda

   • Don’t take on projects that you and your team can’t finish

2. Friendship Boundaries

   You can socialise and be friends with your team, but you need a line, that line is your Friendship Boundaries. And here’s what they look like:

   • Never share management-sensitive information with a member of your team just because ‘you trust them’

   • Never allowing the people you’re close with to ‘gossip’ to you about others at work

   • Educating yourself on bias, to make sure you never allow friendship bias to impact any of your decisions

3. Energy Boundaries

   You need to be protecting your energy just as much as you do your time, because when either runs out it’s game over. Here’s exactly what to do to protect your energy at work:

   • When people come to you and ‘moan’ or ‘complain’ deal with it very factually, don’t get involved too deeply in the emotion or drama.

   • Don’t take on tasks that don’t play to you and your team’s strengths, you can push back, there may be a better team for the job, or it might not be a good course of action whatsoever.

4. Pace Boundaries

   Otherwise known as what gets your urgent attention, and what get’s left and pushed back until someone forgets about it.

   We usually focus on the easier, safe things (like emails/slack) but the scarier, more important work (like doing some deep research, or starting a presentation) is where the growth lies.
   You need to decide what takes your ‘urgent’ attention, what is the first thing you prioritise in the morning. Here’s what:

   • Turn off notifications, your team’s quick questions aren’t important and you’re actually becoming the bottleneck to their growth by being a rapid responder and never letting them learn for themselves

   • Close that email tab, set time to respond to emails for 1hr per day and the rest of the day stay out of there.

   • Following on from that, don’t have your emails as the host for your todo list, it does technically work well, but the hidden impact is that you’re always checking your emails and using your inbox like a brain, meaning you’re in a perpetual state of distraction

Reminder

Here is your boundary tracker spreadsheet, 30 days to help keep you accountable ( make a copy of the spreadsheet to use)

I really want to know who is joining the challenge so I can help keep you accountable, leave a comment (any emoji will do!) to let me know you’re joining

P.S Tomorrow’s blog post is one you’ve all been voting for over on Instagram, and the winner was ‘Delegating when there’s no-one to delegate to’

At the beginning of my leadership journey, we were a tiny team and as the manager, I couldn’t just do the management work, I had to get stuck in too. So tomorrow morning I’ll be outlining my exact process around “What do I do when there’s nobody to delegate to” - Keep an eye o your inbox.