Three quick tactics to take back time in your workday

You have the right to decline events and requests outside of your working hours. Full stop. 

That is the boundary I’m holding you accountable to this year. It’s the most simplistic of the productivity tips that I share, but it’s by far the absolute hardest for my clients to stay firm on. Here’s why:

We have been taught that in order to be a respectful colleague or client-facing representative, we must make compromises. Making compromises is true, but no one ever told us where the appropriate boundary line was, so we assumed that the line was waaaayyyyy over there. In reality that line is a really reasonable small box that you draw around yourself.

In recent years, I’ve seen healthier practices of working hours, but there are still many that shock me. I had a client that came to me telling me that she worked upwards of 80 hours a week in her director position. She was burnt out and felt underappreciated for the work that she was putting in. Rightly so. She was shocked when I told her that I could get her working 40 hours or less in her discipline, but she took me up on it. 

Today, this client has a job she absolutely loves, she’s making more money, she feels great about her day-to-day efforts, her long term projects are on track, and she makes ample time outside of work for things that she enjoys. Before her new job, we employed a few tactics that gave her immediate relief in the position that begged the 80 hours she was working. Here’s what works:

Set working hours on your GCal or Outlook Calendar

This is the number one pet peeve of mine. If you don’t have your working hours visible to others, how are you able to keep your boundaries? When someone goes in to book a meeting with you, they’re not going to remember that Rachel’s working hours are 10am-5pm, they will just take whatever spot looks open for everyone. As a program manager myself, it’s hard enough to coordinate a meeting with more than 3 people, so make sure you have the courtesy to turn that on for others. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that others are immediately aware of your working hours. 

Finally,  someone is scheduling meetings after your working hours expecting you to show up before your working hours the next day, THEY are the ones being inconsiderate and you can catch up at YOUR convenience later in the day. It’s not your job to anticipate others' needs after working hours and you don’t need that worry living rent-free in your head when there’s more important things to be doing.

Create breaks and DNS time blocks for your own work

If you think eating at your desk shows dedication to your working hours, you’re wrong. It shows that you don’t value yourself enough to spend intentional time fueling your body. Yes, this is the tough love I’m showing you so that YOU show yourself some love in return. Set a recurring weekday meeting at whatever time lunch looks good for you and tag it as “Out of Office” with an auto-responder stating your hard boundary. You deserve to step away in the middle of the day to be away from your screen and eat in peace. You don’t need indigestion. 

It’s in your best interest to schedule yourself DNS time or “Do Not Schedule” time for yourself. If you find that all of your own work is waiting until the end of the day (or even worse the end of the week), then it’s time to take back this time in your day. At a minimum this working block should be 60 minutes each day. Personally, I schedule two to three separate blocks in my workday for this DNS time to account for things that were already planned and then things that were not anticipated, but have an urgent turnaround time.

Expect the above to change the speed in which you execute. It happens twofold: increases your outputs and decreases others requests. Overall, this increases your efficiency and lets you focus on a reasonable amount of work in front of you. Will meetings and decisions need to wait? Yes, but you’re also enforcing others to be better planners when they ask for your time. 

Schedule in time to catch up with colleagues

This goes out to my fully remote workers. You lose an element of impromptu bypassing colleague conversation when you go fully remote. In order to stay connected in a meaningful way, it’s important to make space for the non-business catchups. It’s easy to feel isolated and underappreciated when you don’t get to swap stories with the people you work with. This also breaks up your day in a more natural way AS IF you might be working in an office. 

Create a one on one biweekly meeting with 2-3 coworkers that you love talking to and just shoot the shit with them. Maybe you chat while having a beverage of your choice. Maybe you come with the latest fun AI tools to show each other. Maybe you have fun themes for each meeting. For example, I know someone that did an astrology horoscope meeting with their team and they had a blast talking about each other's signs just for fun. Make it your own and make the time and space to connect outside of your projects.

By implementing just these three things, you increase your efficiency, decrease the noise, and take better control of your schedule. You are the only one who is in charge of your calendar, so add those working hours, breaks, DNS time, and touch points to get your head in a better space. 

If you loved these tips, my online course the Main Character Method will be launching this year and we go real hard on boundary setting. Sign up here for pre-order notifications.