How to Set Healthy Boundaries When Working From Home and Why Psychotherapy Helps
As many of us have discovered since working from home, it can be hard to ‘clock out’ when the office is just a few steps away. Working from home offers many benefits like no longer sitting in traffic, no more long commutes, more flexibility and the possibility of a better work-life balance. It can also blur the lines between professional and personal life. In fact, studies show that this blurring of professional and personal life often leads to lower levels of happiness, work satisfaction, and psychological well being. To prevent exhaustion and role conflict, and to improve well-being, boundaries are important.
If you’ve noticed that work is creeping into your evenings, you’re definitely not alone.
Let’s look at a few ways to set better boundaries and understand how therapy can support this process.
Practical Tips For Creating and Managing Boundaries
Create a designated workspace and stick to it. Whether it is a designated office room, or a desk in the corner of your room, having a physically separate work space from home can help your brain have a mental switch. At the end of your work day, close your laptop, and clear your desk of any tools or work equipment. Place a sheet over your desk if you have to! This will help you with acknowledging the physical and mental ending of your work day.
Create a schedule and communicate it with your colleagues and supervisors. Decide on a consistent start and end time and let your colleagues and supervisors know your working window.
Limit your work notifications. Silence any nonessential work alerts using do not disturb or out of office notifications.
Add micro-transitions to end your day. Common examples are walking your dog, listening to music, engaging in a hobby, or doing a quick stretch routine. Psychological detachment, refers to the ability to mentally switch off from work. This plays a huge role in stress reduction and recovery.
Communicate Boundaries Clearly and Respectfully.
Be upfront and honest about your boundaries
Use language that enforces your boundaries such as “I can get to that task tomorrow morning” or “I’m out of office till Monday”
Clearly communicate your plans for completion of work tasks including timelines for response time and availability
Remember that there may be pushback at first, staying consistent and the repetition of boundaries can often offset this.
6. Reflect, Revise, Re-communicate Boundaries can change and be adjusted. The only person who knows what you are feeling is you! Be sure to check in with yourself for signs of burnout and emotional fatigue. When facing an emotionally draining period at work consider what is contributing to that…. Are you taking on too many responsibilities at work? Is there a personal matter you are dealing with? Consider how revising your boundaries can support you and what the new boundaries look like. Remember to communicate the new boundaries with colleagues and supervisors.
Why Psychotherapy Helps
1. Discover and Reframe Limiting Beliefs
Often our challenges with setting boundaries comes from the belief that we must be available to others so that we are perceived as selfless. Do you believe that saying “no” means that you are being selfish? Another example is sometimes we believe that our value is determined by how productive or helpful we are to others. A therapist can not only help you with identifying and challenging such beliefs, but they can also support you with creating a space for healthier narratives.
2. Support with Unpacking Your Values
Values impact how we live our lives and our quality of life. Did you know that our boundaries are actually grounded in our values? Learning what matters to you in a great step in learning how to communicate boundaries.
3. Building communication skills
Therapists can provide clients with psychoeducation on ways to negotiate limits, communicate boundaries and how to say no. In addition to these communication skills, therapists can also create a space for you to practice these skills.
4. Manage Guilt and Anxiety
Sometimes even the thought of asserting boundaries, may cause you to feel guilt, fears of disappointment, or even anxiety. Therapy provides a safe place to process and gradually rid yourself of these emotional barriers to setting boundaries.
5. Heal Roots of Boundary Difficulty
In many people, boundary challenges arise from early life experiences and dynamics such as boundaries in families, gender roles, culture, trauma, attachment patterns. Psychotherapy allows exploration and healing of those foundations enabling stronger boundary setting.
References:
Pluut, H., & Wonders, J. (2020). Not Able to Lead a Healthy Life When You Need It the Most: Dual Role of Lifestyle Behaviors in the Association of Blurred Work-Life Boundaries With Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 607294.
Seeber, I., & Erhardt, J. (2023). Working From Home With Flexible and Permeable Boundaries. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 65(3), 277–292.
Work From Home Success Linked to Work/Life Boundaries. Cornell Chronicle (2023).
