Do You Need to Restore Your Sanity?

“I know we charge decent prices,” Martha said, “but I seriously feel like I make about $5.00 an hour sometimes.”

I was stunned. I couldn't imagine why she would feel this way. But then she explained.

A new client was demanding constant attention. In the last 48 hours he had texted her four times, emailed her twice, and left three voicemail messages. It felt like he was literally stealing her sanity. She needed to find a way to get it back.

How Far Will You Go?

We all want to do excellent work for our clients; there’s no denying that. However, we can only do our best work when we have the time and space to accomplish it. Without setting specific boundaries and communicating them clearly, we run the risk of diluting our effectiveness. Which, if you think about it, is really like stealing from our other clients.

Sometimes the best thing we can do for a client—and our sanity—is to let them know we just can't help them right now. I don't mean that we cancel our contract. I mean we make clear how and when we will communicate with them.

What you do for your clients is only part of the value you provide. The more important part is giving them the benefits of your expertise. And to do that you need the time and space to be able to focus deeply. Clients can't benefit from your insights if you aren’t able to develop them into coherent frameworks and can’t communicate them meaningfully.

What Is Truly Important?

In my workshop Overcoming Overwhelm I talk about how to set daily priorities. At a recent presentation I put up a slide with three criteria for tasks that merited the high priority, the tasks that absolutely had to be done today. As they read it, the faces of the participants filled with confusion and incredulity.

The words on the slide were fired, homeless, and dead. My point was that the most important things to do today--the only things that must be done today--are the ones that, if left undone, will result in someone being fired, someone ending up homeless, or someone ending up dead.

Of course, this was a bit of hyperbole, but less so than you might imagine. We often overrate the urgency of what must be done. It’s human nature. Similarly, clients may feel that issues that seem incredibly urgent to them are also the most important thing that we should be focused on right now. But of course urgent and important are often two different things.

Do It for Your Sanity

That's why even though it can be difficult, it's well worth the effort to set boundaries around your time.

Without boundaries you can’t consistently do your best work. You need the time and energy and space to be able to think deeply, to cultivate your expertise, and to formulate it in ways that are truly helpful for those you serve. Constant interruptions make that impossible.

It's very difficult to serve the number of people who truly want your help when you are constantly fighting for your undivided attention. That's not only bad for business, that's also bad for those who could truly be helped by you.

When you are always available, your clients begin to see you not as the expert you truly are whose help they desperately need, but as just another vendor who’s doing work on their behalf.

As a business owner, it's even more important for you to set boundaries. Your team relies on you to model healthy work practices. When you don't, they begin to copy your own habits. This puts additional pressure on them and leads them into unhealthy practices that are not only bad for them, but everyone around them.

In the end, an inability or unwillingness to set boundaries around your time results in you feeling resentful. And the last thing you want is to be feeling resentful toward your clients.

Your Turn

So what can we do about this?

Here are five ways you can begin immediately to take back your time.

1.      Turn off notifications.

Don't allow the beeps, boops, and squawks of your computer or cell phone run your day. Your time is valuable and your work too important to get interrupted so often.

2.      Ignore your phone during deep work.

Some of us remember life before pagers, cell phones, and even voicemail tethered us so tightly to the outside world. Whatever the reason someone is calling, it’s highly unlikely they can't wait a few hours until you're done focusing on your highest priorities.

3.      Set a regular time each day to return phone calls.

Allowing the phone to go to voicemail when you are accomplishing important work isn't rude. In today's society, with its fast-paced demands, it's absolutely necessary. Professionals respond to phone messages within 24 hours, not 24 minutes. And other professionals respect them for it.

4.      Only check e-mail twice a day.

Yes, I'm serious. If you were in a half-day meeting with your best client would you be checking e-mail throughout the meeting? Then why would you interrupt yourself in order to do the same thing? Those emails can wait an hour or two (or even till tomorrow) so you can accomplish your priorities and spend the time necessary to respond thoughtfully to them.*

5.      Communicate your expectations.

Explain at the beginning of each client engagement why it's important for you to set boundaries around your time. If you haven't already done so, then take the time to communicate to your current clients and to your teammates members as well. Chances are rather than being upset, most will be inspired by your example and will start to make changes to how they manage their own time.

Someone once said that if you don’t manage your time someone else will do it for you. You didn’t start your business to be at someone else’s beck and call. And it’s not in either of your best interests for you to work that way.

What will you do today to take back some of your time so you can do better work for more people? I’d love to hear about it.

*Here’s a bonus tip: Don’t simply scroll through your email when you check it. Try the TRAF method. Take a minute to either Trash it, Refer it to someone else, Act on it, or File it with a note to act on it later. Doing this significantly cuts down how much time you need to spend on email.