Boundaries to Avoid Burnout

A simple check-in to help you protect your time, energy and wellbeing

Hi friend, I’m Sophie, an introverted coffee-loving creative. Welcome to Finding Simple & Calm, a place where I share the harsh realities of motherhood and being neurodivergent in my pursuit of a simple life in an overwhelming world. I’m also passionate about creative businesses, and I love writing about, and teaching, methods to simplify and organise your business, reduce the overwhelm, and spend more time being creative.
My whole-hearted mission is to build a business baggy enough to live in, a business that works for me, not the other way around. I hope you can join me?

We’ve had a few bank holiday weekends recently in the UK, a longer weekend to enjoy before heading back to work. My husband usually has to work bank holidays, but he booked this one off for us to enjoy as a family. Except, it didn’t go quite as planned.

Yesterday, on the bank holiday itself, he had a work call he had to take asking his advice on something that had broken down (he’s an engineer). Then, last night he looked at his work emails and groaned. He has so much work to go back to. “It’s easier if I don’t take time off”, he said.

I thought that’s really sad, but then I also thought, you need to have boundaries. Which is something I’ve been working on myself recently, and so that’s what I’m talking about in this post. Setting boundaries in your business (this can also be implemented in your personal life too) to protect yourself, your energy, and to avoid that familiar burnout from coming back, is so important.

Boundaries are a sort of self-respect. We need them. Especially if you’re anything like me and tend to put yourself last. Everything comes first - children, work, emails, housework… they all get our attention first. I’ve been so guilty of thinking I’ll go to bed once I’ve finished writing a Substack post, or I’ll do a quick tidy around the house ready for morning. I’m sure you’ve said something similar - I’ll do THIS for myself WHEN…

So let’s set some boundaries. Better yet, let’s start small - set one boundary for yourself this week. Here’s some ideas, but you do what you need:

• Add your working hours to your email signature or website footer

• Set an out-of-office reply with your work days and when you’ll answer their email

• Decide what time you’ll close your laptop each day (I find it helpful to set an alarm on my phone for when I start work and when I finish for the day)

• Block out some time this week for admin, creative work, or rest.

• Say no to one thing that doesn’t align with your energy or capacity right now (for me that’s saying no to 1:1 clients because I don’t have the capacity to be consistent for them right now)

And just because setting boundaries is hard, please know that you’re allowed time to yourself. You’re allowed to rest and prioritise sleep over emails or writing posts for Substack. Your clients/customers are not entitled to 24/7 access to you. You’re allowed to run your business in a way that works for you, not the other way around.

Let me know what boundary you’re trying this week, or if you already have boundaries in place, let me know what they are and how they’re working for you.

Speak soon,

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