Tips for digital boundaries in the workplace
With great tech, comes great burnout. We offer some tips to create digital boundaries in the workplace.
Technology can be a wonderful thing. We have a wealth of information at our fingertips, can speed up tasks, and communicate to people around the globe, at any time of day. But there are of course downsides. The non-stop notifications and scrolling can make us feel a slave to our screens and so many of us struggle to switch off. In the workplace, where colleagues can message you any time of day and those work reminders keep popping up, we can struggle with our boundaries and end up being burned out.
Here’s our advice on creating digital boundaries in the workplace.
Switch off notifications
Do you really need to be notified when every message and email comes in? Most messages aren’t urgent and don’t need an immediate reply. Even if you don’t plan to reply immediately, the fact the notification has popped up will keep that task in your head and distract you from what you are doing. How many times have you been deep into a work task and that little email box has popped up on your screen and ruined your flow? If this feels too daunting for you or you do work in a job where there are a lot of time-sensitive issues, take it step by step - perhaps create a filter for any messages marked urgent to pop up, but not others. Or tell your colleagues you have notifications switched off to allow you to focus on priorities and they should call you if it’s urgent.
2. Allocate dedicated time to check your emails and messages
Rather than a slapdash approach to replying to emails and allowing their notifications to distract you, dedicate blocks of time in the day to check your emails. This will make you feel that you will get to those messages and tasks will get done, but the allocated time will minimise notification stress during other parts of the day when you need to focus on other tasks. We often wrongly measure efficiency by speed but it’s more efficient to check your emails in blocks of time where you can dedicate your energy and focus on them.
3. Be clear on your working hours
Even if your notifications are off, you can feel stressed knowing that messages outside of hours are piling up in your inbox and that there may be an expectation to respond, especially if others do. It helps to be clear on your working hours when you are online and therefore when people can expect a reply from you - and when they shouldn’t. This could be a note in your email signature stating your working hours and that you will reply within that window. You can block out a lunch break and specify you are offline during that time.
4. Focus on one task at a time
With so many ways for people to get in touch with us and constant reminders of the tasks we need to get done, it can be hard to focus on just doing on thing at a time. To help you with this, make sure your notifications are off, your phone is on mute and not within physical reach of you. You can block out the time in your diary and tell colleagues that you’ll be focused on a particular task at that time so you don’t need to feel nervous about people trying to reach you and not know why you’re not replying. If you feel you can only do this for short bursts of time, set a 20 or 30 minute timer so you know when to stop and check in on other priorities.
5. Take breaks away from your screens - ideally outside
We’re often guilty of ‘taking a break’ from work by merely picking up our phones, usually still at our desks and scrolling mindlessly, replying to messages and doing some life admin. This additional screen time isn’t a real break and won’t refresh your mind so you can keep going for the rest of the day. When you take a break, make sure it’s away from your laptop, your phone, the TV screen. Try making a quick snack or lunch, or read a chapter from a physical book rather than an e-reader, or, ideally step outside. While a bit of nature is ideal, even if your work environment is a bit of city with no tree in sight, just walking around the block and getting your heart rate up a little will be a welcome break for your mind and body.
