We asked our small business community how they protect and maximise their work time, as well as how they set and maintain boundaries between their work and personal lives.
My working day is six hours long, I don’t work evenings or weekends, and I take several weeks off at a time without my laptop. I divide my time into chunks of work, home, and family, and use the school day for hard close points. I find having things to do, a gym class, hobbies, socialising, arranged (if I had a dog, taking him/her for a walk would be good enough reason to stop work), on either side of a work chunk, helps me stop or take a pause. Otherwise, the work bleeds into longer days than I’d like.
I take Mondays off. I know many entrepreneurs aim to drop Fridays, but I don’t believe we have to earn rest. If I start the week well-resourced, then I won’t be on my knees by Friday afternoon.
I time block and have non-negotiables to manage my time, energy, and personal commitments. I don’t work Tuesdays and most Monday afternoons as I have adorable granny duties. I ceased trying to juggle work emails/social media stuff while he slept initially, but quickly realised that was unfair on him and me. I don’t work evenings, but I often work weekends (non-client-facing) because I choose to. Nothing sexy here, but it works for me, and my clients respect it.
The power of the auto responder must never be underestimated… and putting a pre-emptive note about upcoming absences in your email signature. I think it works more for me than for my clients – like I’m giving myself permission to switch off and keep that laptop lid closed because I’ve announced it.
Katherine Wildman, B2B copywriter for big businesses and busy agencies
I struggle a lot—and fail—to establish boundaries. I often cover cross-border issues or have editing and proofreading clients overseas, which means following up with them outside the UK working hours. One can try to stick to your own hours, but in journalism at least, you can’t really do that. If someone is available in another country, then you have to do it.
Ralph Cunningham, Journalist, Copywriter, Editor, Proofreader and Writing Coach
Each year, I go off-grid to a Landmark property (historic places that are famed for having no TV, radio and most do not have signal) to rest. I also plan my holiday time each year, work projects around it. I check client dates. Often the date that something is needed by isn’t a real date (I have managed editorial and design teams and well aware of wriggle room!) and I never reply to emails after 6pm.
Berenice Howard-Smith, Speaker, artist, writer, podcaster & coach
I have two phones—one for work and one for home. The home phone has no social media accounts on it, except for WhatsApp, which is only used for personal communication with friends, not work-related friends. This means I have to ask myself every time I leave the house, what will happen if I leave my work phone at home? Usually, the answer is ‘nothing bad’, so I do.
My brain works better in the morning, so I use that time to focus/ avoid calls. I also work with an Online Business Manager who manages finances, sifts through administrative tasks, and helps keep me organised. Wednesdays are my day with my daughter, so I’m offline then. And I don’t work weekends. 😴
Honestly, I’ve had to be really intentional about protecting my time; otherwise, it just seems to disappear. I plan my week every Sunday using time blocking so I know exactly what’s happening and when. I don’t just rely on a to-do list; I need structure. Everything goes into Asana, tasks, routines, even personal stuff — so it’s all out of my head and in one place.
Boundaries-wise, I’ve learned the hard way that if I don’t protect my evenings and weekends, no one else will. I try not to reply to messages after a certain time (even if I see them, the urge is real 😅), and I build in space for family time, walks, or just doing nothing. That recharge time is just as important as the work.
It’s not perfect; some weeks feel messy, but I’ve found that if I set the tone early in the week and stick to it as much as possible, everything runs more smoothly. And I’m way more present both at work and at home.
Helen Parkinson, Business Organiser & Accountability Partner
Easy. I don’t. 💁🏻♀️
Mel Barfield, Copywriter, Event speaker and Co-host of the indie business club podcast
For me it’s about balance – priorities shift all the time, so being too rigid doesn’t work for me – sometimes I need to prioritise the family, sometimes work. I think the key for me is putting all the tasks into motion – that way, I don’t spend time thinking about what I need to do, which enables me to be more present either way!
Very interested to read these answers as I find it SO hard to set boundaries between work and personal life. I do try to protect my main working hours, though, which are school hours, by just getting my head down (and putting my phone in another room).
Also, I’m currently tucked away in a shepherd’s hut in the Yorkshire Dales drinking tea (very ‘a room of one’s own’) – and with just sheep for company. I’m thinking of just staying here forever! Here’s the view…
Linda Harrison, PR specialist: Helping small businesses to get more visible
I love to chunk time, in that I allocate and schedule time in for business development activities (e.g. each Friday). And I have also developed little ‘tricks’ that help separate work and home, like I have a sign on my office door that reads ‘vortex’ on one side and ‘family time’ on the other. The sign gets flipped when I start and leave for the day. Psychologically, this works for me.
I haven’t taken calls on Mondays or Fridays in several years — those slots are simply not available to book on my calendar. Neither is anything before 10am or after 4pm, unless someone is in a different time zone than me. It’s important to me that I have days bookending the working week where I can go with the flow. In the last nine months, I’ve also stopped working Fridays and use those for doing whatever I want, which is usually my own writing — I’m currently writing several short stories and a “for fun” Substack about creativity. When I first started my business, I was terrible at boundaries and would even have clients calling me late in the evening to “brainstorm ideas” while I was in the supermarket! I cannot stress enough that this stuff has to start with us — if you don’t draw the line, don’t get mad when people move your invisible goalposts.
I’ve worked for myself for a long time now, and find that this changes over time. Especially, before having children and when they were small. So, the main thing for me is knowing how much time I have in the week for client work and business and…
- Tracking my time, so I can see where my time goes and how long projects take
- Knowing what times of day I work best for different types of work
- Knowing what needs to be done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis
- Setting times in the week for calls, meetings, gym, etc.
- Being flexible.
- Coming dressed for work and having a schedule/structure.
- Having a separate room at home for work and a door you can shut! 😅
It’s about harmony, rather than the elusive balance or rigid boundaries for me. Monday mornings don’t start with work; they start with a silent disco dance class. Friday afternoons don’t end with work; they end with a community meet-up. These two non-negotiables give me a clear head to start the week, and a space to hear others and be heard to end the week. It also means that if and when I do need to work the weekend, any latent ‘baggage’ isn’t crowding my brain, as my safety nets are already in place.
As a Solopreneur:
- I put my personal life first (because that’s why I became a Solopreneur).
- I never follow ridiculous routines, but I’ve never had any issues getting stuff done.
- I choose to work when I want, from wherever I want, and with whom I want. 😊
I have a rule to have no meetings on a Monday, and use a combination of time blocking and Asana to manage my tasks. I track all of my time, which helps me to reduce/outsource all of the unnecessary ‘shallow’ work.
I set boundaries between work and personal life… with great difficulty, and I’m still learning. But I am going to certain gym classes during the week like yoga which helps break up the working week. And as part of my time blocking, I have a daily shutdown routine too.
For me, it’s about beliefs, decisions and actions. I believe my time for myself is as important, if not more, than my work time. So I decided how to run my offers based on that. I only have two calls a day, two days a week and I take action to reinforce that – my boundaries are baked into my offers, so people just see it as how I work. When it comes to boundaries between work and personal life, it’s up to us to hold those boundaries. There’s no point saying ‘I won’t work in the evening’ and then logging on in front of MobLand. You need to want to hold the boundaries – so we gotta be as excited about our lives as we are about our businesses. 🙌🏼
I don’t work evenings, weekends or Fridays. I don’t have work email on my phone.
I have 7+ weeks off a year without my laptop.
