I am so lucky that I get to meet inspiring women in the day to day of running The Balance Collective. Grace Marshall is one them. This week, as a guest blog, she has given us her top tips for managing yourself and others when you work part-time or flexibly.
Grab more tips from her book
It’s hard enough setting and sticking to boundaries when you work conventional ‘office hours’. What about when you work part-time or flexible hours?
Here are 5 tips to help:
- Communicate your working hours regularly
People will forget – it’s not that they don’t care, it’s just not on their radar! Use your email signature and out of office autoreply to create a regular unintrusive reminder. Clarify terms like ‘beginning’ or ‘end’ of the week if your week starts on Tuesday and ends on Friday.
- Suggest an agenda
Sometimes in the space between a colleague firing you an email and when you actually get back to the office, a lot has changed. In some instances it might be more helpful to ask them to keep an agenda for you – a list or an email in draft that they keep adding to it whenever they want to tell/ask you something. If by the time you’re back in the office something’s changed or no longer an issue they can cross it off the list and give you the most up to date version, and save you hours of scrolling & reading to catch up.
- Say “I’m not” , “I don’t” or even “I can” instead of “I can’t”
It’s not a question of capability. It’s about availability. So instead of “I can’t do that. I only work 3 days a week” try one of these on for size:
“I’m not in the office for the rest of the week. I can look at it on Monday if you’d like me to?”
“I don’t work Fridays, so let me know by Thursday lunchtime at the latest.”
“I can get it done this week if you get it to me by Wednesday. Otherwise it’ll be…”
- Clarify rules of engagement outside of working hours
Does your role require you to be on call? Do people need to get hold of you outside your working hours? If not, consider having separate work and personal mobile phones. That way if someone happens to call you on your day off, they’ll automatically go through to voicemail, rather than you having to make a decision each time whether to answer it or not.
If there are certain situations where emergency contact may be needed, clarify the rules of engagement: what constitutes and emergency? What’s the best way to get in touch?
Consider using phone calls or texts for emergencies rather than email, as it’s hard not to get distracted by everything else that might land in your inbox. There’s no point getting distracted by something you can’t do anything about when away from work. All you’ll succeed in doing is sabotage your recharge time and have less energy to come back with.
- Reinforce boundaries
Communicating clear expectations is a great place to start, but boundaries need reinforcing over time, by what you do as well as what you say. In reality, if people see you replying to emails or being available for quick questions on your days off, they will adjust their expectations to fit with the behaviour they see. So if you make an exception, make it clear – and make sure it is an exception rather than the norm.
And treat every request as a genuine question. “Can you just…” can be answered with a yes or a no. Just as children regularly test boundaries, see every test or challenge as an opportunity to reinforce, review or refine your boundaries, rather than a reason to knock them down completely.
Over to you. What tips would you add to setting boundaries when working part-time or flexible hours?
About the author
Grace Marshall is the author of How to be REALLY productive: achieving clarity and getting results in a world where work never ends and the Amazon bestselling 21 Ways to Manage the Stuff That Sucks Up Your Time.
She is also a Productivity Ninja with Think Productive one of the world’s leading productivity training companies.
She specialises in helping busy time jugglers find ways of getting things done with less stress, less overwhelm, more fun, enjoyment and fulfilment, and does her own juggling with two children and her own coaching business at Grace-Marshall.com
Clara Wilcox is a straight talking, practical and experienced coach helping clients navigate the tricky waters of returning to work, career changes and professional development. The Balance Collective is a social enterprise focused on improving the lives of parents, by working together to build inner confidence and promote a healthy work/life balance.
