Establishing Work Boundaries for Ourselves
While product managers are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of their product, we also need to take care of our mental health and our physical health. After all, if we’re not in good shape, we won’t be able to deliver outsized positive impact for our customers and for our company.
Therefore, it’s crucial for us to set clear work boundaries as product managers, so that we can work sustainably over the long run.
It’s true that we could theoretically pull an infinite number of levers to improve our product and our processes. But, in practice, we have only so much time and energy before our efficacy as product managers starts to plummet.
To structure this conversation on setting work boundaries, we’ll work in concentric circles. In this article, I’ll focus on how to set clear expectations for ourselves.
Then, in a future article, I’ll share how to negotiate and implement these boundaries with our managers, stakeholders, and customers, so that we can work sustainably in the long run.
Why self-boundaries are the most important
Before we can ask others to respect our boundaries at work, we first need to set boundaries for ourselves.
Most product managers I know are highly self-driven achievers. They’re more than happy to run through walls and “just make it happen” - and while these are incredibly valuable traits to have, they can also put people’s mental health and physical health at risk.
Too frequently, I hear this line of reasoning: “it’s okay for me to sacrifice just a bit of myself right now, because this sacrifice will put my product in a better place in the long run, and the long run matters more than the short run.”
But, if we regularly decide to sacrifice ourselves, we wind up running out of steam, and that then damages our ability to build winning products time and time again.
Here’s the challenge: the only person who fully understands “how much sacrifice is too much” is you. You can’t expect others to step up to defend your needs, because others won’t know what it is that you need.
That’s why it’s so crucial that you take the time to establish work boundaries for yourself.
But, how exactly do we do that?
Personally, I’ve found that using a two-pronged approach yields a lot of value.
We can set boundaries for ourselves in both a top-down approach and a bottoms-up approach, which help us ensure that we’re tackling meaningful work without putting our long-term health and happiness at risk.
So first, let’s discuss how to set top-down boundaries.
Top-down work boundaries
I strongly believe that we should only have a single priority each day. Having more priorities isn’t better, because having multiple priorities causes us to lose focus.
In fact, the word “priority” used to only be singular. From the 1400s to the 1800s, you could only have a single priority, because “priority” meant “the single thing that comes first.”
When we have too many priorities, we become unable to accumulate critical mass behind any given initiative. In turn, that then sets us up for failure, because we then have to put in extra hours to close gaps in communication, gaps in critical thinking, and gaps in processes.
One of the most common complaints I hear when speaking with fellow product managers is that they feel lost and ineffective, because they don’t know what they did that day.
In other words, they needed to juggle so many things at once that they couldn’t make meaningful progress on any single initiative. And, since they weren’t able to feel a sense of momentum, they started to lose motivation at work.
Conversely, when you have a clear narrative of “this is my sole priority for the day”, that creates more focus and drive within any single day. When you look back on the work that you did each day, you’ll feel significantly more satisfaction because you’ll have made focused progress.
What does this top-down boundary look like in practice?
Each day, give yourself only one measurable goal. Some examples of measurable goals:
Today, I will finish this product spec so I can send it to my engineering counterparts
Today, I will complete my competitive analysis against 6 competitors
Today, I will finish my customer-facing presentation
Don’t give yourself non-measurable goals like these, because then you won’t have clarity on “did I achieve them or not”:
I’m going to think about how to increase my monthly active users
I’m going to be a more assertive meeting facilitator
I’ll be more organized today
If you meet your goal for the day, then you had a great day. You shouldn’t question yourself on “could I have done more?”, because you achieved the goal.
If you miss the goal, then you could’ve done a better job that day.
You don’t get to “make up for it” by tackling other “non-goal” items, because that’s busywork that only gives us the illusion of progress.
We have to keep the Pareto principle in mind: the single most important work item will yield outsized positive value, and everything else isn’t really worth investing in because they’re fundamentally lower ROI (return on investment).
Responding to Slack messages or reviewing other people’s documents may feel like progress, but if you’re not moving your single goal forward for the day, then you haven’t set your product up for success.
I acknowledge that product managers have to move multiple metrics within a single quarter. But, as a reminder, a work week contains multiple days, and a work month contains multiple weeks.
Having “only one priority per day” doesn’t mean that you can’t make significant progress across a variety of focus areas in the long run. You can rotate through the different focus areas on a day-by-day basis.
But, it does mean that you need to focus within any single day.
Now we know what these boundaries look like in practice. But, what prevents us from setting these top-down boundaries?
The honest answer is that we’re usually the biggest barrier. Product managers are highly responsible people, and so we usually feel uncomfortable in “letting other initiatives slide.”
But we don’t have to make progress on every initiative every day.
Rather, by focusing on only one priority each day, we prevent context switching, and we can ensure that we’re tackling the highest-leverage work that we can.
The only person that can push back on your priorities is you. No one else is going to help you prioritize.
As product managers, we’re the final decision makers when it comes to “what we’re going to work on”, and so it’s on us to decide whether we’ll focus or whether we’ll multitask.
To ensure that you tackle work sustainably over the long run, limit yourself to a single priority each day. You’ll feel significantly more fulfilled that way, and you’ll find that your products and your metrics are moving much faster than if you split your focus.
Need more help setting the right priorities for yourself? Our coaches at Product Teacher have helped product managers organize and sequence their workloads, leading to less stress and faster promotions on the job.
Bottoms-up work boundaries
Most product management professionals know that they should set clear expectations about their ideal working hours. But, they don’t make it clear that their “non-working hours” are just as important as their working hours, because that personal time enables them to work in the first place.
When we neglect to allocate sufficient personal hours to our lives, we lose motivation, creativity, and thoughtfulness as product managers.
So, take the time to ask yourself: “what are my non-negotiable priorities in life?”
Work is not separate from life. Work is a part of life, and so we have to look across our personal pursuits, our relationships with others, and our commitments to work when we decide how we want to allocate our time.
Each person has some minimum threshold of personal hours that they need on a daily basis to feel like fulfilled, healthy human beings.
As you reflect on how many personal hours you need to protect in your schedule, remember to account for the following kinds of ongoing commitments:
Relationships with family, friends, and loved ones
Recharge time, such as hobbies, relaxation, and personal pursuits
Physical health, such as exercising, sleeping, and eating well
Every week has 7 days x 24 hours per day = 168 hours per week. While you may say “I’m comfortable with working 50 hours per week”, you may not have analyzed how many personal hours you need per week.
In other words, you may not have made it crystal clear where you draw the line, where you will no longer put in the extra hour of effort.
To identify where the “hard no” is: determine how many personal hours per week you need, at a minimum. As an example, say that you need to have 110 personal hours per week.
Then, that means that you should not work more than 168 - 110 = 58 hours per week over the long run.
If you find that you’re consistently working more than 58 hours per week, then you need to reset the workload that you’re tackling, or else you’re going to burn out.
By looking at “how many hours we will not work”, we create powerful forcing functions that enable us to prioritize the work that really matters, while also maintaining enough personal space to stay motivated, satisfied, and healthy.
Conclusion
To work sustainably over the long run, we need to set both top-down work boundaries and bottoms-up work boundaries for ourselves.
From a top-down perspective, we need to focus on only one key priority each day.
From a bottoms-up perspective, we need to allocate sufficient personal time to stay healthy and happy, so that we can bring our best selves to work.
Once we’re aligned on what matters to us across the various aspects of our lives, we can then set more reasonable and sustainable expectations with others.
In a future article, I’ll cover how to successfully negotiate and establish these work expectations with colleagues, managers, and customers.
Thank you to Pauli Bielewicz, Siamak Khorrami, Goutham Budati, Markus Seebauer, Alina Ha, Juliet Chuang, and Shanthan Gangupantula for making this guide possible.
