Definition
Boundary Setting
Deliberately defining and communicating the limits of your availability, workload, or responsibilities, and holding to them consistently.
Boundary setting means stating clearly what you will and will not do, when you are and are not reachable, and enforcing that consistently rather than case by case. Boundaries that are not consistently held are quickly treated as suggestions.
Why it matters: without explicit boundaries, availability defaults to unlimited, and workload expands to fill it. This is as relevant to notifications and always-on messaging as it is to formal workload.
Related terms