Two weeks ago, I blogged about work-health balance for everybody. This post is somewhat related to that topic. I’m going to discuss the boundaries that editors must put up regarding their time.

Note that I specifically said boundaries, not walls. There’s a big difference between the two. Walls do not let anything in or out. Nothing can cross them. If there are walls between you and your clients, you are not interacting with them at all. This would, of course, defeat the whole purpose of your editing business.

Boundaries, however, are at least somewhat permeable. When you have boundaries between yourself and your clients, you are interacting with them. The interaction, however, needs to be healthy. That’s why the boundaries are there.

As an editor, you first and foremost need to establish boundaries regarding your time. This means that you have hours when you work and hours when you don’t, and you need to communicate this to your clients in some way, especially if a client is on the needy side. If a client calls you at 8:00 pm wanting to ask questions or discuss an issue, and you shut down your computer at 5:00 pm, don’t give in. Politely explain that your working hours are between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm (or whenever), and that you would be happy to discuss things with them in the morning (if at all possible, give a specific time).

Establishing boundaries regarding your time also includes your breaks during the day. It is best not to answer phone calls from clients during your lunch break, as I learned about five years ago. A client called me while I was heating up some food, and when I explained that I was fixing my lunch, they said, “Is it a hot lunch? I really need to talk to you.”

It is important to note that working late to make a deadline is a whole other animal and is not, repeat, not a violation of one’s time boundaries. I have burned the 10:00 pm oil on more than one project (but thankfully, not too many) and I am not ashamed of it at all. Sometimes this is required, even though the work was planned carefully.

What kinds of boundaries do you normally set regarding communicating with clients?