Making your contribution to the voluntary and community sector more sustainable
By Louisa Daubney, Life Coach and Certified Burnout Coach
You tell yourself you’ll switch off after the next task. Then the next one. You check emails after hours, just in case something urgent has come in.
In my first article, we looked at some of the common internal drivers which can contribute towards burnout: perfectionism, people-pleasing and over-responsibility – patterns so many of us bring to voluntary and community work without choosing them.
Combined with the sector’s real pressures – the “triple crisis” I referenced in that article, of rising demand for services, less funding, and increasing costs – those patterns can become harder to resist, eating into your time, energy and attention.
But noticing the pattern is one thing. Changing how you respond to it is another. And that’s where boundaries come in.
Because when our boundaries aren’t clear or protected, work can gradually creep further into our breaks, our evenings, and the time we need away from work to switch off and recharge.
When caring becomes carrying
Caring is part of what makes our work meaningful. We care about the people we support, the communities we work with and the difference we’re trying to make. But sometimes caring becomes carrying.
The unfinished task you’re still thinking about long after the working day has ended. Someone else’s urgent project that suddenly becomes your priority. The email you answer immediately, even though it could wait.
In the voluntary and community sector, you’re starting to fill gaps that used to sit elsewhere – supporting people who might really struggle without your help.
There’s always another request coming in, another problem to solve – and it’s easy for your own needs to slip down the list.
Boundaries help us decide what we can give, what we need to protect, and where our responsibility starts and ends.
They might not reduce the pressures on the sector as a whole, but protecting more of your time, energy and attention can help reduce the pressure that lands on you. That’s because it helps you recognise when you’re starting to take on too much, giving you space to recover before the next request comes along.
And that’s important because burnout isn’t simply about having too much to do. As Jayne Morris – the UK’s Leading Executive Burnout Coach, who I completed my training with – explains, burnout is the collective result of the internal patterns we bring to our work and external stressors, such as the “triple crisis” I mentioned earlier.
She goes on to describe how left unchecked, these factors can culminate in prolonged stress and poor lifestyle choices, severely depleting the adrenal glands and immune system, and ultimately leading to burnout.
Pause for a moment: Where are you currently giving more of your time, energy or attention than you would like to?
Perhaps you’re regularly working through your lunch break, checking emails in the evening, taking on requests before checking your capacity, or spending an extra hour polishing a report or proposal that was already good enough.
Where have you gradually started doing more than you intended to – and what’s it costing you?
Why boundaries can be so difficult to put in place
If boundaries are so useful, why are they so hard to put in place?
Partly because caring, giving everything to our work, and wanting to be helpful can be closely tied to how we see ourselves.
If you care about doing a good job, putting a boundary in place may feel uncomfortable. If you don’t want to let people down, saying no may feel harder than saying yes. And if you naturally take responsibility, saying no or asking for something to be taken off your to-do list may feel like you don’t care somehow.
The patterns we explored in my first article tend to make boundaries harder to hold (or create in the first place):
- Perfectionism can make it difficult to stop, even when something is already good enough.
- People-pleasing can make it uncomfortable to say no because you don’t want to let someone down
- Over-responsibility can make it hard to recognise what isn’t actually yours to carry.
Our boundaries can gradually shift over time. The working day gets a little longer. Lunch breaks slowly disappear. The inbox follows you home. You agree to do ‘just one more thing’.
After completing my burnout training and reflecting back on some of my own ways of working, I recognised one of my early warning signs of overwork was that I regularly put my work before my wellbeing. When there was an urgent deadline, one of the first things I would sacrifice was my lunchtime walk, even though getting some fresh air always gave me a chance to clear my head and recharge.
Sometimes the first step towards a boundary is simply noticing where yours has already
shifted.
Find the one thing that’s quietly draining you
You don’t need to overhaul your approach to work overnight. Instead, let’s start with one thing that’s quietly draining your time, energy or attention.
Maybe it’s saying yes on autopilot before you’ve checked what’s already on your plate, struggling to get focused work done in a busy office environment, or working late to feel on top of your inbox.
With one situation in mind, let’s explore what you could do differently.
Start with one boundary
Once you’ve identified something you would like to change, these four questions can help you work out what boundary might support that change.
1. Decide what you want to protect
What would you like to create more space for? It might be having time for focused work, a hobby after work or simply enough space to recover after a busy day.
2. Turn the intention into something specific
What would this look like in practice? For example:
“I would like to be able to get some focused work done in the office” is an intention.
“I’m going to book a meeting room from 2-4pm every Tuesday and Wednesday to work.
Please only disturb me if it’s urgent” is a boundary that supports it.
3. Communicate it when you need to
Who needs to know about your boundary? Sometimes protecting a boundary means having a conversation with your team.
4. Expect some discomfort
Putting a new boundary in place may feel uncomfortable, particularly if you’re used to always being available for others. You may simply be doing something different or unfamiliar – putting your own needs first for a change.
A boundary isn’t fixed
It’s something you keep adjusting – and sometimes it needs to move closer to protect more of your time, energy and attention.
It isn’t about being less committed or caring less. It’s about making your contribution sustainable, so you can keep showing up at work and beyond it without running on empty.
The question is whether you’re choosing where the boundary sits, or whether demands around you are choosing for you.
A final thought
Working more sustainably doesn’t mean becoming less caring. You may simply want to be more intentional about where your time, energy and attention go.
Notice the one thing that’s draining you.
Decide what you want to protect.
Create a boundary. Then see what changes.
What would you like to hear about in my next article?
I’ve been thinking about writing about how we can use our work breaks to boost our energy and focus. If that’s useful, let me know – or tell me what else you would like to hear about when it comes to working well without burning out.