Creating Top Lines, Middle Lines, and Bottom Lines
Bottom Lines This is the starting point. This is where we make an agreement with ourselves about our non-negotiables and guard these at all costs. If we break these boundaries, we’re out of balance and potentially heading towards work addiction. Be careful not to pick too many bottom lines. Only focus on the most important things.
Middle Lines This is the gray area. If these boundaries break, it indicates to us that we are headed in the wrong direction. They are signals or warning signs.
Top Lines These are the areas we ultimately want to focus on. These are the habits we want to do regularly. Living in our top lines keeps us removed from our bottom line behaviors.
| Bottom Line | Middle Line | Top Line |
|---|---|---|
| I will not be available outside of predetermined work hours/days unless there is an emergency (and that emergency has a predetermined definition). | I will only work a maximum of 10 overtime hours over a two week period. | No Friday deadlines — I want to be able to end my week without worrying about a missed deadline over the weekend. |
| I will not work more than 50 hours in one week. | I will take a full lunch hour to disconnect and recenter myself for the rest of the work day. | I am working 40 hours per week. |
| I will not have work applications (i.e., Slack, email, etc.) on my personal devices (phone / laptop). | I will properly plan my work weeks with reasonable and achievable tasks (with room for adhoc) to not overwhelm myself. | I schedule 90% of my meetings across 2-3 days of my week to ensure that I have at least 1 day of proper, uninterrupted focus time. |
Ultimately, we must figure out what is healthy for us when setting these boundaries. Putting them down on paper and keeping them available is extremely helpful. Here are some suggestions for starting:
- Don’t overfill your plate. Start with 1-2 items in each category and build from there.
- Focus on the top lines. Aim for what we want to do the most.
- We can always change our top, bottom, and middle lines as time goes on. This is about experimenting and getting to a place of health.
- Consistency is the most important part of this process. Make the top lines achievable and practice them for a few months before potentially adding more. This process is intentionally slow.
- It’s very helpful to find a mentor who has a good work/life balance and can serve as a sounding board when working through this process.
When creating your bottom, middle, and top lines, it’s important to write them down. Put them on paper or a document you can regularly check. You’ve done the hard work of determining your boundaries — now you have to enforce them.
And if you’re feeling unsure about your boundaries? Reach out to your mentor, your friends, or trusted colleagues for advice and feedback — you’ll learn from their feedback, and you might help them establish a new boundary or two in the process.