Recently, I decided to build a customer relationship management system (CRM) for my solo business. It started as a simple list of my contacts. Then I integrated my Google Drive and my calendar. Then I decided to add a pretty interface in my brand colors, along with some behind-the-scenes automation.
The problem? That was hours of time I hadn’t planned to spend. Nobody was going to use it except for me, and the first version would have served my original purpose.
While it was certainly a fun project, it wasn’t necessary. Large organizations have project managers who set limits. Working solo, that responsibility falls to you, whether it’s for an internal project or client work. You’ve got to hold the line so that you don’t end up putting more effort into a project than it’s worth.
Decide what “done” looks like before you start
It’s easier to set boundaries around client work because your contract should outline the scope. But even a signed agreement can’t protect you from yourself. If you’re a perfectionist, it’s easy to turn a defined deliverable into something bigger. You keep tweaking and putting in more time, even though you had a version that would have made the client happy hours ago.
If you can’t describe what a finished deliverable looks like, it will keep going as long as you keep having ideas. You’re putting in more time for the same pay—which “costs” your business.
Write down what “done” looks like for a client project before you even start. You may have some additional back-and-forth with the client, but you need to determine the point at which a deliverable passes into their hands for review.
For internal projects, outline exactly what you plan to work on and what “v1” looks like so you don’t keep making the project bigger than it needs to be. Hold yourself to that boundary in the same way you would with client work.
Set time limits around any project
Time limits can do the work when sheer willpower falls short. Work expands to fill whatever amount of time you give it, so a cap forces you to stop.
On most days, I use time blocking for specific projects and client work. A project doesn’t get “however long it takes”—it gets the amount of time I’ve set aside in my block. When I get to the end of a block, that’s my cue to assess where I’m at. Do I legitimately need more time to finish up, or have I reached the “done” point?
A self-imposed time limit can also keep your internal projects in check. Outside of my CRM project that ballooned out of control, I usually block off time for internal projects. At the end of 30 minutes or an hour, I need to stop, put it aside, and determine if I need to return to it later.
Get comfortable with the end result
I’m a professional writer, and I’ll never forget the editor who told me, “It’s a blog post. Not the next Nobel prize winner.” That framing was invaluable because it put a project into perspective. I shouldn’t agonize over every word because that wasn’t the goal.
Quality is the last boundary, and perfectionism makes a project expensive. If you consistently want to deliver more than you agreed to, then perhaps you need to change how you scope projects or your pricing.
Plus, different projects need different bars. An internal tool you create for yourself doesn’t need client-level polish. A functional result is usually fine when you’re the only one who will ever see it.
Boundaries give you more flexibility
After spending countless hours on my CRM, I was both pleased with what I’d created… and dismayed by how much time I’d put in. The amount of value I’d get would never offset the “cost” of the project.
The hours you don’t spend overcomplicating a project or chasing perfectionism are hours available for the next client. Or time you save for yourself and your life outside of your business. You get the flexibility by deciding where the work ends before you start.
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How have the ways you labor changed over the years? My very first job that my social security benefits will register goes back to working in a local Roy Rogers fast food restaurant at age 16, serving fried chicken and biscuits. I was on my feet most of the day and took pride in inserting my time card into the punch clock machine registering the start of my shift with that satisfying hole puncher crunch sound. Over the years my labor has varied, from jobs requiring me to be able-bodied (working catering jobs as a food server long into the night); to the humility required for anonymous temp jobs until something better came along; to a hybrid version of physical movement and mental activity (when I was a middle school English teacher); to work that leveraged my intellectual capacity and knowledge — as a professor and now as a creativity strategist.
That diversity of labor has been a privilege.
Thank goodness that by the 1880’s, efforts from the carpenter and machinist unions led to the ratification of Labor Day as a national holiday in the United States. Depending on my life stage, my emotional state over Labor Day weekend has been a total spectrum ranging from full relaxation to anxiety and nostalgia. I can remember Labor Day signaling the last lazy days of summer as a child and the excitement I felt about entering a new grade of school. I can also recall those years as a professor when Labor Day made me feel a bit anxious as I made finishing touches on a syllabus for a brand new course, uncertain if the learning experience would be a hit or bomb with the students.
As the U.S labor movement grew, and laborers organized, the recognition that rest was essential for us to produce our best work became as predominant as fair pay and wages. When I researched the content for Move. Think. Rest., a book that explores an alternative, human-centered way for us to think about productivity called the MTR (pronounced motor) system, the prevailing insight I had is that our best work must be cultivated, not simply produced. When we cultivate our work we not only focus on efficiencies, output and metrics, but we also incorporate the time needed to let ideas marinate, to collaborate fully, and to value slow as much as fast.
As I think about this upcoming Labor Day weekend, I invite you to indulge in some backcasting and forecasting. Whether you manage a team, have just started a new job, or feel like you’re slogging your way through the motions, I encourage you to use this Labor Day weekend to hit pause. Here are three prompts that I used in a recent microretreat I designed for myself. Choose one or all of them — but do allow yourself to slow down and consider how these prompts can help you to cultivate your best work. Don’t spend more than 20 minutes on each prompt.
Promp #1: The 25 Year Time Horizon. Pick a moment in time 20 years ago, and describe your personal condition from a physical, social, emotional, and spiritual perspective. Then, pick a different moment in time that occurred just five years ago, and again delineate where you were from a physical, social, emotional, and spiritual perspective. When I did this exercise, the 20-year backcast was a time when I was in a pretty vulnerable state. I had gone through a really bad breakup, and I wasn’t happy with my job. On the other hand, I was thrilled to be traveling the globe and experiencing different cultures. Then the point I focused on, that happened just five years ago, was shortly after turning 50 years old. I was married, a homeowner, an entrepreneur and had a very clear sense of myself. When we do this backcasting exercise it grounds us and gives us perspective on any worries and concerns we may presently have.
Prompt #2: Big Breaks. Sometimes I call this the “It Just Takes One” exercise. List 10 big breaks in your life that have happened in the personal and professional dimensions. This backcasting exercise is really cool because it goes into a category of acknowledging that exponential change often happens from small moments. It only takes that one introduction, that one encounter, that one email, that one break to open the aperture of opportunity. There’s something about acknowledging the people and circumstances, and times when we decide to show up, that really builds momentum and traction. What’s cool about the big breaks exercise is that you can go into the office on the Tuesday after Labor Day weekend and do this exercise with your team. Thinking about big breaks within the organization can build momentum for the fourth quarter of the year.
Prompt #3: The Dream State. This forecasting exercise helps us to get really audacious and blue sky in our thinking. The question I pose is “Where would I love to be in five years? Who do I desire to be in 5 years? What would it take for me to get there?” What emerges may surprise you. Notice that I used verbs like love and desire — not like or need. And if you already did the 20 Year vs. Five Year Arc exercise, then you’re astutely aware of what’s feasible in a five year time horizon. Just consider how much the world changed between January 2020 and January 2025!
These are very heart-centered, emotional exercises that fuel how we labor. They’re not solely mental exercises about what’s practical or feasible in our current state. These prompts are designed to liberate you.
So spend your Labor Day weekend doing some backcasting and some forecasting. Rest and dream in honor of the laborers who came before us, and out of respect for the seeds you’ve sown over the years.
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