Speaker 1: In a world where time is our most precious resource,
Speaker 1: how do we set boundaries and maximize productivity? Laura may
Speaker 1: Martin is Google's executive productivity advisor, and she has thought
Speaker 1: about this question a lot, both for herself and the
Speaker 1: leaders at Google who she coaches. So what is Laura's
Speaker 1: trick to not only setting boundaries but communicating them to
Speaker 1: everyone you work with? Welcome to How I Work, a
Speaker 1: show about habits, rituals, and strategies for optimizing your day.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imber. On today's quick Win episode,
Speaker 1: we go back to an interview from the past and
Speaker 1: I pick out a quick win that you can apply today.
Speaker 1: In today's show, I speak with Laura may Martin about
Speaker 1: setting boundaries. I was about setting boundaries, and in your
Speaker 1: book Uptime, you also talk about downtime. How do you
Speaker 1: set boundaries for yourself? Giving you as someone that loves
Speaker 1: what you do, your passion comes across so clearly, but
Speaker 1: also you've got a family their priority. How do you
Speaker 1: think about boundaries?
Speaker 2: I think the first piece of it is actually like
Speaker 2: setting them. And so when I work with an exec
Speaker 2: I say, like, what are some of your working boundaries?
Speaker 2: And a lot of times I can tell how it's going.
Speaker 2: If they have no answer to that, it means they
Speaker 2: haven't really sat down and said I do this, I
Speaker 2: don't do this, And I think that that's a piece
Speaker 2: that you really have to define. Google has a lot
Speaker 2: of cool things built into our culture where it's like
Speaker 2: I can communicate those, whether it's in my signature or
Speaker 2: in a user manual about me and working with me.
Speaker 2: But I think that actually saying in my head like
Speaker 2: I do not email on the weekends and I don't
Speaker 2: check email on the weekends, Like saying that is actually
Speaker 2: really powerful because it even keeps me accountable, you know,
Speaker 2: for saying that that's something I do. I tell people that,
Speaker 2: and then I know that they're not going to expect
Speaker 2: an email from me because I've communicated that I do that.
Speaker 2: I think it's finding these routines, so even like putting
Speaker 2: my phone away before meals and things like that so
Speaker 2: I'm not tempted to check or work while I'm with
Speaker 2: my family. So you know, it's easy to say, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't do this, but then send emails on the weekend,
Speaker 2: and it's like, no, you have to really keep that.
Speaker 2: Like eighty twenty if it's a boundary that you've set.
Speaker 2: You want to really keep that up to see the
Speaker 2: benefits of it, because if you're it's just words, you're
Speaker 2: not going to see the value.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of putting your boundary in your
Speaker 1: email signature. Can you tell me what that looks like
Speaker 1: for you? How do you communicate boundaries? And what are
Speaker 1: some of the examples that you've seen with fellow Googles
Speaker 1: in terms of how they're communicating boundaries in the email signature.
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot of our executives have like a user manual.
Speaker 2: They call it like how to work with Me doc,
Speaker 2: and so that's the bigger way of saying, here's how
Speaker 2: to work with me. So I have one of those
Speaker 2: that basically says, these are the things that I prefer
Speaker 2: send me an email before adding time to my calendar,
Speaker 2: because I prefer to communicate their first. During the workday,
Speaker 2: I'm usually in meetings or focused intentional, so please don't
Speaker 2: chat me unless it's something that has to do in
Speaker 2: the next thirty minutes or so. I don't check email
Speaker 2: on the weekends. I do check email from seven am
Speaker 2: to six pm or whatever that is. Or I do
Speaker 2: check email Monday through Friday. Just communicating, even like a
Speaker 2: preference like boundaries, like an aggressive word, I think, but
Speaker 2: even a preference like I prefer to be emailed versus chat.
Speaker 2: I think I've seen that in people's signatures and it
Speaker 2: just kind of gives you that, oh, okay, like I
Speaker 2: didn't know that about them, you know, or some people,
Speaker 2: some executives are like, just sign up for my office
Speaker 2: hours and don't put another email in my inbox, Like
Speaker 2: that's what those are for. So I've seen execs with
Speaker 2: that and they link to the office hours and it's
Speaker 2: like there, I was going to send them another email,
Speaker 2: but now I know, oh that I'll just schedule this slot.
Speaker 2: A lot of it's just communicating. It's just gently guiding
Speaker 2: people to work with you the way that you want
Speaker 2: to work, and it can be powerful, whether it's just
Speaker 2: one line under your name.
Speaker 1: Now, A lot of your time at Google is spent
Speaker 1: coaching executives, and I feel like a lot of people
Speaker 1: would imagine senior executive Google just being a master of
Speaker 1: their time and productivity. But I imagine, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: that's not the case. And I would love to know
Speaker 1: what are the biggest challenges that you observe these late
Speaker 1: as having in terms of how they're thinking about and
Speaker 1: using their time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get that question a lot, like what are
Speaker 2: execs dealing with? They have total control of their time,
Speaker 2: you know, thinking that they have maybe an administrative professional
Speaker 2: working with them. Isn't it easier? And it's kind of
Speaker 2: funny because you know, no matter what your level is,
Speaker 2: if you're entering the workplace or you're a very senior
Speaker 2: exec with a global team of a lot of the
Speaker 2: issues are the same. But figuring out the time management piece,
Speaker 2: the energy management piece. One of the cool things about
Speaker 2: my job is that a lot of these execs are
Speaker 2: productive and it's like maybe they've totally mastered one piece
Speaker 2: of it and I'm learning from them and then I'm
Speaker 2: able to share those practices as I go to different
Speaker 2: coaching sessions and so that's really cool, And especially I
Speaker 2: talk in the book about one executive that that really
Speaker 2: mastered urgent. You know, he had a lot of urgent
Speaker 2: coming up. He figured out how to have a slot
Speaker 2: every day for urgent. His whole team knew that slot.
Speaker 2: When something urgent comes up, they all clear their calendars
Speaker 2: knowing that's when he's going to meet with him like
Speaker 2: things like that.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's Quick Win episode. If you
Speaker 1: would like to hear the full chat with Laura, you
Speaker 1: can find a link to that in the show notes.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for more tips to improve the way
Speaker 1: you work, can Live. I write a short weekly newsletter
Speaker 1: that contains tactics I've discovered that have helped me personally.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for that at Amantha dot com.
Speaker 1: That's Amantha dot com. If you like today's show, make
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Speaker 1: on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of
Speaker 1: the Cooler Nation. A big thank you to my editor
Speaker 1: Rowena Murray and Martinimmer for doing the sound mix.