The Thought Experiment That Helped Me Set Boundaries at Work
Think of your life as a house, with a specific purpose for each room
Six years ago, I sat in my doctor’s office as he rattled off an alarming list of facts. My lack of vitamin D bordered on vampiric. I’d gained 30 pounds in a year. I had a chronic, searing stomach pain that had once made me collapse in my boss’s office. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I’d bolt out of bed and write an email I had composed while asleep. My hands quaked.
My doctor’s concern was Chernobyl-level. I was probably on the verge of diabetes, he said, and at risk of even more serious health problems.
“When was the last time you saw daylight?” my doctor asked.
To say I was suffering from burnout would be an understatement. Working 14- to 16-hour days at my marketing job wasn’t uncommon. Even when I was technically off the clock, I’d still always be on my laptop, forgetting to eat or socialize. Fresh air came in the form of racing down to the food carts outside my office, or waiting for a cab to rush to a client meeting. I missed loved ones’ life-altering moments — weddings, birthdays, births, breakups, losses. I was in a toxic, codependent relationship with my job.
