What's the best way to set and manage boundaries with remote colleagues and clients?

Boundaries are essential more than ever. When i was in corporate in my signature i included my working hours and clear communication on timing of response. Since leaving corporate and now working for myself, i always communicate my working hours to my clients and also make clear in my contracts timing of communication with me as well

To define boundaries you need to first identify them. You can identify boundaries in a few ways. One way is to identify your limits that you have experienced. Paying attention to when your health or well being is effected, when you are unable to care for yourself or attend tha activities most important to you, or otherwise when you are in a danger zone is a clear way of identifying a limit. Setting a boundary ahead of those burn our or trigger points is one way of defining. Another is to identify common critical burn out points of others and to apply a second hand protective boundary for yourself. You don’t have to learn everything first hand to identify and set a boundary.

People can’t respect your boundaries if you do not communicate them. Use escalating communication matching energy with both intent and impact of the offense. Non-verbal cues: i.e. blocking your calendar to ensure that people don’t put meetings on your calendar in certain times or even moments you want to create space for yourself such as lunch or to take a walk. Verbal cues: i.e. if someone mispronounces your name - say it correctly. If they do it again - tell them directly how to pronounce it. If it happens again you can explain the importance for them to get it right. If you have a matter where someone is harassing you and intentionally violating boundaries - you can consider more official ways of communicating a boundary.

In my experience I find people often expect their friday at 5 pm emails to be answered on monday or if you answer by tuesday theres a email that says "I haven't heard from you" or a wednesday 5 pm email and by thursday evening there is a follow up in a thread they took ages to reply to lol!

There’s no “law” without enforcement. Your boundaries are internal laws that you operate by. If you allow boundaries to be crossed without communication of the offense these boundaries do not exist. You don’t have to enforce everything as a level 10 offense. Consider intent and impact then scale communication and actions accordingly. Don’t feel bad for asserting a boundary. People who are not used to having boundaries placed on them may not respond well. Healthy relationships can survive. If someone doesn’t want to honor your boundaries - reevaluate why the relationship is meaningful for you to continue. If you must keep the relationship - adjust so that you can engage safely or extract yourself completely and protect your peace.

In my experience there may be boundaries that change depending on the circumstances, however, it’s ok to respond to let someone know you have received their message and will get back to them as soon as you can. This is more a practice when you are getting text or phone calls where I have a 24 hours to respond practice for emails. TIP: If you need to get back to someone set a reminder so you don’t forget and honor your commitment to get back to them!