Intentional Inflexibility is a strategy for setting firm boundaries with your time, enabling you to focus on your work. This approach has gained traction in the face of the remote work debate, where employees grapple with balancing personal life and work demands, while employers view remote work as a privilege rather than a necessity.

Knowledge workers argue that the issue isn’t remote work, but rather the uncontrolled growth of workplace communication systems during the pandemic. These systems, they argue, are the real culprits behind productivity issues.

The Pitfalls of Digital Communication Tools

A 2023 Forbes Advisor survey found that workers spend an average of 20 hours per week using digital communication tools. The accessibility of these tools has led to 58% of workers feeling obligated to be available throughout the day. Consequently, employees experience increased burnout, decreased productivity due to ineffective communication, and stress over crafting appropriate responses.

These tools, initially designed to facilitate remote work, can hinder productivity if not used thoughtfully. A rising number of knowledge workers are adopting intentional inflexibility to prevent their work hours from being consumed by these tools.

The Advantages of Intentional Inflexibility

Intentional inflexibility involves establishing firm boundaries to shield our time from constant distractions, unnecessary meetings, and communication overload. This allows us to allocate those hours for creative, focused work and to support colleagues who genuinely need our help.

The strategy emphasizes protecting our most productive hours for actual work, prioritizing our tasks, and adhering to a plan instead of being reactive to our inboxes.

While some argue that attending to meeting requests, participating in chat threads, and responding to direct messages are all part of the job, others report spending nearly 30 hours of their 35-hour workweek in meetings, with additional time spent scheduling these meetings. This raises questions about the effectiveness of such practices.

Implementing Intentional Inflexibility

Practicing intentional inflexibility may not be straightforward. It might lead to perceptions of being discourteous or not being a team player. However, explaining its necessity to coworkers can help them understand and adopt this trend.

The practice of intentional inflexibility varies among individuals. For some, it involves being selective about commitments and interactions. They participate only in meetings that align with their business objectives and are not available for unplanned meetings or discussions. They have silenced all notifications and refrain from using social media or reading the news during the workweek. They do not accept unsolicited or unscheduled phone calls and check their emails only once at the end of the day. Unless it’s a critical issue or a customer query, responses are typically delayed by a couple of weeks.

This approach may not be suitable for all roles. Those who need to sell or network, or those who manage teams rather than produce, may find it challenging. It may also not be suitable for those new to a role or company and in learning mode. However, most roles can benefit from periods of time reserved for focus and creativity.

Imagine if we agreed to spend no more than 25% of our week in communication with our coworkers, and 75% in production or creation—either individually or collaboratively—or in generating ideas to help us achieve both? Productivity would increase significantly.

Even Microsoft, a developer of workplace communications infrastructure, acknowledges that our “digital debt” is costing us innovation. Its 2023 Work Trend Index report states: “There are only so many minutes in the day—and every minute we spend managing this digital debt is a minute not spent on the creative work that leads to innovation. In a world where creativity is the new productivity, digital debt is more than an inconvenience—it’s impacting business.”

Instead of allowing virtual meetings and instant messages to make us yearn for a time when we could make a phone call for anything urgent and send emails for the nonurgent, why not communicate our limits, set our boundaries, and refuse to get sucked in?

In today’s workplaces, protecting our time is essential. We need to recognize its scarcity and be bold enough to ask: “Do we really need a meeting for that?”.