The Surprising Cost of Constant Availability

As leaders, we often pride ourselves on being approachable, responsive, and available to our teams. After all, open-door policies and quick replies can create a sense of support and accessibility. But what happens when availability turns into a constant state of interruption?

One CEO recently shared that he felt his days were no longer his own. His team depended on him for quick answers, minor approvals, and even solutions they could have figured out themselves. His email and Slack notifications controlled his schedule, leaving him drained and unfocused. Sound familiar?

While being available may feel like good leadership, excessive accessibility can actually dilute effectiveness. When you’re constantly responding to others, you have less time for deep work, strategic thinking, and the high-impact decisions that only you can make.

Here’s the truth: If you’re always available, you’re never fully present.

Instead of trying to be there for everyone, all the time, consider these strategies to create healthier boundaries while still being engaged:

1. Set “Office Hours” for Non-Urgent Matters

One of the biggest drains on a leader’s time and mental energy is constant interruptions—a steady flow of questions, approvals, and quick check-ins that seem minor but add up to significant distractions. It’s time to rethink the ALWAYS OPEN door policy!

Instead of responding to ad-hoc requests throughout the day, encourage your team to bundle their questions and bring them to you at a set time—whether it’s a daily, twice-weekly, or weekly session. This prevents constant interruptions while keeping lines of communication open.

Leaders who implement office hours report feeling less overwhelmed, more productive, and more in control of their time. Meanwhile, their teams grow more self-sufficient, solving problems independently and making better decisions without constant leader input.

By setting office hours, you create structured accessibility—ensuring your availability without sacrificing your ability to focus, think strategically, and lead effectively.

To learn how to implement office hours effectively, GO HERE.

2. Coach Your Team to Own Their Decisions

Encouraging your team to own their decisions builds confidence, capability, and autonomy. However, many leaders default to giving answers because it feels faster and more efficient. While decisiveness is valued, true leadership lies in coaching others to think independently.

Many times, throughout our culture transformation work, leaders will tell us that a key outcome is that more decisions get made at the front line, or at least further down in the organization. They want people to stop coming to them for answers.  But here’s the catch: When you consistently provide solutions, you become the bottleneck. Think about where the bottleneck is (at the top!)

Instead of fostering independent problem-solving, you create a culture where people wait for you to decide—slowing progress, overwhelming your workload, and stunting their development.

The shift from answering to coaching is simple but requires discipline. The next time a team member comes to you for a decision, redirect them with powerful questions like:

• “What do you think the best course of action is?”
• “What are two solutions you’ve considered?”
• “If I weren’t available, how would you solve this?”
• “What information do you need to confidently make this decision?”

It can be tempting to jump in and “fix” things when someone is uncertain. However, letting your team wrestle with challenges helps them grow. If you always provide answers, they’ll always need you. But if you coach them through the process, they’ll gain the confidence to navigate challenges on their own.

3. Protect Your Deep Work Time

In a world of endless notifications, constant interruptions, and meetings that multiply like rabbits, carving out time for deep, focused work isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. In his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, productivity expert and author Cal Newport makes a compelling case for protecting our ability to work without distraction. He argues that deep work—the kind that allows us to solve complex problems, develop creative solutions, and master challenging skills—has become rare in our hyper-connected world. Yet, it’s precisely what sets high achievers apart.

So how do you cultivate deep work in your own schedule? One of the most effective strategies is calendar blocking, a technique Newport himself advocates. He’s even created a planner to apply this technique.

Calendar blocking is the practice of scheduling every part of your day in advance, dedicating specific time slots for deep work, meetings, and even breaks. Instead of passively reacting to tasks and emails as they come, you proactively assign time for what truly matters. This method forces intentionality and prevents the day from slipping away in a haze of busyness without real progress.

How to Block Deep Work Time Effectively

1. Schedule it like a meeting: Treat your deep work sessions as non-negotiable appointments—just as sacred as a client meeting. If someone asks for your time, you can confidently say, “I’m unavailable during that time, but here’s when I am available.” If you can’t schedule your whole week like this, then start small and give yourself a chunk of time on a regular basis to do “deep work.” A CEO who is part of the Roundtable we facilitate blocks a day a month for this.
   
   
2. Don’t leave them guessing, set expectations: Let your colleagues know when you’ll be in deep work mode and when you’ll be available for collaboration. Use tools like status updates in Slack or email auto-replies to set expectations. This could be a great team exercise where everyone agrees on specific times during the week that are blocked off to “do the work!” An executive leadership team we work with set up an “ELT meeting” every Friday morning for 90 minutes that was their code for focused work time! They all protected it so they knew they’d have specific thinking time to get things done.
   
   
3. Optimize your peak productivity hours: Identify when you’re naturally most focused—morning, midday, or evening—and reserve that time for your most cognitively demanding tasks. Pay attention to when you have the energy to do work. There are times we’ve had a task assigned to a time on our calendar but didn’t have the focused energy to accomplish it. Consider what you need to match your energetic state to the time blocked for deep work. Maybe you need to start with a walk, a stretch or a big glass of water to transition from what you were doing into the time of focus.
   
   
4. Defend your time ruthlessly: Block out distractions by turning off notifications, using website blockers, or physically relocating to a quiet space. You know what gets you off track. Be intentional about creating conditions that optimize your thinking and deep work time. Be sure to have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish so you don’t spend your deep work time answering emails!
   
   
5. Build a transition ritual: At the end of a deep work session, take five minutes to document progress and outline next steps. This helps you seamlessly pick up where you left off later.

When you block time for deep work, you’re making a conscious investment in your growth, creativity, and impact. Without it, your calendar will fill with low-value tasks and reactive work, leaving little room for meaningful progress. How many times have you come to the end of a week and wonder what you’ve accomplished? Time blocking creates intentionality rather than reactivity.

As Newport puts it, “A deep life is a good life.” Protect your deep work time, and you’ll not only accomplish more—when you align your time and your values, you’ll do work that truly matters.

4. Lead by Example

Leadership isn’t just about what you say—it’s about what you do. If you want your team to develop autonomy, focus on deep work, and set better boundaries, you have to model the behavior first. Research in organizational psychology and leadership development (as well as our experience!)  consistently shows that leaders set the cultural norms of a team—whether intentionally or not.

How to Model Deep Work and Boundary-Setting as a Leader

1. Visibly block deep work time – Put your deep work sessions on your calendar and make them visible to your team. Let them know it’s a priority.
   
   
2. Set communication expectations – Let your team know when you are available and unavailable—and encourage them to do the same (and do not make yourself available when you’ve said you are unavailable or you will lose control of your calendar!) Use tools like status updates, auto-responders, or shared calendars to set clear expectations.
   
   
3. Respect others’ focus time – if a team member has blocked deep work time, don’t interrupt them unless it’s truly urgent. This reinforces the culture of focus.
   
   
4. Normalize saying no – Show your team that declining unnecessary meetings or requests is a sign of strategic prioritization, not disengagement. If there is no agenda and not a clear reason to attend, say so when you decline the meeting.
   
   
5. Discuss deep work in team meetings – Make deep work a normal part of your team discussions. Ask: “What’s your deep work focus this week?” or “How can we protect time for strategic work?”
   

When you lead by example, you’re not just improving your own productivity—you’re reshaping your team’s culture. When leaders model focus, discipline, and boundary-setting, everyone benefits.

Demonstrate the discipline of prioritizing deep work, decision-making, and boundary-setting. When you set clear expectations for communication, they will follow suit.

Being a leader doesn’t mean being on call 24/7. It means being present where you add the most value.

ACTION:

Audit your availability. For one week, track how often you’re pulled into conversations, messages, or meetings that could have waited. Identify one or two changes you can make to set better boundaries without sacrificing connection.