For coaches, consultants, and freelancers, the boundary problem is real. You're your own boss, which sounds like freedom but often means you're available to everyone all the time because there's no HR department to hide behind.

I learned this the hard way.

If you work for yourself, presence is basically a radical act. When your work lives on your phone, your laptop, your brain at 2am - switching off isn't just difficult. It feels impossible. And yet the inability to be present is one of the things that quietly makes freelance and founder life unsustainable.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Here's what I've been trying.