This article comes from Entrepreneur.

Why Defending Your Time Will Make You More Successful

Stop letting your minutes, hours and days drain away and start making real strides toward success with these seven time-defending strategies.

1. Make yourself a priority.

Where do your priorities fall? We tend to take on a lot more than we can handle and we overbook ourselves and then wonder why we’re exhausted and stressed out.

Instead of taking on more and more, we need to start looking at how to prioritize our own goals and needs. Instead of putting everyone and everything ahead of ourselves, we need to consider what we need in order to do our best work. Take time to weigh what commitments you can handle and make sure you’re including your own needs.

2. Take control of your calendar.

Everything starts by taking control of your calendar. Are you using your calendar to its full potential? Are you blocking off time to complete tasks and giving yourself the hours you need to take care of yourself?

Scheduling your time and blocking out what you need will keep others from “stealing” those time slots from you. Your calendar can help you reclaim your time so you can you use it wisely and productively.

3. Scale your time.

If you allow yourself to get pulled in every direction, you may find your time evaporating before your eyes. One solution is to scale your time, which means looking for ways to get more out of the time you give to other people.

The includes looking for ways to batch similar jobs and objectives together. If you’re having coffee or lunch with a new colleague, invite people along. This gives everyone a chance to network. If you’re always being asked questions and giving a similar answer every time, why not post the answer online where people can access the information?

4. Figure out your core values.

The best way to cut through the distractions is to clearly define what your boundaries are. What exactly are you defending your time for? What are your core values? The best way to know how you should be spending your time is to get your priorities in line.

What steps do you need to take to start achieving your goals? Once you have a clear picture of what matters, you can begin to rank your priorities; then you can begin to decide what exactly you have time for and what you don’t.

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