3 quick and easy steps to protect your valuable time

1. Block off your high potential hours in your calendar. As an earlyish bird I like to keep 09.00 - 12.00 in my calendar free for any creative work or highly taxing items on my to-do list. I could use these hours to manage difficult situations or learn new work related skills. This is because it is when I am at my freshest and likely to bring my best energy to these actions. You can avoid putting low energy tasks in here like coffee catch ups or admin work by blocking it off as a meeting with yourself ;-)
2. Let me check my calendar. If you are somebody who struggles to say 'no' to proposals which you later regret then this needs to become your new go-to reply. It gives you the time to get back to your office and ask yourself if you really want to commit to this.
3. Sunday strategy session: Analyse your upcoming commitments for the following week and simply ask yourself, is there anything here that I need to cancel or defer? Bare in mind you're wider career and personal goals when analysing this.

I have a whole module dedicated to the areas of higher energy and more time on my Peak Performance Code online course.