Time and being Productive

By time, (103:1)
Indeed, mankind is in loss, (103:2)
Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience. (103:3)

After looking at this Quran ayah, it becomes evident to us on how important time is in our religion. If we look at the five pillars of our deen, we can see that they are also at a fixed time. For instance, salaah has a fixed time and amount. Similarly Ramadan and hajj is also in a fixed month. This is a constant procedure that has been carried out for the past 1400 years without fail.

Therefore, it is also essential for us to bring in a procedure for our daily lives, with our ibadah and humane activities. This will help us save time and also help us run our daily lives in a smooth manner. We often complain that there is no barkat in time and that we do not have time to fit in certain actions into our daily schedules. However, the reality of the situation is that if we stay organised with time and not waste time in futile activities, there would be time for a lot more productive things.

Below I shall mention a few tips from my personal experience that have helped me stay at the top of things and have helped me in running my day smoothly.

1. Initially, we must ensure that we wake up early for Fajr salaah. What better way can there be of starting our day other than in the worship of Allah. Thereafter we must spend 10 minutes in praying surah yaseen. I cannot emphasize enough on how much these two things help in running your day smoothly. If we pray surah yaseen with full conviction that it will help us in getting our needs for the day completed, then without doubt your needs will be completed. This is one action that will never let you down, no matter how bad of a situation you are in. After carrying out these two essentials, make sure you have a good healthy breakfast. Breakfast is definitely the most important meal of the day, as it will give you energy and concentration that will last you throughout the day. Therefore, make sure you wake up 15 minutes earlier, giving you time to prepare a good, healthy breakfast.

2. Pre-plan your day from the night before. This will ensure that you wake up knowing where your day is heading. It is better to stay alert  than to stay oblivious, on what you need to get done throughout the day. For example, get your outfit for the day ready from the night before, as this saves you from hassling on what to where first thing in the morning. Set alarms for activities to be carried out at fixed timings from the day before. This helps you in keeping in track of time. Make to do lists daily or weekly and tick off the things that you have completed. This will avoid you from forgetting about things that need to be done.

3. Get the things that you dread done first. This is the best advise I can possibly give when it come to doing things that are difficult. Once the difficult tasks are done, you would tend to feel more relaxed and calm throughout the day. It would reduce stress and you would feel a sense of accomplishment. Never leave tasks last minute. This would only cause you to panic more and mess up more on the task. You would end up not giving the task enough effort and concentration that it requires.

4. Do not waste time in futile activities. For example, do not spend two hours talking to a friend on the phone when you have an assignment to hand in the following day. If you really do need to talk on the phone, then do it while your cleaning, so in this way you are not wasting time and you will also not feel guilty by the time you end the phone call.

5. Keep your workplace organised! I don’t know if its just me but when I see my workplace nice and neat, I actually feel like working. Make sure all your work is filed and labelled, as this will avoid you losing work. A messy and unorganized atmosphere does nothing but put you off working.

6. Do things in groups. Do not decide to do everything in one day, as this would just end up in you feeling awfully stressed and tired by the end of the day. If you have a lot to get done, divide the jobs into groups and then carry out each group on a different day. For instance, if you have lots of cleaning to do, set one day of the week for all the vacuuming and set another day for all the recycling. If you have an assignment to do, then set one day for research, one day for writing a draft version and another day for the final neat version of the assignment, rather than doing the entire assignment in one day.

7. Wake up early and sleep early! This is the key to having a productive day. I personally think that I can get work that takes up to 4 hours in the evening done within 2 hours if I do it in the morning. Waking up early helps in giving you more barkat in time. Also, the Prophet (S.A.W)  had a habit of going to sleep straight after Esha salaah, therefore we should also try and adopt this habit. Adopting this habit brought in lots of benefits into my life. I started getting good sleep and it helped me wake up earlier. Waking up earlier starts your day off really well, as it avoids you panicking about being late. It give you enough time to have breakfast. It helps you carry out all your morning activities calmly and keeps you boosted for the rest of the day.

Well, that is the end of my first post. These are the tips that have always worked for me. I hope these tips are beneficial. Jazakallah for reading this post. Comment below on tips that help you stay organised and productive so that I may benefit from you wonderful people out there.