Time Management

Salamualaykum,

SubhanAllah, Ramadan is right around the corner! :) These are some notes I took a couple years ago about Time Management by Shaykh Muhammad Al Shareef. Try to incorporate some of these habits into your schedule (if you haven’t already) so you’ll be super ready for Ramadan 2011 inshaAllah.

“Be in this life as if you are a stranger or a traveler.”
“If you find yourself in the morning, don’t expect the night to come and vice versa.
Take advantage of your life before you die. Take advantage of your health before you fall sick.”

“Every single one of you is a Shepherd, a leader. Strange is he who has the material world walking away from him and the akhirah walking towards him, yet he is busying himself with this dunya when death is knocking on his door.”

Ten Tips

1. Aim higher every single day. Don’t lift the same weight every day. Systematically increase the weight to increase the muscle. Did you make an intention this morning to achieve something great? Don’t let everyday pass by like a habit. Make your intention at Fajr time.
2. Get things off your mind immediately. Bill to pay, emails to answer, etc. Keep a notepad next to you. If a thought comes to you, write  it down. Get small stuff off your mind so you can use your mind (prime real estate!) for greater things. What are you building on your brain? Newspapers? Junk? Twitter? Ingest in your brain the best of information. Focus on Allah, that’s what should be in your brain.
3. Write things in places where you’ll come across it again without having to manually remember it.
4. Pray Fajr at the Masjid. Rasulullah (Salallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) made the du’a: “Oh Allah, bless my Ummah in the morning”. Start your day early. There’s so much barakah in it! You’ll get half your life back just by doing that.
5. Oxygenate your blood. Walking, breathing, exercise. You start becoming more alert. Energy doesn’t come from coffee, it comes  from breathing, focusing on your health.
6. Pre-choose your next break and write it down. Study for an hour, write down when you start and at what time you will take a break. Ex: “I’m not allowed to get distracted until 5:21. That’s my distraction time.”
7. Delete distractions in your life. Delete! Don’t just stay away, Delete!!! If you have a TV, maybe take it out. Go to places where there is no internet access for a while. If there’s a person taking up too much time, delete the chatting device, or the game on your phone, whatever it is. Make these things your slave and not your master.
8. Never multi-task. Focus on what is at hand. Don’t listen to something, chat, write a paper, read an article, study, eat all at the same time. Can’t do it. Give people and anything you are working on, your full attention.
9. Start on the right foot. Enter the masjid, house with the right foot. Start your day with the important things. Don’t start b y checking emails, social stuff because if you do, you’ll continue with that the whole day. Start with the most important task, Fajr, hifdh, send an application, plan the day out, work, etc.
10. Get a mentor or a life coach. Our parents are our coaches when we are young. When you get older, you have to take responsibility so you need someone there to make sure you got your tasks done.

Your life is as though your are holding a piece of ice. This life is not our destination, people before passed by and people after us will pass by. Always remember Surah Al ‘Asr. Always remind yourself and others about the reality of life. Imagine a clock that has the sign “What have you achieved with me today?” written on top of it. You should come back to your  bed so exhausted every day that right when you hit the bed, you fall asleep. Make an intention to manage your time and make du’a to Allah. Stop making your effort solely your effort and place your trust in Allah.

Sleeping, working, watching tv, internet–time combined: about 52 years spend on these things!

Get 10 Years of Your life back.
1. Make your job your life mission. 10 years.
2. If you have a TV, take it out of your home (or just never watch it if there are others in your home that do) 10 years.
3. Wake up for Fajr and start your day after Fajr. 10 years.

• Clean your brain out before starting anything. Fundamental!
• Focus on what’s most important to you. Cut out all the fluff.
• Big dreams require delegation. We can’t achieve everything by ourselves. We have weaknesses so we need to master the art of d ealing with others.
• Can’t get anywhere in life if you don’t know where you’re going first. Figure out your destination
• Excellece/ihsan is never the result of accidents. You must have a plan. Make the intention to master your time.
• Wake up and stay up after Fajr so go to sleep after ‘Isha. Don’t worry about going to bed, focus on getting up for Fajr.
• Follow up Fajr with Qur’anic recitation or exercise. Eat healthy after Fajr to keep yourself from falling asleep.
• Your mentor must have the skills to move you forward. Must be a serious relationship and a commitment. They should hold you accountable. Someone who you hold in high esteem.

Why do we procrastinate?

• No exciting goals. Dull and boring aims in life.
• Projects that you don’t care about. Find goals that you do care about, something that makes you want to hop out of bed at Fajr time.
• We don’ know the real problem. We look at the symptoms, not the cause. Figure out what’s really wrong with you lol. :p
• We might not know how to get there. People often know what they want to do but not how to do it. Make your goals specific and take it from there.

Down time: Work and then sleep. A car can’t run all the time. Get 110% down time but work the same way! Real fun like finding a beach and swimming. :)
Something active, fun, and healthy. Something that takes your mind completely off of work.

-Fi Amanillah