The challenge with time management used to be figuring out how to be productive with your time. As knowledge work has increased and access to information multiplied, that advice has evolved into one of optimization. Want to be productive while watching sports? Read an article on your phone during the commercial break.
Now our lives are filled with queues waiting to eat up our time. A series of videos are on YouTube that you started last Ramadan. But you only caught 13 episodes, so now it’s saved in your watch later playlist (9 hours).
So again, we optimize. How do we squeeze more out of less? How do we get done more? Maybe we need to wake up at 4 am? How are all these other people accomplishing so much? Then we start to study those people doing more than we are to reverse engineer a solution – solutions that worked for people, whose life context is drastically different from our own.
This causes more problems, because we start to see the things that ‘eat up’ our time as limitations. “I will be productive, if I can quit my job… so let me spend our family’s emergency fund on the latest online ‘thingamajig’ promising to let me make six figures of passive income every year.” “I can’t be productive, if my kids are always bothering me… so let me sacrifice some time with them now, because I will definitely have more time later.”
Our problem is one of learning how to deal with the overwhelming situation of everything we want/should/need to accomplish, while also balancing the responsibilities we have – all within the same 24 hours everyone gets in a day.
Let us look at a two-step model for solving this situation.
Step 1: What is the big picture?
“By time, indeed, mankind is in loss, Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.” (Asr 103: 1-3)
The big picture is to understand your priorities in life. Spiritual and family needs should be at the top of this priority list. With this in mind, we can revisit the questions we pose to ourselves, for example, “how do I read 75 books in a year, instead of 50?” gets replaced by a deeper question of “does this book serve my larger purpose in life?”
This requires a huge shift in perspective. Someone might feel stressed that they have a lot of goals they want to accomplish (starting a business, writing a book, going back to grad school, homeschooling their kids, etc.), but do not have time for it, because the ‘daily grind’ is simply too difficult.
Wake up. Pray. Eat breakfast. Rush the kids out of the door to school. Fight traffic on the way to work. Get stressed out at work all day, where they’re pushing you constantly ‘to do more with less’. Get home. Relax for five minutes. Help the kids with homework. Do other after school activities. Try to eat dinner as a family. Spend another hour getting the kids to bed. Maybe go to the Masjid. Maybe watch TV. Maybe watch really stupid videos people forwarded you on WhatsApp. Spend a few minutes with your wife/husband. Go to sleep exhausted. Wake up and start all over again.
Here is the issue with such view: we have to stop looking at this as a ‘grind’. Spending time with your kids is an investment, and those daily interactions add up, multiply, and compound over time. It is a blessing, even if it seems every morning escalates into a shouting match trying to get everyone out the door on time. You may not have your dream job, but your time spent at work still enables you to fulfill a large responsibility. So take advantage of it, and do it to the best of your ability.
Reframe the roles, responsibilities, and activities that may consume your time. Stop looking at them as things holding you back from something ‘more productive’ and understand that for this time of life, these are the activities that serve your greater purpose.
How many people have gone on to achieve business success, fame, and millions but lost their families in the process? Is it worth it? This was the macro level. The micro level is step two.
Step 2: What is the best use of your time at a given moment?
This assessment needs to take place continuously. Is a Sunday spent on watching football your best use of time? Maybe. Perhaps this is your way to unwind, relax, and get some entertainment. However, this could also be the second day in a row you did nothing but sit in front of a screen, ignoring all other commitments. It all requires context.
Would it be more productive to take a book to your kid’s soccer game and read? Probably. But is it the best use of your time? Probably not. Your attention and focus needs to be on the game.
Replying to text messages, while eating lunch alone at work? Might be fine. Replying to text messages while eating with family? Most likely not.
Understand the demands on your time at any given moment, prioritize what is most important in that moment, and then focus relentlessly on that.
This is the example that the Prophet (ss) laid out for us with his life. Aisha (rtaf) was asked, what he used to do in his house, and she said: “He used to keep himself busy serving his family, and when it was the time for prayer, he would go for it.” (Bukhari)
Reposted from http://ibnabeeomar.com/ with the writer’s permission
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