5 Reasons Muslims Are Meant To Be Productive
Tags: Muslim, Productivity, Self Improvement, Time, Islam

Photo courtesy of Brad Neathery from Unleash

What’s your definition of productivity? Is it to complete all the tasks that you set out to do for the day? Or to be occupied 24/7 and leave no room for procrastination? What about, to continuously make smart choices in life? I read an article on The Muslim View of Productivity and found this particular part to be interesting:

“ This is a key difference between the Muslim notion of productivity and a non-Islamic one. The Muslim is required to be extremely productive but must also channel this productivity in the context of what is most beneficial for the afterlife.”

As Muslims, we should be selective in what activities we engage in — anything that does not benefit the second life should be seen as subsidiary. Here’s 5 reason why by default, Muslims are set to be productive:

Having an awareness of the concept of time

It has always been ingrained in us that time is our most valuable asset. I am guilty of always looking forward to the weekends and hazily getting through the week without being intentional on how I spend it. Who do you communicate with? What do you do on social media? What places do you go to? I think it's interesting how Surah Al-Asr reminds us that we are always at loss. If its a known and accepted fact, what are we doing as ‘businessman of time’ to avoid crisis from great loss? Psychologist Nathaniel Branden said, “The first step toward change is awareness.”

2. Starting the day early

It's quirky how Corey McComb phrased his article on Why waking up at 5 am is more than just getting things done.

“This isn’t another life-hack du jour, or one of those, “This Is The 1 Habit Everyone From Steve Jobs to Jesus Christ Uses For Success.”

Muslims have an additional motivation to wake up early for Tahajjud and an obligation to perform Fajr prayers. To think that we could go months and years without seizing great opportunities to seize His forgiveness is mindboggling. It's so much easier said than done. But if we are going to try and model successful individuals, why not make it count for the afterlife while in the process?

3. Disciplined scheduling

Elon Musk’s concept of Time Blocking, Atul Gawande’s checklist manifesto and Pomodoro technique when it comes to scheduling is popular. Routines and disciplined scheduling is an integral part of any productivity hack. Do we truly see prayer times as the skeletons on how we schedule our day? Delegating tasks around prayer times instead of squeezing prayers in between tasks. Surah Al-Mu’minun tells us that we would be successful if we are serious about our prayers.

4. Just-Do-It Mentality

Starting on a task is often the biggest barrier to productivity. It’s no surprise that the thought of the amount of effort we’d have to put on a daunting assignment or how much more words you’d have to type in that 3000-word essay. We trick ourselves to focusing on little tasks to feel like we are being productive yet remain unhappy. Many put The Zeigarnik effect to good use and adopt the Just-Do-It mentality. As Muslims, Sural Al-Imran teaches us to have tawakkal on Him when a decision is made. Decide, Start and all else will flow easily.

5. Accountability chart

A famous activity when Bullet journaling is to have a habit tracker included in your monthly spread. Tracking the expenses or logging in what food you eat when on a diet, what exercises you did in your workout plan at the gym. A YouTuber, Ali Abdaal tops his productivity game with a Resonance calendar using the Notion app to track what he reads, watch and listen to.

I think Muslims are not foreign to this accountability hack as we believe in the concept of angels who note down each of our good and bad deeds. It’s a timely reminded — narrated in Jami‘ At-Tirmidhi that the Prophet said:

“The feet of a slave will not move on the Day of Judgment until he has been questioned about four things: his life — how he spent it; his youth — how he consumed it; his wealth — from where he earned it and how he spent it; and his knowledge — how he acted upon it.”

In conclusion, being productive should come as second nature to us as Muslims. In fact, we should thrive more as Muslims because we care to succeed not only in this Dunya but also the Akhirah.

Are we productive enough?

What would you do to be a Productive Muslim?