Respect Your Calendar Like a Contract

Asalam alalaykum. Welcome to the blueprint podcast. This podcast is for you who wants to become the best version of him or herself. This podcast is for you who is looking for success that is truly lasting success with that dosage of baraka. I'm your host Ibrahim Sharif and today's episode is about the importance of respecting a crucial part of you which is your time. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given all of us an equal amount of time every single day. If you are alive for an entire week, you'll have the exact same amount of that one resource, which is the most important resource compared to all of the millionaires and billionaires around the world, which is time. Now, what's different between individual and individual is what we do with our time. So today's episode is going to be about the art of maximizing your efficiency from the time that you are given. Before I continue with the podcast, uh just wanted to give a special shout out to all of you in the school community who are going through the classroom, going through the lessons. And yes, a live podcast episode with the community is coming very, very shortly and I'm looking forward to share that one inshallah. We also have our free education course in startyouhra.com. I repeat, startyouhddra.com where you get a free 5-day blueprint from me with tasks and assignments dedicated to you. With that being said, let's continue with the podcast episode in Baraka style. So usually the difference between someone reaching their goals and someone not reaching their goals is clarity. Okay. Now way too often we hear people wanting that success for themselves, whatever it could be, financial content being spread or whatever whatever goals someone might have, right? But it's very important to keep this one thing in mind which is if you're not familiar with your goal and you don't know where you're headed most likely you are going to be lost in the journey. So that's why when you're setting goals and we talked about the smart framework before it is crucial, it is super important to specify your goal. Now that being said, your goal needs to be measurable. Measurable in terms of what is required by you to achieve that goal. Can you do it alone? Do you need additional resources perhaps? Do you for example uh need to complete a couple of tasks? Now you wouldn't know any of that or know how you would deal with any of that if you don't do this one thing. Schedule your time. I'll be very honest. I'm quite surprised that people don't schedule their time. I have to be very very clear. It's very weird that people don't schedule their time, schedule their tasks. This is going to sound preposterous to some of you, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Why? Because if you don't schedule your time, and don't give me the, "Oh, I already know what I'm what I've dedicated myself into and whatever." Sure, that's fine. But if you don't schedule your time, you definitely don't have insights on what you need to accomplish that day. That being said, it's going to be very easy to procrastinate. You will invite uh this procrastination monkey to waste your time. And by procrastination monkey, I'm referring to that one TED talk that I definitely do recommend people to watch. Uh but that being said, scheduling your time allows you to do so many things. Number one, it gives you this luxury to do muhas accountability. It gives you this luxury to go through your time and see okay what am I actually spending time on? Am I wasting my time on random BS on random nonsense? Am I spending my time wisely? Am I spending my time doing way too much of one thing that could technically be done in 30 minutes, but I have spent multiple hours on it doing that? And especially with access to all of the tools that we have right now, it's like thanks to the tools that are right under our finger fingertips. Really, not scheduling your time is pretty much a crime. So take advantage of those tools and really really start scheduling your time and schedule your tasks. So that being said, I wanted to go through a four-step framework. A four-step framework to make sure that you have a better understanding of your time. And the fourth one, you have to stick to the fourth step because this is the most important step. Okay? The first one, you set a goal. You set timely goals. Some people set goals for the year. Amazing. That's fine. Try to set weekly goals. I myself, I set daily goals. Alhamdulillah. This took time to build. I'm not saying that I'm doing this perfectly. I am can very very happily tell you that for the past I think 34 or 35 days I have been journaling every single day I have been taking breaks from journaling I mean I've I've had my framework of bullet journaling sometimes and gratitude journaling and all of these things right but I found a system after trying so many systems I found a system that works for me which is daily task goal scheduling or journaling This is the one thing I start my day with and this is the one thing I review before I go to sleep every single day for the past again 34 35 something one month plus right now it is a non-negotiable for me and it is a framework that I recommend and it's even a template that I can share with you and it's super easy actually it's something that you can start with right now if you want to do it on your phone that's fine as long as you're consistent I don't recommen doing it on phone personally. I would recommend doing like pen on paper but you can choose whatever system works for you that's fine. So set your goals. What do you want to achieve? What do you want to achieve in this time period? Number two, break it down to actionable steps. Like for example, I'll tell you a mistake that I made. I had a task to complete my website for the Baraka Blueprint, which is live by the way under barakabloopprint.co. I'll have the link in the show notes and the description as well. Check it out. It's my first website that I built in three days. In three days. I think it took me three days, but it's the first website that I built in three years. Wow. I need to work on my how I phrase things. Okay. It's the first website I built after a three-year break. Goodness, that was a lot. Um, so thinking that I'll have this in my muscle memory and I mean just go through some Web Flow tutorials and that's it. You're going to be good because I've never designed with Web Flow either. So, I had a task one day to finish the website. That's a that's a bad step. I learned to not do this again. Next time I would split it down to landing page, about section, uh, contact, collab, collabs, and so on. Even that was a mistake. What I should have done is I should have split it into actionable tasks. actual tasks that when you complete all of those tasks, you've completed the activity or the milestone or whatever you want to call it. So, step two, after you have your goals, break them down to simple tasks, which takes me to step three. And this is why this method works flawlessly. Schedule each task. Simple. between this time and this time I will be doing this task because it is much easier to estimate the time for a task when it's smaller and bite-size than to do it for a larger activity. There are two ways to do this. You can either schedule specific tasks or you can dedicate a time block depending on your availability that day. If you have blockers like let's say if you have a full-time employment that you need to take care of and you have tasks there that you need to um complete this will definitely take a chunk of your time. If you have other commitments, meetings, um time spent with family, uh a date with your with your wife or husband, I don't know who's listening to this, uh sister, brother. So if you're a sister, a date with your husband. If you're a brother, a date with your wife, schedule that. Schedule all of that as well because this will give you a perfect insight on what how your time bank is looking, how your time budget is looking. And then, like I said, so either schedule specific tasks or schedule a time block for a collective of tasks that you're going to be doing. I personally do the time block. Time block works much better for me. doesn't have to be the same for you. You can do however you please. But having said all of that, so I've given you these three steps. Step number one, understanding your goals. Step number two, or goals. Step number two, break them down into multiple tasks. Step number three, schedule the tasks or time block for a collective of tasks. And step number four, the most important step, respect your time. Really, I mean it. Uh, Brother Muhammad Ganchi from Raising Humans, a collaboration that I've done recently with his podcast. Amazing podcast, by the way. I highly recommend checking it out. We talked about this in the Baraka Blueprint podcast in an episode that is coming shortly, inshallah. We talked about the importance of scheduling, journaling, writing down your tasks like this particular activity, the the documentational habit of some of of a person. He gave me two analogies that I want to share with you. The first analogy he gave me was he gave me an example of two drawings and he had his notebook with him where he was taking notes. On the one hand, he had this scribble that is very weird and in the other one he had lines and he said those two are the same but one is tangled and confusing and the other is clear. The clear picture is the one that is easier to follow to Dubai. And this will this will help you work with it so much easier than a tangled little blob. And the second analogy that he gave me and I think this one is very relatable is if let's say let me give an example to let's say you and your friend are going to the gym you have scheduled specific time with your friend to go you wake up super early and suddenly while you're at the gym and you're waiting for your friend he just calls you and says ah I'm not going to come just without explaining anything and let's Say he does that three, four times in a row. Number one, would you feel respected? And number two, would you respect that person? Answer is no. If you don't respect that person, what are you going to do? You're going to stop hanging out with them. They reach out to you, you're not going to respond maybe, or you're just going to be just not going to prioritize their time as they haven't prioritized yours, rightfully so. So then the question is why do we do that to ourselves right? Why do we keep doing that to ourselves? Why do we keep postponing on ourselves not respect our time bail in the last second or even sometimes don't we don't have the courtesy to say anything until half halfway through say oh I was supposed to do this I'm not going to do it. What does that tell you about yourself? What does that tell you about your time? So, if you don't respect your time, what are you going to start doing? You're not going to care about achieving those goals. You're not going to care care about achieving whatever deadline. That's very dangerous. That's very, very dangerous. Imagine we had that mentality and mindset when it comes to our money. Wasting money hurts. So, I mean, I'm imagining you're not going to throw your money on everything. Even those of you that like overspend and like have everyone has impulse purchases. Let's not kid ourselves. But those that have like a tendency to over overspend on their impulse purchases way too many times a week. Even those of you, if there is any one of you that are listening to this, first of all, buy me something. I'm joking. Nope. spend some of that my way. Uh but secondly also you would understand me when I say you wouldn't just throw your money you because you would have a justification for your impulse purchase be it a perfume I I do that on perfumes um be it on anything else sneakers whatever you would have an explanation but you wouldn't just throw your money out on like outside in the street or in the pool or just burning them you wouldn't you would never do that to your funds so why do we do that to some to to a resource that is much more valuable and powerful which is time because time can help you acquire that f that money. Time can help you acquire that status or success. So why do we waste a resource that is so valuable? Therefore, uh I want to end this episode with a reminder with a reminder from the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam where he said there are going to be five things that you're going to be asked about take advantage of five before they leave you. Uh one of them was for example uh and your youth before your old age of weakness. But one of them is take advantage of your free time before you are occupied. So, for example, those of you who are yet to get married, well, you should still I mean, if if if you're serious about marriage and you're still looking for a spouse or a partner, continue doing that. Yes, may Allah grant you uh righteous spouses and partners and righteous families and households. But while you're doing that, make sure to utilize your time and use that advantageously. Open up your business. Start that e-commerce brand that you always wanted to start, whatever that you wanted to get yourself into. Those of you who are married and don't have kids yet, again, same thing. Utilize that time and your free time before it gets occupied. Utilize that. Why? Because Allah subhana t will ask you about that as well. What have you done with your time? How you have been given this blessing of time? What have you done with it? Seriously, what have you achieved with it? Just like you'll be asked about your money, just like you'll be asked about your health, your your your your physical capabilities. What have you done with that? Have you sinned? Have you used it to sin? Have you used it to disobey Allah subhana ta? Or have you used it for the exact opposite? Have you used it for iada? So let's take this very serious step to have to to honor our calendars like they are personal contracts. Okay? Let's honor it like a personal contract. Let's see this as a promise to ourselves. Every single week per minimum, it should be every day, but every week per minimum, have weekly goals. break them down to tasks, schedule them, and respect your time. And I ask Allah subhana t to shower you with mercy, success, health, and wealth. That being said, thank you so much for tuning in to the Baraka Blueprint podcast. Remember to like, share, uh have the bell notifications turned on to be notified for every video that is going to be posted for in the BCAP blueprint podcast. If you enjoy it and if you find it valuable, remember to leave a review on Spotify. Leave me some feedback in the comments so I know what I can do to better perform and better provide you value as you deserve the best possible value. I'm spending time on this so it better be with value. If I'm doing something that is not valuable or saying something that is not valuable or not talking about something enough, I want to hear it. Give me your honest constructive feedback and help build the Baraka Blueprint. I also have the Hijra Hackers School community where you have the chance to be a founder free of charge of the Baraka Blueprint podcast where in return you get the project manager framework on how you can project manage your life. Scheduling your time is one way of project managing your life. So let me let me help you with that and let the community help you with that by joining the HRA hacker school community. The link is in the description and the show notes. I also have my education course free of charge called the HRA or the Hijra blueprint, the 5day hijra blueprint at startyouhra.com. I repeat, startyoura.com. That being said, remember to stay faithful, focused, focus on your mission and build towards it consistently and in Baraka style. Asalamu alaykum.