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Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity

November 23, 2010 Abu Productive
An old friend of mine once said to me, Theres a myth thats going around these days, the myth says: If you can manage your time, you can do anything!. Four years from hearing this advice, I dont believe its a myth anymore. We all hear about time management and its importance, and people shout at us from time to time that we should time manage properly, but rarely do we hear a concise methodology of how to time manage! In order to understand how to time manage, you firstly need to understand what time management is about. Time management is not about managing your time, because technically, you cannot manage something you have no control over! (Can you stop, start time?!) Time management is simply managing yourself in a way that makes use of the time sphere were in. So how exactly do we that? Peter Drucker, author of the famous book The Effective Executive (Highly recommended reading)), recommends three steps to managing your time, and he actually calls the chapter that deals with this: Know thy time: 1. Analyze your time. 2. Cut back unproductive demands. 3. Aim to complete tasks in large chunks of time. So lets get into more details of how to follow the above three steps (adding the usual ProductiveMuslim Islamic twist to it ;)).

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Analyze your time:

Record your time over a course of at least a week. Ill be honest here, itll take a strong stomach to realise how much time we waste in a course of a week. But being truthful to oneself is the first step to remedy. There are 2 ways to record your time: 1. Keep a diary with you recording what you do each hour 2. Ask your friend/flat-mate/spouse to analyze your time, (as we tend to be nice to ourselves when we record our own time, and end up cheating)

Cut back unproductive demands:

Hopefully, after recording our time, a sad realization would dawn upon us, and that is, theres a lot we can cut down from. e.g. do we really need to spend that hour in the cafe in the morning, or is it just better to make some coffee at home and read e-mails at the same time? Do we really need to spend 2 hour everyday just flicking through TV channels or internet sites or can we cut down from that time? (Note: please please dont cut back from time for Allah! Some people in order to save time, will not go to the mosque to pray for example, thats not an unproductive demand to cut down on, thats an essential demand which we better keep, so please dont touch the religious stuff, were already guilty of not giving enough time to them, lets not use this excuse to make it worse!

Aim to complete tasks in large chunks of time:

Isnt it annoying when you are working on something so hard and you got really into it (sometimes

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

called being in The Zone) to be interrupted by a phone call or an e-mail alert or text?! This third tip basically says that you should try to block time off in large chunks of time, (some people suggest that 90 minutes is the maximum they can concentrate at one time, but thats 90 minutes of uninterrupted time). This technique will help you achieve much more by doing less, simply because youre more focused at one task at a time. Doing one task in one hour, will end up taking you 4 hours if you are interrupted every 10-15 minutes. To help you block your time, refer to our Daily Taskinator. Well, thats all for today. Hope this gives you a better understanding of how to turn the myth of time management into reality.

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48 thoughts on Analyze your time Your key to productivity

October 24, 2008 at 9:08 pm This is a skill i have always struggled with year in year out, how to effectively manage my time properly, the book you mentioned above is excellent read indeed by Peter Drucker, here are a few of his quotes "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all" "Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed" "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes but no plans"

Sumayyah Ali

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November 24, 2010 at 3:46 am JazaakumuLLAH khayran, I love this sites mashaALLAHthanks for sharing such important issue. Cut back unproductive demands really touchieonce again jazaakumuLLAH khayran

Aditia A. Pratama

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November 24, 2010 at 4:47 am Really good article for time management. Time management is simply managing yourself in a way that makes use of the time sphere were in. is the one live summary of whole article.

Jawad Mohummed Rafiq

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November 24, 2010 at 8:51 am jazakom Allah khyran .. really good tips, but the link to the daily taskinator is broken

Sara

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November 24, 2010 at 8:51 am jazakom Allah khyran .. really good tips, but the link to the daily taskinator is broken

Sara

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November 24, 2010 at 1:56 pm Wa iyya kum. The link has been fixed.

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Abu Productive Reply

Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

November 24, 2010 at 8:51 am jazakom Allah khyran .. really good tips, but the link to the daily taskinator is broken

Sara

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November 25, 2010 at 7:51 am masyaAllah. I really love this site. Ive been a fan of productivity sites like Lifehacker and ZenHabits, now theres one specifically for Muslims. Im very happy. I really hope this site will continue to grow and provide useful information to us all. thank you.

dyanna

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March 24, 2012 at 5:07 pm @635697a3da994dc53158ebda0a9c058d:disqus BarakaAllah feekum. Do share!

productivemuslim

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December 28, 2010 at 8:23 am Thanx guys, this site is AMAZING!!! :-)

zineb

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December 31, 2010 at 8:14 pm Barak Allah fikom!!! Thank you very much!!!

Jazijezia

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January 5, 2011 at 11:15 am thanks alot thats exactly what i needed in this critical exams period

pakinam

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January 29, 2011 at 6:59 pm Good Effort ! JazakAllah

Yasir

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity The

February 4, 2011 at 7:41 am [...] via Analyze your time Your key to productivity. [...]

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity BASIC FACTS

February 18, 2011 at 6:30 pm [...] by ProductiveMuslimView Comments [...]

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March 2, 2011 at 8:46 am

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

thank you, JazakAllah Khair. Im a gap year student, and I keep killing time for no reason. :( Awesome site, btw.

Sabs48

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March 24, 2011 at 11:15 pm Ive been looking for guidance and this site really gives a lot of tips and advice. i cant thank you guys enough. may Allah bless all of you

'Muzhaffar Aziz

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March 24, 2011 at 11:15 pm Ive been looking for guidance and this site really gives a lot of tips and advice. i cant thank you guys enough. may Allah bless all of you

'Muzhaffar Aziz

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March 30, 2011 at 9:13 am Thanks for this post brother. The best part was the inclusion of Praying to Allah as one of our main priority and not to take it as an excuse for saving time, which a lot of people do nowadays. May Allah help us do equally well for the Deen as well the Duniya. (Note: Deen comes first!!!)

Zuber

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March 31, 2011 at 2:40 pm beautiful :)

Sabs48

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5 Ways to Save Time The Way of Life

May 8, 2011 at 4:03 am [...] For more: http://www.productivemuslim.com/analyze-your-time-your-keyto-productivity/ [...]

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May 8, 2011 at 12:17 pm Thank You so Much that was realy helpfully

masterpirat50

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May 25, 2011 at 5:38 pm great selection of articles .. brother & sisters keep the good work

Darwish

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June 17, 2011 at 9:29 pm thats not an unproductive demand to cut down on, thats an essential demand which we better keep

Hassan

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June 19, 2011 at 11:06 pm Jazakom Allah Khair . . Its a marvelous website . . You brothers and sisters,

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Sherif
keep the good work . .

Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

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June 27, 2011 at 1:16 pm Very nice article. I sincerely beileve that if you can manage your time, you can do anything. And I think that managing time is a difficult task. Its not simply about allocating tasks, you must also take many other things into consideration. I, myself, had to create a tool to manage my time because I had difficulty finding something that fitted my needs.a

suyash sumaroo

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July 12, 2011 at 11:07 am Please put print buttons on every article

adeel

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July 18, 2011 at 2:01 am Adeel Under every article, in the Enjoy this article? Share it! section we have a print icon.

Anonymous

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September 25, 2011 at 12:01 pm MashaAllah :) even tho one have read much abt time management but it feels more amazingly new when u connect it with our beautiful Deen :))

Ethar

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January 10, 2012 at 10:20 am Assalamualaikum Jazakumullahu khayran katheera. Its true. I was not a person who used to plan what to do, allocate time for things or keep record for I did. But after doing time analysis for academic semesters last year, I then realise how poor I was as a time manager. I estimated my time for activities during semester on a week basis. Shockingly, sleeping (about 7 hours per night) took almost 1/3 of the pie chart. Maybe because when sleeping, didnt realise that time did not stop moving. Adding to the list were time for religion, university, house chores etc. Its true. Time is life. Wasting time is indeed wasting ones life. Jazakumullahu khayran katheera once again. May Allah bless your good effort.

A Muhd

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August 28, 2013 at 2:04 pm could please tell me how to make a plan for studies.

Zakir Hussain

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January 18, 2012 at 4:30 pm Salam alaikum, Any tips on how to keep track of our time? Id love an article reviewing time tracking apps/devices! Wassalam, Callista

Callista Ransom

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January 18, 2012 at 4:33 pm Wa alaikum assalam Sr.Callista, good to hear from you again. Thats a great idea, well do that inshaAllah. Ive had my fair share with some of these apps

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Anonymous
:S.

Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

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January 22, 2012 at 6:19 pm Great! Thanks so much, I look forward to it inshaAllah. :) PS It wont let me sign in through fb for some reason I just keep getting an error occurred

Callista Ransom

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February 14, 2012 at 8:34 am Jasak allah khir for this article there are so much great advice. I just would like to know if it possible to synchronise the daily taskinator with Mac or android phone ? Thank you

Sarah

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April 23, 2012 at 9:52 am Very nice article!

Arif Misirci

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5 Ways to Save Time | Preston International College

May 22, 2012 at 10:03 am [...] more: http://www.productivemuslim.com/analyze-your-time-your-key-toproductivity/ This entry was posted in Personality Development. Bookmark the permalink. Lumatul [...]

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June 18, 2012 at 3:28 am articles in relation to productivity and in Islamic light is very important. i am very fortunate to have met this website through generous sharings on facebook. i pray that this website will stay strong, illuminating muslims to the right path with Quran and Sunnah.. insya Allah

Nurul Dahlya

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July 4, 2012 at 6:02 am Subhanallah, very beneficial article, thanks brother. Hopefully, every muslim in this world realize this. You have remind me how important time is.

Denny

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July 10, 2012 at 3:40 am masyaALLAH keep on ikhlas lillah abu producitve, may ALLAH bless you hugely on this great work barakallahu feekum, dunya wal akhira

M Affiq Kamaruzaman

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July 12, 2012 at 12:03 am In fact it is an important speech.. thanks because u reminded us with such an important element of life.. it is the life itself.

Eptehal

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July 15, 2012 at 10:41 am

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

Nice explanation about Time management

July 15, 2012 at 10:44 am Dear Abu productive, Well you are doing good work for us i also want to do work with you so how can i help you ?

Abdul Rehman

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July 15, 2012 at 6:25 pm @facebook-100002866937434:disqus - Send us an email to productiveMuslim @ gmail . com with your skills/ interests. We will let you know if / when we have a vacancy insha Allah

Productive Ramadan

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July 21, 2012 at 2:39 am Jazak Allah khir for this article there are so much great advice. :))BarakaAllah feekum:))

Rabia'tul Adawiyah Al-Faqih Al

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July 21, 2012 at 2:39 am Jazak Allah khir for this article there are so much great advice. :))BarakaAllah feekum:))

Rabia'tul Adawiyah Al-Faqih Al

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February 3, 2013 at 2:38 pm Mashallah, this is a great website I only wish I came across it years backcant help but think I would have wasted a lot of time!

nimsy123@hotmail.com Reply

February 3, 2013 at 2:40 pm please moderator remove my email address from the last post, I didnt think my email address would show up

Salam

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Analyze your time Your key to productivity - Productive Muslim

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