Ismail Kamdar

Ismail Kamdar is the Founder of Islamic Self Help and Izzah Academy, author of over a dozen books, and the operations manager of Yaqeen Institute.
Ismail Kamdar is the Founder of Islamic Self Help and Izzah Academy, author of over a dozen books, and the operations manager of Yaqeen Institute.
18
May
2015
Time Management for Bad Days

Time Management for Bad Days

Time Management for bad days

You know those happy days when everything is going your way, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and you are just really energized, excited and able to get things done? Yeah, well this article isn’t about those days. This is as the title says, an article about time management for bad days.

Time Management can be rather easy on a good day once you have learned the basics and established good habits. The real test though is remaining productive on days when things just aren’t going your way, and that’s what this article is about.

Here are five things I recommend doing to remain productive on days when you just want to close the curtains and curl up in bed (or rip up your manuscripts and howl at the moon):

1. Figure out the most important tasks for the day and just get them done

If you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, it is highly unlikely that you are going to conquer the moon today while writing a best-selling novel, restoring peace between two nations and saving some innocent bystanders in the process. (Although it is all still possible even on the gloomiest of days)

Most likely, if you are in a bad mood, you are going to get less done than usual so best make sure that the important stuff gets done first. Look at your daily To-Do List, identify the three most important tasks that will make you feel accomplished by the time the sun sets, and get those three things done. Even if you are unable to accomplish anything else that day, this alone will give you a reason to relax and enjoy your evening coffee with a clear conscious.

2. Schedule some Downtime  

If your body is feeling agitated, irritated and simply off, it could be an internal sign that you need to relax and recharge. Do yourself a favor and schedule in some downtime, make time for yourself. Read a fun book, have coffee with your funniest friend at your favorite hangout, sit back with your legs up on the table and close your eyes. Don’t feel guilty to take time to relax, you are not wasting time or being unproductive, you are just recharging your energy so that you can do much more in less time.

3. Downsize your work load 

Besides your three main tasks, in order to get things done when down with the Monday blues, try halving your workload. For example, if you usually write 8 pages a day, commit to writing just 4 pages on such a day. If you usually make 10 sales a day, commit to just getting 5 sales done. Many of us just feel like doing nothing and end up wasting the entire day. Committing to doing less actually helps you get things done on such days. Don’t feel guilty about setting a smaller goal for such a day, it’s better than getting nothing done because you were in a bad mood.

4. Avoid Negative people like a plague

If you have an appointment with someone who is difficult to deal with, you may want to consider rescheduling. On days when you are ready to snap, you really don’t want to be walking into a hostile situation and end up losing it. On such days, it’s better to just close your office door and work alone…for the safety of others, of course.

5. Overdose on sources of inspiration

If you are like me, you probably have a PC loaded with inspirational quotes, videos, audios and pictures. Well if you are having a bad day, you will need to probably need the entire collection. Read your quotes collection, watch the inspiration videos, look at the pictures of your goals and pump yourself up to get things done, no matter how bad the day gets. Personally, I choose to recite extra Qur’an on days when I am feeling down and reflect on the meanings, as it calms me down and gives me hope. You should try it too.

Do all of this and I’m sure your irritating days can remain productive. Maybe not as productive as usual, but productive enough.

(Written on one of those days)

Learn more about how to manage your time effectively with our exclusive best selling eBook Getting The Barakah: An Islamic Guide to Time Management. Hundreds of readers have radically improved their Time Management with this eBook. Now it is your turn!

Getting The Barakah: An Islamic Guide

 

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Time Management
15
May
2015
Q&A About Getting The Barakah

Q&A About Getting The Barakah

Q&A About Getting The Barakah Time Management eBook

The following questions were asked to Shaykh Ismail Kamdar, author of Getting The Barakah and founder of Islamic Self Help.

Q: How do you deal with writer’s block?

A: I set a daily time for writing (1 Hour) and force myself to write during that time whether I am in the mood to write or not. If I have writer’s block on a specific topic, I write about something else.

Alternatively, I make a mind-map about the topic and it helps stimulate my thoughts and generate more content to write about.

Q: What’s the best thing about being a writer?

A: The best part about being an author is being able to do what I love most (writing) in a way that benefits people. Anytime love for something meets benefit for society, you have a Win/Win situation, and that is what writing is for me, I win by doing what I love and the readers win by getting something interesting to read.

Q: What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

A: Have a clear goal and vision, know why you are writing and what you hope to accomplish through writing and make sure everything you write is working towards that goal.

For me the goal is simple: to make this world a better place than I found it, and I believe inspirational writings go a long way towards reforming the world.

If you are serious about writing a book, then hold yourself responsible to do so. Make time daily to write, set clear deadlines and stick to them. It is very easy to get distracted by the internet and many other things, so having clear goals, dedicated time and a set deadline keeps us on track.

Q: What are you currently working on?

A: I have a book on Self-Confidence coming out in July 2015, inshaa Allah.

After that, I am working on two more Self-help books, a couple of fictional novels and a long series of Islamic books. I hope to publish at least 10 more books over the next four years, inshaa Allah.

Q: How do you get inspired to write?

A: Anytime I find a problem in society, my mind races to find solutions. Those solutions form the basis for any book or article I write.

In short, people’s problems are my inspirations since I want to help solve them.

Q: Where did you get the title for your latest book “Getting The Barakah” from?

A: I was struggling to come up with a decent title for the book for a long time. I tried brainstorming, mind-mapping, writing anything that comes to mind, but nothing really good came to my mind. Then one morning, Alhamdulillah, while exercising the title literally popped into my head and I ran back to my PC, wrote it down and realized that’s the title I was looking for!

Q: Why write a book on time management when there are so many other issues that Muslims need to talk about?

A: Islam teaches us to value time and make the best usage of our time. Yet, many Muslims are late for everything and rushing around complaining that they don’t have time to get things done. This book was written to help people make time for what is important including Salah and reciting Qur’an and to utilize their time productively. This is something that I believe every Muslim can benefit from in both worlds.

If you have any questions regarding the book, ask below in the comments section.

Getting The Barakah is currently available for purchase here.

Getting The Barakah Time Management eBook

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Books, Time Management
11
May
2015
10 Time Management Tips for Ramadan – Part 3

10 Time Management Tips for Ramadan – Part 3

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

This is Part 3 of my series on Time Management for Ramadan, click the above link if you haven’t read Part 1 or 2 yet.

8. Avoid Multi-Tasking

This is a general time management tip that applies outside Ramadan as well. In my book “Getting the Barakah” I have the following to say about multi-tasking:

Recent studies have proven that multi-tasking actually slows down productivity and causes sloppy work. When we multi-task, our brains are unable to give any task full attention and as a result, we end up with not much to show for it.


Modern time management experts all agree that focusing on one task at a time gets the task done faster with better quality than multi-tasking. If you are talking to someone, stop everything else you are doing and give them your full attention. If you are writing a book, close everything else and focus on the book and nothing else. If you are preparing for a meeting, focus on that alone and nothing else.


Do this and you fill find yourself accomplishing the task in record time and producing really high quality work too. Then you will still have plenty of time for all the other things you were supposed to do while multi-tasking. (Getting The Barakah, p. 84)

The way this applies to Ramadan is that for each goal, take out time to focus on it and devote proper attention to it. Don’t try to recite Qur’an, while browsing through Facebook and taking care of a child all at the same time. You are unlikely to benefit from a Qur’anic recital unless you are giving it your full attention. The same applies to studying Tafsir or making dua. Choose a place, time and situation in which you will have the least distractions and give the act of worship your undivided focus. This is why I recommend doing the acts of worship during the early parts of the morning, as it is the time when life is least busy and the mind less cluttered.

9. Fast from excessive socializing

This includes both social media and physical socialization. Ramadan is the month of Itikaf, one of the goals of Itikaf is to take a break from our social lives so that we can focus on our relationship with Allah. Even if you are unable to make Itikaf, you can still get this benefit in Ramadan by cutting down on socializing and dedicating more time to Ibaadah. Attend a few less Iftaar parties, log into Facebook and Twitter for shorter durations and excuse yourself from unnecessary gatherings. Doing this will free up more time for worshipping Allah.

10. Stay Healthy

You cannot accomplish your goals if you are feeling lazy, weak, agitated or sleep-deprived. Some of us do too much during the first few days of Ramadan and end up without any energy to push on for the remainder of Ramadan. Don’t let this happen to you this year. Pace yourself and take care of your body by getting enough sleep, eating healthy and staying hydrated.

The average person needs between 6-8 hours sleep a night, so make sure you are getting it, even if it means going to bed a bit earlier. Avoid sugary and oily foods and eat wholesome foods for both Suhoor and Iftaar. Research the types of food that give more energy and consume more of those. Drink a lot of water at night before bed as that will keep you hydrated during the day.

Staying healthy includes taking care of our emotional health, but I will tackle that topic in details in a separate article inshaa Allah. 

This concludes my list of time management tips for making Ramadan 2015 productive and beneficial. If you have any more tips on this topic, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Shaykh Ismail Kamdar is the author of Getting The Barakah: An Islamic Guide to Time Management, available exclusively via this link.

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PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

Ramadan 2015

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Time Management
09
May
2015

Exclusive Preview: Getting The Barakah An Islamic Guide To Time Management

The following is an extract from my book
Getting The Barakah An Islamic Guide to Time Management, now available for download!

Getting The Barakah An Islamic Guide To Time Management

Common Distractions and their dangers

The Email Trap

Schedule specific times of the day for checking emails and social media and for receiving and making phone calls.

Many of us make the mistake of checking our phones, PDAs or PCs at every notification. We want to read every email as soon as we receive it and this is multiplied if you have multiple inboxes and accounts.

There are two major problems that come from this. The first is that it can literally take up your entire day. Every time you are settling into a task, you receive a notification and feel the need to check it out and often reply to it. If you add up the amount of minutes you spend doing this daily, it is literally hours.

The solution is to regulate your communication work into batches. By setting specific times of the day to check each inbox, you will save time in multiple ways:

  1. You will be looking at all of the emails at one time so it does not interrupt other work, and that helps increase the quality of the other work.
  2. You can answer each email faster as it is the task you are focused on in the moment
  3. If multiple emails require similar responses, you can utilize the copy/paste function to save even more time.

It is equally important to decide what time of the days you check your email. A common mistake we make is to check our email at the start of the day. The problem with this is that it dulls the mind as answering email can be a very boring part of your job, and doing so makes it difficult to revive your mental faculties for more creative work later.

Furthermore, if any email contains information that is going to stress you out or affect your mood, it is now going to affect your entire day.

A recent study shows that many of the most efficient people in the world only check their emails around midday. This allows them to get all of their most creative and important work done in the early mornings while their minds are still fresh, and all their emails get answered anyway but without affecting the rest of the workload.

So there are essential two ways to optimize email work:

  1. Work in batches
  2. Answer emails late in the day

The Phone Trap

In addition to emails, today are SMSs, phone calls, voicemail, regular mail, social media notifications, etc. You need to resist the urge to take a call or check your phone at every notification. Instead, close all social media sites and switch your phone to silent while working on important projects. Then check your phone and social media for five minutes every hour.

You will notice that the world did not come to an end in those 55 minutes that you were offline. Instead, you able to get quality work done, and still have enough time to respond to all notifications during those five-minute intervals.

You can also use other methods to get around this. If you can afford to, hire a secretary to take your phone calls and give you a list of phone calls that you need to return at the end of the day. You can also activate Voicemail and just check your voicemail every few hours to find out which calls need to be returned.

Furthermore, when taking a call, do not lose track of time or get lost in unnecessary conversations. Inform the other person that you have five minutes to speak (or whatever you feel is right for that specific call) and then you need to get back to work. This will encourage them to summarize what they need to discuss and will save you a lot of valuable time that is wasted in unnecessary discussion.

Personally, I try to limit conversations by informing people that my preferred medium of communication is email and that they are more likely to get a detailed response to an email, than with a phone call. This way, once people understand this, the number of phone calls you receive is reduced and you will deal with more emails instead. This is actually better, as emails are usually to be point and do not include the amount of unnecessary conversation you will have to deal with during a phone call.

Extract from Getting The Barakah An Islamic Guide to time management, pp. 77-80

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Books, Time Management
09
May
2015

Exclusive Preview: Best Of Creation

The following is an extract from my
Best Of Creation Ebook: An Islamic Guide to Self Confidence, available for purchase here.

Extract from Best Of Creation Ebook:

You Can Do It

Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. “Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, do not burden us with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.”[1]

This is the promise of Allah and it should keep us strong during difficult times. Understand that if AllBest Of Creation Ebookah has sent a specific test into your life, it is because you have the capabilities to deal with it and pass it.

Allah would not have given you that specific test unless you were the right person to deal with it and overcome it. Remind yourself of this verse every time you are in a jam. There is no test in your life that you don’t have the ability to pass, and every human has been given the capabilities to be successful in both worlds.

Reflecting on this verse should give you confidence in your ability to overcome your current predicament. Allah chose you for it, because you have what it takes to deal with it, even if you haven’t discovered that yet. This belief should empower us to dig down deep and do our best in every situation.

The Win/Win Formula

The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said:

Amazing is the affair of the believer, verily all of his affair is good and this is not for anybody except the believer. If something good befalls him he is grateful and that is good for him. If something harmful befalls him, he is patient and that is good for him[2]

This Hadith is very powerful in helping us embrace this world with all its flaws. As believers, we must look at everything that happens to us as something good. When things go our way, it is a gift from Allah and we should be grateful to Him for it, and this is good for us in both worlds.

When things don’t go our way, we must be patient, solution-focused and ready to learn some life lessons through the experience, and that too is good for us in both worlds.

This means whatever happens to us in life is good for us, so why fear living. Go out there and make every day count. Be the best you can be. Accomplish whatever you can and be ready to face any setbacks or trials along the way.

There is no reason to sit at home afraid. Doing so won’t hold back the tests but it will hold you back from accomplishing anything worthwhile.

Allah created this world to test us. We are tested with good and with difficulties too. Things are always changing and nothing in this world is constant or eternal. Embrace the nature of this world and you will live a happier life and be able to accomplish more. Do not fear trials, failure or death.

These are all natural parts of our experience in this world and unavoidable. Live each day as if it is your last, but make your plans for doing good deeds being optimistic that you will live a long time. Even if you pass away before accomplishing all your goals, Allah will accept your noble intentions and might even use others to accomplish your goals for you.

[1] Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286

[2] Saheeh Muslim 2999

Extract from Best Of Creation, pp. 56-58, available for purchase here.

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Books, Self Confidence