Productivity

Jul

2017

Why vacations are crucial for productivity

Do vacations make you feel guilty?

Many of us feel guilty to take vacations. After learning time management and personal productivity, we feel like we need to be constantly working on something. It doesn’t help when we see some successful people boasting about how they never took a day off in 25 years. All of this adds to our guilt.

I too used to feel this way until I learned something very important: these folk are the exception, not the norm.

The average person needs regular breaks in order to function at 100%. This includes daily breaks, weekly days off, and at least once or twice a year, a proper vacation.

5 Benefits of taking a Vacation

Vacations are not a waste of time if done properly. A proper vacation will benefit you in the following ways: (and more)

1. They reduce stress

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of a vacation is that your stress levels are reduced significantly. Being away from the usual stresses of life gives you an opportunity to rebuild, recover, and relax. All helping you get back to your chaotic life with a healthy mind.

2. They increase happiness

A proper vacation increases happiness multiple times over. being away from your usual routine, seeing the world, and trying new things (and new food) all help to increase your happiness and overall well being.

3. They improve your health

With reduced stress and increased happiness comes improved health. Particularly, the health of your heart. Studies have shown that a good vacation reduces the chance of heart disease. This makes sense as stress is a major cause of heart problems, and vacations greatly reduce stress.

4. They help you rethink your goals and vision

One of my personal favorite benefits of a vacation is that it gives me time to reflect on my goals and vision from afar. Away from stress, business, responsibilities, and daily problems, I have more time and clarity of mind to rethink, reorganize and restructure my goals for the coming year.

In fact, I believe the final day of a vacation is probably the best time of the year to sit and organize your goals for the coming year.

5. They recharge your energy levels

Whenever I feel my energy levels dipping, I take it as my body’s natural warning that I need a vacation. Vacations are like sleep and days off, but longer. They allow your body to rest from an entire year’s worth of hard work. This allows you to return to work refreshed, recovered, and recharged.

This is why an intelligent manager will encourage their employees to take vacations when they are not operating at 100%. Because they understand the value of keeping their employees healthy, energized and focused.

You will notice that all five of these things are crucial for productivity. This is why I firmly believe that vacations are crucial for productivity.

In Part Two, we discuss tips on how to gain these benefits from a vacation.
Access Part Two here.

Mar

2017

6 Ways To Learn Something New Every Day – Infographic

Mar

2017

Podcast Interview with Productive Muslim

Check out this podcast interview with Productive Muslim with Islamic Self Help’s Founder Shaykh Ismail Kamdar.

In this interview, Productive Muslim discusses the productivity habits of Shaykh Ismail. Topics covered include:

How to discover your interest and use it to benefit the Ummah.
The significance of homeschooling children.
Keeping yourself motivated to be productive and scheduling lazy days.
How to manage stress and deal with a difficult day.
How early marriage leads to productivity.
The importance of making time for self, family, and worship.

You can listen to the interview here: http://productivemuslim.com/interview-with-ismail-kamdar/

Show Notes from the Podcast website

Sh Ismail Kamdar joins us from Durban, South Africa. He is the senior lecturer and faculty manager of the Islamic Online University, the founder of Islamic Self Help and a radio presenter at Al Ansaar foundation. And He is also a homeschooling father of 4 children and has authored over 6 titles, in the areas of Islam, personal development, and homeschooling. He published his first book at the age of 23.

Sh Ismail is our guest today for the Productive Muslim Interview, whereby we speak to individuals from all walks of life, get an insight into their productivity and take away lessons we can implement.

In this episode, we speak about:

How to discover your interest and use it to benefit the Ummah.
The significance of homeschooling children.
Keeping yourself motivated to be productive and scheduling lazy days.
How to manage stress and deal with a difficult day.
How early marriage leads to productivity.
The importance of making time for self, family, and worship.

Resources

Connect with Sh Ismail through his website or on Facebook.

Thank You For Listening!

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a review for us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. This helps us get the word out there and in turn, give us the opportunity to benefit more people.

To celebrate our launch if you leave a review on any of these two channels, send us a screenshot and email it to kai (at) productivemuslim.com. We will send you an exclusive Productive Muslim Academy gift.

Oct

2016

4 Personal Development Lessons from Surah Duha

Lessons from Surah Duha

Surah Duha is considered one of the earliest Surahs to be revealed in Makkah. It was revealed at a time which the Prophet (pbuh) faced great emotional stress regarding the future of Islam. The core theme of this Surah is one of hope and optimism. This makes it an excellent Surah to analyze for personal development lessons.

Translation of Surah Duha

By the morning light
And by the night when it darkens
Your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased
And what is to come is better for you than what has passed
And soon Your Lord will give you and you will be pleased
Did He not find you an orphan, and He gave you a family?
And He found you wondering, and granted you guidance
And He found you in need, and enriched you
So as for the orphan, do not mistreat him
And as for the beggar, do not repel him
And as for the blessings of your Lord, then proclaim

Lesson One: Be Optimistic

This is the core theme of this Surah and as such, it is the primary lesson of this Surah. As Muslims, our approach to life must be one of optimism. We are not meant to be a pessimistic people. Rather, we must live our lives with hope in Allah’s Assistance and Mercy.

Every project we undertake must be fueled by optimism and hope. We must trust that Allah will help us eventually, if we are sincere and if the project is beneficial for the ummah. It is this attitude that should drive us forward.

Lesson Two: Be Grateful

In order to maintain optimism, this Surah also reminds us of the times in the past when Allah assisted His Messenger (peace be upon him). In our own lives too, there are many times in the past when Allah granted us success and turned around a bad situation.

We must reflect on such times, be grateful for them, and use them as further motivation to maintain optimism that Allah will continue to assist us moving forward.

Lesson Three: Be Charitable

A believer’s goals are not selfish and materialistic. Our goals should revolve around the ummah, and one way to build this is to become people of generosity. Generosity fuels the Muslim world and causes everybody to grow. The generous person is blessed by Allah, and his wealth multiples because of it. The one who receives the charity also is blessed and now has some money to move his own life forward.

Charity is a Win/Win situation. Everybody benefits and everybody grows. This is what believers should may for. We must avoid paths and goals that make us selfish and materialistic. Our focus must remain on serving others, and that begins by being generous.

Lesson Four: Contribute to society

Generosity must lead to an ummah-centric personality. A Muslim’s goals should be goals that uplift and benefit the ummah. Every project should aim at benefiting others. If our primary goal is to assist the ummah, then Allah will put Barakah in our efforts, businesses, wealth and time. Service should drive us forward, as we are one ummah and we all want to see this ummah rise up in greatness again.

Bringing it all together

Be positive about the future, remember Allah’s blessings on you in the past, be generous and serve the ummah. These are some of the lessons we can extract from Surah Duha, and these concepts will drive us forward with Ihsaan (excellence) as an ummah.

For more Tafseer, check out our eBook below:

Buy Now

Aug

2016

The Paradox Of Working Smarter

By Sarah Masud

“His command is only when He intends a thing, He says to it “Be”, and it is.”
(Surah Yaseen 36:82)

Nothing is impossible for Allah. If he wished he could have established Islam by saying ‘Be’. If he willed he could have had every person be born as an obedient Muslim. Yet it was Allah’s plan that things should take their natural course. From Prophet Adam (pbuh) to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), many generations passed. Many civilizations came up, and were destroyed.

So many prophets and messengers appeared through the course of establishment of Islam, not one without a story of struggle and patience. Pondering upon this fact made me wonder. If someone of utmost supremacy did not apply any shortcuts to establish His religion, then what makes us, the humans, think that we can take shortcuts to success. Haughtiness and stupidity, I guess.

The phrase ‘work smarter, not harder’ has become the anthem for today’s generation. Some of us are ready to gamble money in lottery to become rich overnight. Others are willing to take unapproved medicine to lose fat, without any exercise. We are fooling ourselves in the alchemy of success, without investing an iota of time on self improvement. We have become a short sighted generation, focused on instant gratification.

But these shortcuts to success are momentary. They in turn cut short our chances of success, depriving us of a lifetime of achievements and contentment. These shortcuts to success bring more harm than good. They are a digression from the path of righteous. And who does greater wrong to himself, than he who digresses and is led astray by the Satan.

Working Hard and Smart

Working smarter cannot be a substitute for hard work. These two aspects are not antithesis of each other. In fact, they are complimentary. One has to work hard to achieve success. It is only during those years of earnest hard work does one realize his strengths and weakness, leaving room for improvement. It takes years to learn the tricks of any trade, and become smart. In short, you first work hard to attain smartness, and then work hard to sustain that smartness.

Learning to be smart at work is like a return on investment on the hard work you put in. The more you work hard, the smarter your working becomes. So stop roaming the blind alleys of shortcuts. Be smart, and work hard.

“And that there is not for man except that [good] for which he strives, and that his effort is going to be seen. Then he will be recompensed for it with the fullest recompense.”
Surah An-Najm 53:39-41

About the author: Sarah Masud is a Data Science intern at Red Hat Inc. She loves to read and write in her spare time.

Productivity

Why vacations are crucial for productivity

Do vacations make you feel guilty?