4 Productivity Hacks to make you feel awesome

Productivity Hacks4 Productivity Hacks to make you feel awesome

Hacks are awesome. They take things you never thought about and give them exciting new usages. Productivity Hacks do the same thing to our daily practices, habits and goals.

I get it.

Setting long term complicated goals can be very difficult. Accomplishing them can be even more difficult. But you don’t need long complicated goals to feel awesome. You just need to accomplish consistent daily goals, even if they are small.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Allah loves deeds that are consistent, even if they are small,” (Sahih Bukhari)

This Hadith applies to good deeds. Small regular good deeds (like reciting Quran for 10 minutes a day) build up to being more rewarding on the Last Day. Compared to once off big good deeds (like reciting entire Quran in one day then not reciting again for a year).

But we can take this same concept and apply it to productivity. Small consistent goals build up over time to help us accomplish more than once off grand gestures.

What do I mean by small goals?

Try these 4 productivity hacks for example!

1. Exercise for 5-10 minutes twice a day

Do you find it hard to exercise?

Do you get tired when thinking about hitting the gym for 30 minutes?

Try this hack instead: exercise at home in 5 minute bursts. And do it every few hours.

5 minutes may seem like too little, but it is better than nothing. And when done consistently, it builds up to a solid hour or so of exercise per week.

Which, lets face it, is far more exercise than you will get sitting at your desk all day. Not only will you feel healthier, but you feel more confidence and productive every time you do this.

2. Listen to a podcast on the way to work

Multi-tasking is not a good idea…most of the time. But there are times when it is an awesome idea.

If you spend a considerable amount of time daily stuck in traffic, why not use that time to educate yourself?

Download a playlist of beneficial audio podcasts and absorb them while driving to work and back. Suddenly, your mundane daily commute is transformed into an awesome educational experience.

Think about it, with just 30 minutes of podcast listening a day, you will gain around 100 hours of education a year! All without allocating any extra time to do it.

3. Batch all 2 Minute Tasks

In a previous article, I mentioned that 2 minutes tasks can be executed immediately to save time. Now here is a way to use this same tip to make yourself feel awesome: batch it!

Say you have 10 two-minute tasks in your to-do list. You actually just need 20-30 minutes to get all these tasks done. So batch them together and set aside 30 minutes to fly through the list.

Congratulations! You just ticked 10 tasks off your To-Do list in 30 minutes! How awesome does that feel?

4. Start your day with a list of mini-tasks

For this one, take the previous hack and start your day with it. For example, I like to start my day with a set of five simple goals. Each goal takes between 2 to 10 minutes to complete. Yet each is crucial for my daily motivation, mood, and productivity.

I like to start my day by flying through these five tasks. That way I start my day on a high note.

Within one hour of starting my day, I have knocked five tasks off my to-do list. And that way I start each day feeling awesome and motivated to take on the bigger tasks on my list.

Try it. Make a list of short, yet important, to-dos. And start your day by getting them all done. That way you begin each day feeling awesome!

To summarize

Our minds want to feel good. Yet often work makes it feel the opposite. You can trick your mind into feeling awesome while working by simply changing the way you work.

These four tips, all small yet powerful, can transform your daily routine. Try adding these to your routine today and experience an increase in awesomeness today!

Read this if you want more tips…

In 2014, I wrote a book dedicated to helping Muslims become more productive.
That book is entitled Getting The Barakah. It has sold 1000s of copies worldwide since.
But it is possible that you haven’t purchased and read it yet.

If so, you need to ask yourself why.
Why would you deny yourself access to all these awesome tools for improving your own self?

Don’t procrastinate any further!

Purchase your copy of Getting The Barakah today by clicking the link below.
Doing so will transform your life in more ways than you can imagine.

Purchase it now, and thank me later. 🙂

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Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Life Hacks, Productivity

6 Crucial Self Confidence Tips

6 Crucial Self Confidence Tips

Here are six crucial self confidence tips. These tips are extracted from my eBook: Best Of Creation: An Islamic Guide To Self-Confidence. To read the full eBook, grab a copy here.

Thinking Straight

The human mind is such that if we are not monitoring our thoughts, we tend to think negatively. Perhaps it is Shaytaan trying to cause us to despair, but the idle mind is a dangerous thing and is often susceptible to negative thought patterns.

The key to overcoming this is to monitor your thoughts and be in charge. Keep a diary for a day of the kind of thoughts that pass through your mind. Mark them down as positive or negative, compare the amount of positive and negative thoughts and identify causes.

Once you are away of your thought patterns and the triggers, the next step is to replace a negative thought with a positive one. If your mind is telling you that Allah will never forgive you, remind yourself that Allah forgives all those who sincerely seek forgiveness. If you are thinking that you will never be successful in life, remind yourself that Allah is in control of destiny and He can help you succeed in miraculous ways.

Make a list of positive thoughts and remind yourself of them daily. For common negative thoughts, write down a positive response and remind yourself of it whenever the negative thought comes to mind. It also helps to look in a mirror and talk confidence into yourself.

It is Allah’s mercy that He does not hold us accountable for the thoughts that stray into our mind, but we are accountable for the thoughts we choose to entertain and act upon. Be an active thinker and don’t leave room for the whisperings of the devil.

Avoid the Blame Game

When developing the habit of positive thinking, it is important to weed out and remove negative thought patterns. A common negative thought pattern that causes low self-confidence is the blame game.

Many of us do not want to accept responsibility for our actions, so we look for something or someone to blame for our failures. This is also known as the victim mentality, were one feels one’s entire life is just being a victim of circumstance. It is a very fatalistic attitude and this unislamic.

Here are some common examples of the blame game in action:

“Society will never accept me if I do, so why bother trying,”

“The world we live in works with a certain system, I can’t try something outside that system,”

“My parents expect me to do this kind of job for the rest of my life, I can’t disappoint them by doing what I want,”

“The world is a bad place and there is nothing we can do about it,”

“I was raised like that, I can’t change who I am or what habits I developed”

“This is the local culture, and there is nothing we can do to change it,”

As you can see from these examples, the blame game creates an attitude of defeatism. Having something or someone to blame for one’s failure to act is easy, and eases some of the guilt one feels for not doing what you needed to do.

As Muslims, we cannot blame others for our shortcomings. Allah has created each of us with the ability to do well, and to be our best. Nobody is to blame for our failure to act except our own selves. We must accept responsibility for our lives and decisions, only then will we feel empowered enough to move forward.

Be Yourself as long as being yourself is Halal

This is my personal motto. I spent my teenage years in a Darul Uloom whose culture was such that everybody was bullied into dressing alike, speaking alike and pretending that we are all the same, stripped of any individuality. This environment made me grow rebellious and I would upset the status quo with small attempts at being different.

As I studied Islam more deeply, I was amazed at how Islam has room for so many different personality types. The companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) were diverse in their personalities. They included scholars, warriors, leaders, businessmen, farmers, strict people, funny people, thinkers and followers.

This led to me formulating my motto: Be yourself as long as being yourself is halal. Allah does not ask us to be robots: looking alike, dressing alike and behaving like we don’t have any unique attributes. At the same time, we all have evil within us that needs to be suppressed, and that part of us should be controlled.

Be yourself. Do not worry about what people say, just be yourself whether that means being strict or humorous. Don’t pretend to be strict because others are, and don’t pretend to be funny because other people want you to.

Let your natural personality flow and you will feel confident and happy. If you need to change anything, change it for the sake of Allah to grow closer to Him. Base your life changes on pleasing Allah, not on pleasing people.

Be your genuine and best self and not only will you grow in confidence but people will appreciate your honesty and courage and will eventually follow in your footsteps.

Write Your Thoughts

Thoughts are very powerful, but often confusing. The human mind is not completely logical. Most of our thoughts and decisions are based more on emotion than logic, and it often isn’t clear whether we are thinking straight.

This can be very dangerous when it comes to negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are often exaggerated, emotional and unrealistic. But because we don’t really analyse them, we tend to believe our own minds too easily. One of the ways to counter this is to write down your thoughts.

This is the reason why many people keep diaries. Writing down your thoughts can be very powerful. It gives you an outlet to get all those thoughts and emotions out of your mind without hurting anyone else. It also gives you a chance to look at your thoughts from an outside perspective and analyse them in an unbiased manner.

The next time you have negative thoughts, try writing them down. Write whatever comes to mind, and read it later when you are in a better mood. You will then be able to discover what went wrong in your thought process and how untrue most negative thoughts really are.

Be in charge of your emotions

Humans are emotional creatures, and our emotions affect our confidence and productivity a lot. This is why it is important to constantly stay in control and feed yourself positive emotions.

Sometimes we allow others to control our emotions. We allow people to make us angry, to upset us, to depress us, to irritate us and as a result we head down an emotional roller coaster because of what someone else said.

Reality is that nobody can make you do anything, because you control your emotions. People can do what they want, but you choose how you react. You don’t have to become angry when someone insults you, you can choose to feel sorry for him instead. He must be having a hard day and took it out on you. You don’t have to be depressed if someone is not happy with how you live your life. You answer to Allah, not that person, so why worry?

Emotions affect our confidence is a major way. From today onward, tell yourself that you will not allow other people to dictate how you think, feel or behave. You live to serve Allah and if He is happy with your lifestyle, it doesn’t matter what people say. Don’t let them affect you, focus on what is important and don’t give people the keys to your emotions.

Be comfortable with who you are

Stop worrying about the shape of your nose, the way you walk, the tone of your skin or the sound of your voice. Allah made you exactly as He wanted you to be. Embrace that and be happy with it. Life is after all about pleasing Him and He doesn’t look at all that, He looks at our hearts and actions.

Become comfortable with your human flaws. Yes, you may have a stutter or a weak immune system. It’s all fine in the long run, stop worrying about that and focus on all the good Allah has blessed you with.

The day you stop worrying about all this and embrace your natural self is the day you stop killing your own confidence with negative self-talk. Replace it positive talk. You are as Allah wanted you to be, you can improve your thoughts, deeds and character so you will focus on that and not on the things that don’t matter.

To continue reading, purchase the full eBook here.

Crucial Self Confidence Tips

Learn more crucial self confidence tips by reading the full eBook.

Posted by Ismail Kamdar
A Thematic Tafseer of Surah Kahf

A Thematic Tafseer of Surah Kahf

A Thematic Tafseer of Surah Kahf

Surah Kahf begins by laying down the fundamental theme of the Surah. The opening verses praises Allah for revealing the Qur’an as a means of guidance for mankind, and a warning to those who persist in disbelief.

The Messenger (peace be upon him) is then told not to grief too much over those who persist in disbelief. As they are responsible for their own choices, and he has done his job to the best of his ability.

The core theme of Surah Kahf is then summarized in verses seven and eight. In which Allah say, “Definitely, I have made whatever on earth beautiful, to test which of them are best in their deeds.

Then I will make whatever is on it dry bare soil.” This is the essence of the message of Surah Kahf. The world was created to test us and everything in it is a test and will eventually come to an end. So do not be fooled by the beauty of this worldly life.

The Seven Sleepers

After mentioning this theme, Allah then goes directly into the first story. Which is told first in summary then in details. The purpose of this could have been to get the attention of the disbelievers of Makkah. So that they listen to the full detailed story and derive lessons from it.

The story is about seven young men who were the only believers in their city. Fearing persecution, they fled to a cave and asked Allah for assistance. Allah answers their dua by putting them to sleep for three centuries, and preserving their youth and health through this time in miraculous ways.

Upon awakening, the youth are discovered by the people of that century. They serve as a reminder of the reality of resurrection for them. The young men pass away in a way not mentioned in the Qur’an. The people dispute over what to do with their graves. Unfortunately, the prevailing opinion was to build a Masjid over their graves. This has been misunderstood by some Muslims as permission in the Qur’an to build Masjids over graves of righteous people.

Reality, however, is that the Qur’an does not justify the actions of these unknown people. There are many Hadiths that prohibit building Masjids over graves. So the actions of these unknown people cannot be taken as evidence in light of clear Hadith.

Lessons from this story

The next set of verses then highlight a few lessons from this story. Like the importance of saying Inshaa Allah when planning for the future. The importance of good company, the dangers of evil company and the importance of focusing only on beneficial knowledge are all lessons from this story.

It is rounded off with a reminder of the theme of the Surah. We will be accountable to Allah for our choices on the Last Day. The believers will be rewarded with Paradise while the disbelievers will face punishment in the Hellfire.

The Parable of the Farmer

The Surah then moves on to the second story about two men. One who was wealthy and the other was less fortunate. I am of the opinion that this story is a parable, and not necessarily a true story, and Allah knows best.

This is the only story in this Surah that begins with the words “Give them the parable of two men, whom We gave one of them two gardens.” This supports the opinion of it being a parable.

The story shows us that Allah blessed one man with abundant wealth and a successful farm. But he grew arrogant, felt entitled and was ungrateful to Allah for His blessings. His poorer friend reminded him to be grateful to Allah. He reminded him to seek His forgiveness before Allah takes his wealth away. But the warning went with recognition.

The man eventually lost all his wealth and property and was regretful for his attitude. He had failed the test of material success, which is a test we face almost on a daily basis in this Capitalistic society. The story ends with a reminder that this world is like water, which I have explained elsewhere. As well as a reminder that our wealth and children are merely a test for us, so they should not distract from the purpose of life.

Adam and Shaytaan

This story is followed by a series of verses reminding us about the Last Day. In between these is a reminder of the story of Adam and Shaytaan. A reminder that it is Shaytaan who wants us to fail the test of life. So never forget who your enemy is.

This set of verses ends with a reminder that every person and every nation has an appointed time, before which they need to repent. Once that appointed time comes, Allah’s punishment descends and it is too late to change.

Prophet Musa’s Adventure

This is followed by the third story. Which begins with Prophet Musa (peace be upon him) and his young servant Yusha (peace be upon him) embarking on a long journey to seek knowledge from a righteous stranger. We know from an authentic Hadith that this journey was initiated because Musa learned that there is a man who knows things which he does not know. So with great zeal for knowledge and humility, this leader of his nation set off to meet and learn from this stranger.

Musa treats his servant with utmost respect and serves as a role model for employers. After some setbacks, the two of them eventually encounter Al-Khidr, the mysterious Prophet who they wish to learn from.

Al-Khidr agrees to allow Musa to accompany him on the condition that he does not ask any questions until Al-Khidr is ready to explain his actions. This condition proves too difficult for Musa to fulfill as he witnesses strange and seemingly wrong actions on the part of Al-Khidr.

Al-Khidr damages a boat of some poor sailors who gave them a free ride. Then he kills a random young boy. Finally, he fixes a wall in a town full of impolite people without asking for anything in return.

Khidr’s Explanation

Musa is baffled by the actions of Al-Khidr and had to ask about the reasons behind them. Al-Khidr explained that everything he did was based on direct revelation from Allah. The poor sailors were about to have their boat usurped by a tyrant king. So Allah protected their boat by having it damaged.

The young boy was not random. Rather Allah knew he was going to grow up to be a tyrant and cause great grief to his righteous parents. So to protect them Allah took their child’s life at a young age. The wall hid a treasure which a righteous man left behind for his orphaned children.

Had the wall collapsed, the townsfolk would have usurped the wealth of the orphans so Allah protected their wealth by revealing to Al-Khidr to fix the wall.

This story is very deep and in it, we learn about the mysterious ways in which Allah works. Very often the seeming tragedies in our lives are actually Allah’s way of protecting us from greater harm. So we must trust His Wisdom and be patience during difficult times.

The Great Conqueror

This story is immediately followed by the story of Dhul Qarnayn. Who conquered the East and West and ruled with justice. He did this by letting the good people and the simple people live in peace. While punishing the criminals and imprisoning the evil Gog and Magog tribes. A good leader is merciful to his citizens while strict in dealing with the harmful elements of society. Dhul Qarnayn is an excellent example of this.

This story transients into a warning that Gog and Magog will be unleashed before the Last Day. Then they will be thrown into Hellfire.

Conclusion

The Surah ends as it began. By reminding us that those who fail the test of life will enter the Hellfire. Those who pass will be blessed with Paradise. And reminding us that it is only true faith and righteous deeds that can benefit us on that day.

This in summary is Surah Kahf. A weekly warning about the tests of life, with role models on how to deal with such tests. A reminder of the consequences of failing that test, and the rewards for passing it.

In the next chapter, we will reflect deeper on individual verses and stories from this Surah. We ask Allah to protect us from the trials of life and make us from those who are successful in both worlds.

For more thematic Tafseer, get your copy of Themes of the Quran today.

Themes of Surah Kahf

Click the image to purchase the ebook

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Inner Peace

What to do when the sins of teachers affects your faith

What to do when the sins of teachers affects your faith

Note: Despite the timing, this article is NOT about the latest scandal. Rather it is advice that applies in all situations were the sins of teachers affect your faith. I only wrote this because I read comments on social media from good people about how recent scandals have affected their faith.

The sins of teachers and the hearts of students

As humans, we all look up to someone or the other.

In our spiritual journeys, we tend to latch onto the people who were most instrumental in bringing us closer to Allah. Sometimes we latch on too closely and stop treating them as human.

We build an ideal image of them in our minds, and when they fail to live up to that image, our faith in the religion itself is often shaken.

This is not a new and unique scenario. It happens all the time across multiple religions. We know that a large portion of Christians left Christianity because of the sins of priests. Likewise, I have met many Muslims who have suffered crises of faith due to the sins of teachers and heroes.

Whenever the private sins of teachers are made public, or discovered by a student, we witness the following reactions:

“This is why all scholars are not trustworthy!”

“I will leave Islam if this is true!”

“How can I be sincere if my teachers are not!”

and so on, and so forth.

While these reactions are understandable. They are also quite extreme and easily avoidable.

I too have dealt with such people

You see, I too deal with cases that shake my faith, more often that I wish.

I have been a full-time student of Islamic knowledge since the age of thirteen.

Since then, over the past eighteen years, I was dealt with teachers who were frauds, egomaniacs, vulgar, violent (Edit: I initially had a very long list here of every sin and crime I had seen scholars and duaat commit. I decided to delete the list as it was too long, detailed and depressing for most people to handle).

So why am I still Muslim and still dedicated to Dawah and teaching Islam?

Because my faith is not attached to these people.

My faith is based on my conviction that the Quran is the word of Allah and Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the final messenger of truth. There is no sin that a person can commit today that can shake my faith is these two fundamentals.

But it wasn’t always like this.

The first time I was mistreated by an Islamic teacher, it shook my faith.

I was only thirteen years old, when my great grandmother passed away. I missed a day of class because I had to attend her funeral.

My teacher (a highly respected scholar in my community) punished and humiliated me the next day in front of the entire class. My crime: skipping class to attend a funeral.

That was the first time I doubted my faith. My young heart wondered what kind of religion would produce such a hard and cruel-hearted man.

It was only years later that I would realize that the religion didn’t make him cruel. It was him who made the religion seem cruel.

Since then, I have had too many incidents to list and eventually became immune to the sins of teachers.

So what can you do?

My story and experiences aside, the purpose of this post is not to make you feel hopeless and despondent.

It is to lift your spirits and strengthen your faith.

Over the years, I have developed a series of steps that has prevented me from having my faith shaken by scandals and revealed secrets. I want to share these steps with you so you can implement them too.

Here is what you can do:

Have a balanced view of your teacher

Love your teacher. Respect your teacher. Give your teacher the benefit of the doubt.

But do not elevate him/her to the level of sainthood. Do not expect him to be sinless and perfect.

Every single human being, religious scholars included, are being tested every day. Sometimes we pass, sometimes we fail. Just like you have your secret sins, so do your teachers. They too have at times failed to pass a test, and fallen into fitna. But just as often, they have repented and grown stronger in their faith through repentance.

So treat your teachers with respect, but do not expect perfection from them.

Rather ask Allah to forgive and conceal their sins and accept their Dawah.

Do not pry into their private matters or look for fault in them. Focus on benefiting from their knowledge, while keeping in mind that they are human.

Base your faith on scripture, not people

If your faith is dependent on a specific charismatic teacher, then your faith is built on shaky grounds.

Rather your foundation should be your relationship with Allah.

Make time daily to connect with Allah through Salah, Quran, Dhikr, reflection and Istighfaar.

Build a direct relationship with Allah through His Revelation and let that be the basis of your faith. If your faith is based on Allah and His Revelation, then the sins of man cannot shake it.

For private and personal sins, forgive and overlook

Every single teacher has personal sins. Everybody is struggling to obey Allah.

So if you discover a personal sin of a teacher, ask Allah to forgive him and overlook it. He is struggling, just like you are.

Personal sins refer to sins that do not affect the public or the Dawah. Examples include a teacher being addicted to smoking or vulgar music, or a teacher who fails to lower his gaze at times, or struggles with Fajr Salah. These are personal and private sins, and do not reflect his intentions or sincerity.

These sins should not make you look down upon the teacher. Rather conceal their faults, forgive, and overlook.

When the Dawah is affected, run away

There are three main wrong intentions why some men get involved in Dawah: money, fame and women.

Most Islamic teachers are sincere and dedicated to Allah.

Yet there do exist some teachers who use the religion to gain access to fame, money or women, and in some extreme cases: all three.

As we cannot see the hearts of people, it is very hard to know the intentions of teachers.

So what should we do?

We should assume a teacher is sincere unless Allah exposes otherwise.

I believe a hypocrite cannot abuse the religion forever. Eventually he will be exposed and his intentions made public. So do not worry about your teacher’s intentions unless their actions indicate otherwise.

Focus on having good thoughts about your teachers. Ask Allah to grant you access to teachers who are righteous, sincere and authentic. And Focus on benefiting from their knowledge.

But if it is made clear to you that a certain teacher is a fraud. If it becomes very clear that an individual is using the Deen solely as a business, means to fame or access to women (or all three)…Then to protect your faith, take your knowledge from someone else, whom you do not have these doubts about.

Final Advice

There is a fine line between having Husn Dhann (good thoughts) about our teachers, and making sure we only take knowledge from sincere students of knowledge.

The key is to make dua. Over the years, I have found that dua always revealed the truth to me.

Whenever I was doubtful about a teacher, sect, school of thought, specific institute or da’ee, I made dua for clarity and guidance.

I believe it was because of this dua that I have witnessed terrible hypocritical teachers whom I learned to stay away from. And also because of this dua that I have been blessed with sincere righteous teachers whom I benefit from.

Simply put: when in doubt, make dua, and Allah will guide your heart to the truth.

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Inner Peace

5 Productive Ways to use social media

5 Productive Ways to use social media

There are many productive ways to use social media. In my latest online course, I discuss this topic in details. Some people feel that social media is a waste of time. I agree that it is a waste of time for those who use it incorrectly.

However, if you use it for any of the five things mentioned below, it transforms into a truly beneficial usage of time.

1. Sharing beneficial links

Social Media is a great place to benefit others by sharing beneficial links. Whether it is links to Islamic articles and videos, self help articles, or health related links. There are dozens of beneficial topics out there that you can share. Sharing these links will make your social media account a means of benefit to all your friends and family members.

2. Reaching out and networking

Social Media is a great way to find and reach out to like-minded individuals. Many of my most important friends and mentors are people I connected to on social media. When used correctly, Facebook groups and LinkedIn in particular are excellent platforms for forging powerful friendships and partnerships.

3. Turn it into a Dawah platform

Like any other tool, social media can be a powerful Dawah platform. In our new online course, we teach how to do Dawah on social media effectively with over 25 ways of doing so. Utilizing social media for Dawah turns the entire experience into an act of worship with great multiplying rewards. Just make sure to stay in your lane and not talk about topics you are not qualified to address.

4. A great place to do business

The business world has gone digital, and social media plays a major role in business today. If you are a business owner and not utilizing social media to grow your business, then you are missing out. In our online course, we will teach you how to utilize every major social media network effectively for business. Special bonus sections in the course focus on details on how to utilize email and Facebook ads to effectively grow your businesses. Join the course today at a 75% discount here.

5. Inspire people

The final of our 5 Productive Ways to use social media is to simply inspire people. Whether its through sharing beneficial videos and articles, sharing powerful motivational quotes, or just being a positive presence. make it your duty to inspire people to greatness.

Social media these days can be a very dark place full of negativity, gossip, and anger. Be the difference, be the one who inspires. Not the one who dampens spirits. Inspiring and motivating people is one of the most productive ways to use social media.

Continue learning about social media productivity with our in-depth online course.
Access the course here.

Productive Ways to use social media online course

 

 

Posted by Ismail Kamdar in Productivity