"I'd like to attend an Islamic class this weekend, but I've just got so many things to do.

"
"I'd like to buckle down and get proactive in getting married, but I'm just so busy with school."
"I have big dreams to do social work, but I'm just so busy with everyday life."
"I'd like to spend more time with my kids, but I just don't know where the time goes."
"I'd like to get in shape but I can't find time to go to gym."

Eradicate the Time

excuse in 7 Steps
By Muhammad Alshareef

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

I
u

h
J stD o
t

Take benefit of five before five:

your youth before your old age,
your health before your sickness,
your wealth before your poverty,
your free-time before your preoccupation,
and your life before your death.
Prophet Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Salam

I was attending a seminar where the instructor asked

everyone to stand up and write down the top things
that I wished for in my life.

e
v te

I wrote down your typical things: marriage, children,

wealth, and business things that you as a human
aspire for as well.
Then he said to me, Muhammad, write down right
next to each dream - your excuse as to why you dont
already have this in your life.

me

i
T

The ground trembled...

Beside every single dream, beside every hope and
aspiration that I could ever have, almost with tears of
old-repentant blood, I penned the following lie:

I don't have enough TIME!

The Granddaddy excuse of all time is, "I'd love to,
really, I really would ... I JUST DO NOT HAVE

ANY TIME!!!"

As in:
"I'd like to attend an Islamic class this weekend, but
I've just got so many things to do."
"I'd like to buckle down and get proactive in getting
married, but I'm just so busy with school."
"I have big dreams to do social work, but I'm just so
busy with everyday life."
"I'd like to spend more time with my kids, but I just
don't know where the time goes."
"I'd like to get in shape but I can't find time to go to
gym."
Im living my life pay check to check and I cant find
time to learn how to make more money.

Here is an exercise Id like you to do: Close your eyes

and imagine that you are 70 years old. Take a deep
breath. Now... Open your eyes.
What were you doing? Were you checking your
e-mail or spending time with your family? Were you
cleaning your closet for the fourth time or were you
making dua?
To begin with, the fact that you think you will still be
alive is a delusion in itself. No one knows how much
time he or she has left, so I urge you, please, make the
most of it now while you are still here and learn to
master your time so you can have time for things that
truly matter.

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

Here are my top 7 tips to eradicate the TIME excuse for you :

1. Prioritize your Life, not just your Lists.

2. The early bird gets the worm.

The number one priority in a Muslims life should be Allah (subhanahu

wa tala). Now, based on that fact, what are your short-term objectives?
What about your long-term goals? If they arent written down, I doubt
theyve been prioritized. Lacking clarity about your goals leads to lots of
time being wasted in mindless busyness. One of the most painful
moments in your life will be when you look back at the last 10 or 20
years and say, I wish I had done something different.

Fajr

It can seem like a daunting task to sit down and really think about your
goals in life and how to achieve them, but it must be done. If you have
nothing to look forward to in your life, the likelihood of mastering your
time is slimbecause there is no reason to!

Get up early and start your day after Fajr if you can. I cannot stress
enough how huge of an impact this will make in your life. You will
literally take half your life back by staying up because there is so much
barakah and so many blessings in those early hours.
It may be difficult at the beginning to resist the temptation of your
comfy bed, but as you make it a routine, your body will naturally start to
feel drowsy and shut down earlier at night so that you are able to get
enough rest.

Fresh Air
For a start at least, get a notebook, and every night before you sleep,
write down the 5 most critical tasks you need to accomplish the next day
in order of priority. It will free your mind greatly, leaving more time to
focus on figuring out and working toward your life goals.
Many times, I have risen early and excited to get going on a productive
day, only to sit on the couch and fall back asleep because I had no idea
where to start, or what my day ahead would look like. Then I wake up
an hour later and lament on the time I wasted and how Im so behind
now.

Learn more at:

www.TimeTravellerOnline.com

An excellent way to blast that morning lethargy is to go for a walk or

even just stand on your porch (or balcony) and breathe. You will become
more alert. The snooze button may seem like a good idea at the time, it
actually does your body more harm, than if you had just gotten up when
the first alarm went off.

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

3. Fight the Smartphone Time Suck

Nothing can suck your time more than constantly checking those
messages. We know its hard to resist the temptation, with those new
message signs having some sort of magical powers that lure us in each
time, but it can be done!
Reaching for your phone in the morning as soon as your eyes open is the
most surefire way of killing your productivity. Instead, complete your
most important task of the day. You will get a sense of fulfillment, which
will motivate you to do more productive activities.
Here are some frightening statistics to ponder:
In regards to smartphones, a study from Baylor University found that
students spend an average of 94 minutes a day texting, 48 minutes a day
sending e-mails, and 38 minutes a day on Facebook.
A similar study conducted by Seton Hall University in 2012 found that
students check their phones an average of 60 times a day, and send an
average of 3200 text messages a month.

Learn more at:

www.TimeTravellerOnline.com

Tips:
1. Devise a daily schedule, where you have 2-4 pre-determined 15-minute
time blocks to check and respond to your messages. Stick to it.
2. Unsubscribe to any lists, feeds you dont read regularly.
3. Turn your alerts off. People will survive if they dont hear back from you
within 30 seconds.
4. Dont grab your phone (if its not already in your hand) and open Google
search, the second a thought pops into your head.
Give yourself a 10-minute time delay when the urge to look up
something online appears. Trust me, the world will not turn upside
down if you dont find out why gas prices have jumped three cents, this
exact second.

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

4. Plan your schedule around Salah

I know it seems that the extra two hours will help your grade. Why shut
the books at midnight when your friend caffeine, can support you until
2 or 3 am?
You managed to finish your studying, but were you able to wake up on
time for Fajr? Probably not.
This is where many people get their priorities mixed up, whether it be
school or work. The reality is, that your grades or income are in Allahs
hands, not yours, your professors, or your boss.
Reset your priorities and Make Allah # 1. I guarantee you will see the
blessings pour in your life.

Learn more at:

www.TimeTravellerOnline.com

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

5. Your body has a right over you

You might think that you are gaining more hours by sacrificing your
sleep, diet and exercise. In fact, the opposite is true; you are actually
losing hours! Working five hours at your peak will yield much better
results than working ten hours when you can barely keep your eyes
open.

Get moving
You dont even need to go to the gym or start running or anything super
intense like that (although, if you can, go for it). Just get up out of your
chair. Turn your face away from that glowing screen, stretch your legs
and take a quick walk.
It might just be up and down one flight of stairs, around your house or
around the block. Do some stretches. Open up your posture and loosen
up your muscles for a few minutes before heading back to the
grindstone.
Youll be in a better frame of mind when you get back to work. And the
little bit of work time that you lost in this short break will be more than
made up in the increased productivity youll get out of it.

Learn more at:

www.TimeTravellerOnline.com

Eat a healthy breakfast

Energy does NOT come from coffee, that is simply shocking your body
with sugar and poisons.
Instead, whiz up a quick smoothie and sip it on the go. Bananas, berries
and citrus fruits are all packed with energy. For an extra healthy treat to
your body add some leafy greens. Baby spinach is excellent for starters
because you cant taste it in the smoothie.

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

6. Automate Your Life

Perhaps the most pivotal time mastery skills I can share with you. It's
about dealing with the 'conscious' and the 'subconscious' part of your
mind.
See when your brain is clogged with 'stuff' you simply don't have the
capacity to take on other (more important and perhaps more exciting!)
activities in life. But your mind is too precious to spend it's time carrying
all this stuff. Its unnecessarily filling up your conscious mind. But to
really automate your life you need to tap into the 'subconscious'.
There was once this infomercial that I saw selling ovens and their
tagline was 'Set it and Forget It!' And this is what we need to do with our
life.
Two aspects to automation:
Set it- This is where you have made a conscious choice at some early
point to do something and you set it up.
Forget it- Then you forget about it, let it run automatically so that you
are automatically benefitting from it at a later point.
Think of an iceberg. The tip that you see floating on top of the waterthat's where you are consciously thinking about something. The
subconscious- is the place where all the other things that exist, but you
don't need to concentrate on them until you bring them to the tip- the
conscious.
When you have the choice, you want to make sure that you choose
things in your life and environment that will make everything else
automatic, so you don't have to keep involving your brain.

Health
Instead of getting a gym membership, hire a personal trainer who will
schedule your workouts FOR you. I guarantee that youre more likely to
to work out than if you left it to your own 'conscious' mind.
Or with regards to food how about signing up for a meal delivery plan
where they deliver the healthy meals straight to your house. It's all
coming to you automatically.

Contribution
Set up a monthly automatic withdrawal to your favourite charity- you
can set it up with your bank and never have to think about it. If you
were to consciously give charity, you would probably give charity once a
year and that's about it.
Or how about, instead of trying to remember to purchase a gift for a
family member, schedule an automatic ecard, for example, on the date
you wish it to be sent.

Study/Work
When it comes to study, instead of trying to motivate yourself to study,
make a study date with a friend.
At work once you delegate something to someone, set yourself a
reminder on your email/ smartphone to follow up on the task then
forget about it. Two days later you get the reminder and the world will
think youre the most organised delegator ever!
All youre doing here is make a conscious choice to automate your tasks
from the get go, freeing up your mind to take on the more exciting
activities in life.

Learn more at:

www.TimeTravellerOnline.com

Eradicate the Time excuse in 7 Steps

7. Say No Even to Good things

Realize, that by saying yes to one thing, you are saying no to another,
so make sure your yeses fall in your top priority list.
There are only so many hours in a day and each hour that you spend
doing one thing is an hour that youre not spending doing everything
else.
So you need to know whats most important to you and have the courage
to stick by it. And yes, it takes courage to say no. So be prepared.
This actually goes back to point #1, prioritizing your life. If you know
what your priorities are and why theyre there, then youll find it much
easier to decide what to say yes and no to and stick to it with
conviction.

Learn more at:

Conclusion
Time is one of those things that is easy to become complacent about. It's
free. It keeps coming to us every day. But it's actually our most precious
resource. Because once a second passes us by we can never get it back.
Our time is priceless. And our time in this world is what we use to
attain success in both this world and the next.
So don't underestimate the effect of implementing even just a few of
these tips. When you can change how you use your time you are
literally changing your life.
If you want to go beyond these seven tips and find out how to totally
take control over your time go to www.TimeTravellerOnline.com.
Ive got a bunch more good stuff there for you. Youre going to love it in
sha Allah.

www.TimeTravellerOnline.com