8 Daily Habits That Will Make 2015 Explosive

Source: entrepreneur.com

By: Timothy Sykes

The new year is here and most entrepreneurs are looking at how they will raise their game in 2015. Many of you may want to ramp up your personal development and productivity to a whole new level to reach some major goals.

When it comes to finding success and achieving your goals, many times the most important struggle is the one that you encounter in mundane daily life. To truly find success in your life, it is important that you take the time to do the little things that matter most. Small changes to your daily routine can translate into monumental success in all of your endeavors.

Here are eight things that you should be doing, if you aren’t already, habitually.

Time management tips from the Seerah

Source: productivemuslim.com

By: Taha Ghayyur

Time is limited. Death is certain. However, our intention to live a productive life and to serve Allah (glorified and exalted be He) and His creation will itself be enough to count as a positive action.

If you study the seerah (life of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him)) with specific focus on his daily and regular routines, it is an eye-opener. How meticulous he was in planning every aspect of his day; how he prioritized tasks; how serious he was about keeping his word and how he kept his speech precise and not indulging in idle talk. He was the best of creation, Khayru-l-Khalq, and it is natural we should learn from his example. Below are five lessons on time-management that we can draw from the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) enormously productive and purpose-driven life.

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MUSLIM FAMILIES SIMPLIFIED

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Siraaj Muhammad

When reading about the problems Muslim families face we notice that some are general to the culture in which they live, while others are specific to Muslims or predominantly Muslim cultures.  Attempts to resolve them usually involve learning Prophetic family best practices as well as educating ourselves about gender and child specific communication techniques via seminars, books, and articles.

Use Your Pencil to Read the Qur’an with Reflection

By: Enas Khaled Aliyuddin

Source: http://productivemuslim.com

Are you constantly seeking a better relationship with the Qur’an but feel frustrated with the huge tafsir books and your tight schedule? You’re not alone.

Well, let’s start this off with a confession. I have always found it hard to keep a daily wird of reciting Qur’an (the part of the Qur’an one reads or assigns to him/herself daily). Sometimes I would get my spirits up and commit, but that would last for a couple of weeks only. I used to come up with a whole lot of excuses: You’re a medical student. You have exams. You’ve had a long day today. Tomorrow is a long day, you need to go to sleep.

Spiritual Boosters

By: Lotifa Begum

Source: http://productivemuslim.com/

Ramadan is a time of spiritual retreat – we are able to invest in the extra good deeds and gain more reward than at any time of the year. It is meant to be the most productive time of the year for us on a spiritual, social and physical level but this isn’t always the case. Sisters face a different productivity challenge during the days they are unable to fast due to menstruating or post-natal bleeding, so often I hear sisters complain about how unproductive they are during the days where they can’t fast. It’s like they feel a spiritual loss and miss out on the blessings of Ramadan. Here’s the good news sisters, you can still be productive during these days when you are unable to fast!

In this article, I will share practical tips and advice on how you can use the non-fasting days to invest in yourself spiritually, get proactive socially and make sure you don’t lose out on the blessings of Ramadan.

Firstly let’s remind ourselves of the purpose of fasting, Allah says in the Qur’an:
‘O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.’ [Qur’an 2:183]

How to Run Productive Meetings

If you ever need to hold a meeting and you want to make it a success, use the 40-20-40 continuum. Focus 40% of your attention for each meeting on preparation and getting everything right before you meet, then 20% of your attention on the meeting itself — the time you’re all together — and then spend 40% of your attention on the follow-through.

40% Preparation

Get the preparation right and you will make the meetings you hold seem like magic. Here are a few ways that good preparation can pay itself back in spades.

1. Begin with the end in mind

When planning your meeting, start with the end in mind. Rather than waiting until halfway through a meeting to work out what you think the outcome should be, start there. You can even add this to the agenda, and as a chair, make sure it is part of your introduction. By being clearer from the outset, a lot of thinking will have been done before the meeting even gets under way.

2. Flow

Think about the meeting as a journey. The starting point is setting the scene: Introductions to one another, the topic and to the endpoint in mind. The middle stage is the exploration: Discussion, questioning and beginning to form some agreements. The end of a meeting should be where you are into decisions, actions and agreeing the next practical steps forward.

3. Schedule difficult agenda items immediately before breaks

When working out the agenda and meeting length, it is useful to schedule difficult agenda items immediately before breaks. This will hopefully keep things brief as it is a brave person who delays everyone’s lunch, and if things do get a little heated, the break offers time to calm everyone down.

4. Length — allow time for wiggle room

Make sure you are sensible, yet realistic, with the length of the meeting. If you are a disciplined chair, you can probably get it done in a shorter time than would be expected, though always allow time for wiggle room.

5. Control your Outlook, don’t let Outlook control your meetings

Meetings should rarely be exactly 30 minutes or 60 minutes long — the default times from Outlook — so make it 20 minutes or 45 minutes. It may only seem like ten minutes here and there, but ten minutes of proactive attention time is like gold dust.

6. Prepare — create the culture you need

Print agendas, bring background papers or information and use PowerPoint to provide a professional ‘feel’ and structure. Create a culture where preparation is absolutely expected. I did some interim management work where we were expected to have read all the papers in advance. As a result, the conversations were focused on opinions and actions rather than on clarifications or long explorations.

20% is the Meeting Itself

You have prepared meticulously and encouraged others to do the same. How do you ensure that the meeting is productive?