Suleiman Hani – The Blessing of Time #05 – Leave the Distractions Behind

			How do you master your time? To talk about three different things. Number one, you have to value it.
So this is the question of why we already answered this in previous videos. Number two, you have to
organize it. So the question of how and number three, you have to constantly review it. So you're
valuing your time, you're organizing your time, and you're constantly reviewing your time and your
efforts.
		

			As for organizing your time, once your goals are clear, and you set goals for your life that are
linked to the afterlife, and you're spending your time on goals that really matter to you, you have
to master and organize your day to day activities. And this will require things that most people are
aware of maybe many people already utilize something as simple as, for example, a to do list for the
day. And oftentimes people waste time by being inefficient, not knowing what needs to be done when
it needs to be done. forgetting things left and right, making promises and forgetting write down on
certain things so that you're not spending your energy and your time memorizing these things and
		

			becoming distracted. So focus on your to do list. Now, when you have your goals, naturally, they're
going to be broken down into let's say, a one month goal can be broken down into the weeks of the
month or a daily goal. And you're going to have to complete that on a daily basis. So you have a to
do list you're following through with it, you're seeing what's done and what's not. But most
importantly, is not becoming distracted. We're living the 21st century, where distractions are a
part of the system of life where everything out there, every kind of corporation, every kind of
technology, where most of them we can say want to distract, you want to take your attention away,
		

			why it benefits them. When you're spending time on an app, when you're spending time on a particular
habit, you're not spending time somewhere else, or with another company or a competitor, you're
spending time benefiting that company, that ecosystem that habits, that lifestyle in society. And so
it takes a lot of effort today, to be very mindful, to be very conscious to be very wise to be very
strategic and as a Muslim to have Taqwa a shield between you and that which is harmful. In this
case, don't become distracted, don't allow everything in anything to take you away. For example, if
you own a smartphone, and every time you're on your phone, or every time you get a notification, you
		

			check your phone, you're becoming distracted. Perhaps if you have too many apps notifying you turn
off the notifications for the things that are not really urgent. If there is an emergency, you're
going to basically inshallah Tada have access to a person who's calling you a person who calls for
for some help or anything else. But generally speaking, things are not as urgent as we make them out
to be. You don't need notifications every time something happens on social media, you don't need
notifications. For a lot of the apps that most people use these days, you can disable these
notifications, and you choose you control what time you desire, what time you set to actually look
		

			at that app to actually check your emails to actually go through and do things. We're not talking
obviously about work here or emergencies or anything else. We're talking about generally the types
of leisure entertainment that a lot of people spend time on. Once you start with a task, focus only
on that task. Set aside all other distractions, turn off other notifications, Do Not Disturb mode,
focus on your task. And one of the most interesting tactics or advices that was given when something
comes up whether at your work or something comes up in your personal business or at home or anything
else. If a distraction arises, and you need to give it attention. Ask yourself if you can either
		

			number one, delegate it to somebody else, you can delegate it maybe to the person who asked you
about it like you, you send me the email, you're the one who is going to reach out to me, you're
asking you something, you do this or send it to somebody else who can actually get it done number to
defer it for another time. So you can delegate it, you can defer it for another time, if it takes
too much time. Or number three, you can actually do it if it takes only two or three minutes. And
you can finish it quickly. Very quick to do list item, finish it within that time. Otherwise, focus
on your tasks. A brother mentioned, for example, after one seminar that he turned off notifications
		

			for a lot of the messaging apps that most people use these days, he said I started noticing I don't
check them as much. I don't feel like I really missed out on much. And once I do check them I
control the time I choose the time in which I'm actually going to check these things. I don't feel
like I'm wasting as much time as before. Another brother mentioned, for example, he didn't just mute
them. He moved them away from his home screen. Another brother mentioned he started uninstalling
certain apps that he had another student mentioned that they were basically going through their apps
and investigating how much time am I spending? And is this really a priority in terms of my life? Is
		

			it worth it at the end of my life for let's say 365 hours a year, or 700 or 1000 hours a year to go
to this single app that doesn't benefit me in this life? Or the next is it really worth it? Is it
really a wise or am I regretted later some students mentioned for example, disabling their or
stopping their subscriptions from certain types of mass entertainment services and things like that.
They've noticed that they started using their time wisely watching things that are more beneficial
and so on.
		

			so forth, focus on where you're headed, what your goals actually are, and try to keep the noise away
from you're trying to filter things out. We're living in a times, especially with technology in
which everything wants to take your attention away. So you have to put in even more effort than more
obstacles, more barriers between you and those distractions. May Allah subhanaw taala protect us
alumni. I mean, imagine on the Day of Judgment, the believers standing there and one of the few
things that they might regret according to one report, from Alisha, lonely, alone, Hana, one of the
few things that they might regret is an hour that was spent in which the name of Allah was not
		

			mentioned, or another report an hour that passed by, in which you did not say a stuck federal law,
you did not seek forgiveness from Allah subhanaw taala. So a waking hour in which you didn't ask
Allah to forgive you or you didn't even mention the name of Allah subhanahu wa. Furthermore, one of
the greatest advices and for me, one of my favorite by far in terms of managing your time, is a
countdown timer. Now a countdown timer, you can use this in many different ways. We'll talk more
about what this means. But ultimately, the spiritual advice I want to share for now is for you to
recognize that every breath that you take, and every beat of your heart, some of the time that you
		

			have left in this world is disappearing, it's passing by, and once it passes by, you can't recover
it, you can't regain it, to recognize on a daily basis, anytime you see a clock anytime you see the
time for you to recognize that you have less and less hours as the days go by. And every year for
example, you're a year older, you're looking back at your life and your time. One of the greatest
reflections you can and should have is how much time has gone and not knowing how much time is left.
May Allah subhanaw taala put Baraka in our times and forgive us a lot man