6 Ways to Boost Your Productivity This Ramadan

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, many of us look forward to a time of reflection, devotion, and community. However, maintaining productivity during this period can be challenging due to the changes in daily routines and energy levels.
To help you make the most of this sacred time while staying on top of your responsibilities, here are 6 Ways to Boost Your Productivity This Ramadan.

Set a Strict Routine

Take the days following up to Ramadan to track your habits. What are your weaknesses? Which tasks do you struggle with the most? What times are you most in your element while working?
Once you have assessed your day-to-day habits, you can sit down and plan out a realistic routine. For this routine, you have to make the intention that you will try your utmost best to stick to it for the entirety of Ramadan, and make goals that you are confident in fulfilling.
Don’t make tasks that you know you won’t be able to complete, even though you may be eager to do them. Instead, make weekly goals starting with the easiest tasks so you can build motivation to do your bigger tasks.

Prioritize Tasks Wisely

With inevitable factors such as reduced energy from fasting, hunger, thirst, and daily duties such as helping out with preparing food and Taraweeh prayers, finding the energy and time for other tasks can be difficult.
So, divide your hours wisely. Make a list of your goals, starting with the non-negotiable tasks and making your way down to the extra ones.
Remind yourself that the tasks on the top of the list have to be crossed out at the end of the day even if you don’t get to do the smaller tasks.

Block Out All Distractions

You already have a limited amount of time on your hands during Ramadan, and every second of this blessed month cannot go to waste!
Carefully evaluate yourself and how you spend your time. Do you sleep excessively? Do you engage in dragging and useless conversations? Do you spend hours scrolling on your phone?
You can easily gain hours and hours of extra time by cutting out these habits and replacing them with something that is productive.

Hold On to Your Daily Prayers

It’s very easy to get lost in our work and slack in our Salah. This happens when we center Salah around our tasks, and not our tasks around Salah. Sometimes, we might even lose focus and hastily finish our Salah to get to our other work.
We need to remind ourselves that Salah is the best use of our time and it is vital to our ultimate purpose and identity. Our relationship with our Salah is directly connected to our relationship with Allah. If our Salah lacks sincerity, so does our connection with Him.
Also, how much we invest into our Salah has an impact on our quality of life. When you give your utmost effort into your Salah, Allah rewards you by opening up all doors for you.

Optimize Nutrition and Hydration

Many of us forget to upkeep our nutrition in the midst of worship. While ‘Ibadah during these special days is extremely important, we must remember that our bodies are an Amanah from Allah and they also have a right over us.
For your Iftar and Suhoor this year, ditch the fried foods and replace them with something filling and healthy. Mixed salads, simply cooked chicken and fish, fresh fruits, steamed vegetables, grains, etc. are all healthy foods that keep our nutrition levels high.
In between our meals, we should also drink plenty of water, especially on dry and warm days. Maintaining proper hydration will keep our bodies energized for the activities we have planned throughout the day.

Adopt Spiritual Self-Care Habits

Burnout is more common than we think, and it can even happen during acts of worship. We might do good deeds such as praying Nawafil, reading the Qur’an, seeking knowledge, and helping around the house, but these tasks can get tiring if we don’t take out time for ourselves in between.
You can take a few hours off the day to give yourself a break. However, it’s best if you make the most out of each minute by making your self-care time more spiritual.
Try watching Islamic talks on YouTube, listening to the Qur’an, doing extra dhikr while you do activities like walking, making art, or cooking. Whatever you do to wind down, try to incorporate remembrance of Allah into it so you don’t lose your flow in worship.