The last days of Ramadhan and the approaching Eid al Fitr turn many people’s schedules into chaos. With iftar preparations, more time for holy month worship especially at nights and doing last-minute shopping and preparation for Eid throw a lot out of balance that there’s almost no time left to just enjoy the moment. How is it to manage time in the last days of Ramadhan and how can one use these crucial days as an opportunity of improving our quality of life?
Badriya bint Said al Khaifi, a life and career certified coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and owner of Badriya Coaching and Consulting Corporation, shared that to fix one’s schedule and have proper time management, one should know first the meaning of time before organising it.
“Time is your feelings, thoughts, and behaviour at a certain moment in which you feel happy or dissatisfied. It is important to have an awareness about the importance of time and there should be a clear plan on how to divide the 24 hours and minutes. If one is aware, then one can benefit from this awareness,” Badriya explained.
“The fact is, dividing time properly is a bit of a difficult task that needs commitment, flexibility, and awareness of your feelings, thoughts, and behaviour at the same time. If you have a clear picture of how you see your life in the next year or five years, the efforts you make during Ramadhan becomes less stressful and your actions also become more focused,” she shared.
She pointed out that Ramadhan is a good time to practice habits of concentration, balance, planning and setting priorities.
“We can say that if you were able to organise your time in Ramadhan with all of the feelings, thoughts and behaviours, and you took these new habits with you for the rest of the year, then this is a remarkable achievement,” she said.
“For example, it is important to take care of evaluating the most important 20 per cent of the different aspects of your life that needs follow up in which give you 80 per cent of the results, instead of focusing only on completing the tasks of your daily schedule, only to feel the momentary happiness,” she added.
Badriya said that when Ramadhan is upon us, we should exploit its spiritual blessings by acquiring positive habits and getting rid of some habits that no longer suit us. It is also a great opportunity of repairing our relationship with ourselves. The organisation of time is related to the extent of our positive feeling of what success means to us. Each person has his goals and aspects of his life that differ from the people around him.
“Defining your own goals contributes to making your time management and your self-motivation clearer. It is important to know the habits of commitment, setting priorities and setting personal boundaries. One should also learn and have the courage to say no if the things you are doing is not in the matrix of your priorities. Thus you spend less than 40 per cent in the circle of pressing tasks, and 60 per cent in a circle that makes your day more productive, lively and satisfied,” Al Khaifi said.
Some people are suffering from the lack of sufficient time to sleep in Ramadhan. Sleep is a basic biological need just as important as food, drink and breathing. In case of imbalance, it will affect a person’s energy and achievement during the day. The concentration will decrease due to lack of sleep which in turn affects family and professional relationships. When one was unable to sleep properly, he does not perform as required, so he takes a bad impression on himself, which leads to a lack of informed decision-making and anger increases.
“Staying awake all night is not recommended. If one cannot sleep for the full 8 hours, one should divide the sleep intermittently. Getting 8 hours of sleep a day is something that the body needs. Since there is also a lockdown now, it should aid in being able to sleep early,” Al Khaifi shared.
“Also the lockdown period is a perfect opportunity to look at your habits by writing them down. Try to pay attention to your behaviours, thoughts and feelings before making them your habit. Also take this opportunity to learn a new skill of setting a personal boundary, improving your health and defining family and community priorities,” she said. “Time can be annoying when you think of it individually as it passes by. But on the positive side of it, if you are aware of each passing moment, you can live in the moment. Ramadhan is the perfect time to reflect and understand that time moves no matter how much you want to freeze it. We move along with time whether we like it or not and to fully utilise it, we should move along with it with flexibility. Remember always. Life is a miracle so live it fully,” she shared.
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