Transcription
So, have you ever wondered what the daily schedule of a productive Muslim CEO that is managing three companies at the same time looks like? Well, actually, like this. And in today's video, I'm going to share you step by step how I'm aligning all of my daily responsibilities with the five daily prayers. And I mean, we have amazing business books about everything, but no one is sharing us how to do it as Muslims. So, in today's video, I'm going to share you how I do it in the most efficient way.
All right, so the first thing that I do when mapping out my whole daily schedule is looking at the most important things first, which starts, of course, with looking at the daily prayers, the five obligation daily prayers that we have to do as a Muslim. And our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said it as well, the most beloved by Allah are the ones that are praying on time. So, the first thing that we should do is looking at when do we have our daily prayers. And for me, I'm currently staying in Dubai, so I mapped out the daily prayer times of Dubai currently. But wherever you are, this can work. I'm doing this schedule when I'm in Amsterdam, when I'm traveling, when I'm in Dubai right now, so it doesn't really matter. But the first thing that you should do is look at when do you have to pray. And maybe you are asking yourself, why is he putting Maghrib on top? Why is Maghrib the first prayer? So, I will come to that in a second.
So, the first thing, most important thing, is mapping out when do you have to pray. The second thing that I do is looking at my sleep because your sleep is also very, very important. Important. It, it really provides your energy. It is really important to get the right rest, everything like that. So, that's the second most important thing for me. So, like you can see right over here, I also mapped out when I'm going to sleep. So, between Isha and Fajr, of course, is the time that we're going to sleep. That's the nighttime. And the most important thing for me is that that I at least have between six to eight hours of sleep. Ideally, sometimes when your body really needs it, it could be even more. Sleep is the fundament of everything. I'm really seeing nowadays how people are really not taking care of their sleep anymore. People are sleeping like four, five hours a night, and I'm seeing big entrepreneurs doing this as well. But for me, it doesn't work. For me, it's really important to just have the right rest, proper rest, good qualitative sleep. And that's also why my day is mapped out starting from Maghrib. It's not only that scientifically it's proven that your morning routine starts in the night, what you do in the evening. But it's also when you look at the Islamic calendar, the day starts after Maghrib. So, after sunset. And when you look at the start of Ramadan, for example, you start at a new day. When you look at the Islamic calendar, the day, the new day starts after Maghrib. So, when we map out our whole day, we should start looking from Maghrib.
But in this scenario, I will start explaining my whole day from Isha. Why? Because what most people do is they start their day in the morning. They think that their day is starting with the morning routine. You know, most entrepreneurs are telling you, "Oh, the most important thing is the morning routine." But the actual more important thing is your evening routine. What do you do before you go to bed? And why am I saying that? Because what you do before you go to bed will determine how you sleep, and that will determine what kind of energy you have to have a productive morning routine. So, let's say, for example, if you are eating snacks the whole evening, you are constantly on your phone, you're sleeping very late, you have four hours of sleep, you are completely tired and low energy, and you're going to have a productive morning routine. You cannot tell me that you are going to have a productive morning routine if you are not taking care of your evening routine and how much hours you sleep.
So, the first thing that I do is after Isha. Sometimes I go to the Masjid, and sometimes I do it at home. After Isha, I have a couple of rules. And this set of rules is actually called the 3-2-1 rule. The 3-2-1 rule. And it starts actually even between Maghrib and Isha. So, I will write it down here quickly. 3-2-1 rule. The 3-2-1 rule actually means: three hours before I go to bed, I don't eat any food anymore. Because when you eat a lot of food before you go to bed, it takes a lot of energy for your body to process that food. Because what happens when you go to bed and you eat a lot, a lot of food, or even a little bit, you go to sleep, you close your eyes, but your body is still working, is still processing all of the food, everything. So, it's really bad to eat before you go to bed. Now, two hours before I go to bed, I make sure that I don't drink anymore. No water, nothing. And the reason for that is a little bit the same as the, uh, three hours no food before you go to bed. But the main reason is actually because if you drink before you go to bed, the likelihood of you needing to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night is getting higher. Then, one hour before you go to bed, no screens. What I do is I make sure that there's nothing coming into my brain anymore. No TV, no Netflix, no social media, no phones, no messaging, no calls, nothing. Just winding down and taking time. And most of the time, the three and the two already starts before Isha. And the one rule, so no screens, nothing, is actually after Isha.
And then, in order to know how to structure this rule, it's very important that I determine when I need to go to sleep. And I do that by looking at, all right, I want between six to eight hours of sleep, and I want to wake up at Fajr. Fajr time currently is 4:30 in the morning, 4:30 a.m. So, normally, right now, I'm going to sleep between, between a little bit around 10:00 in the night, in the evening. So, that means that I'm having like two hours after Isha. Because Isha is at 8:00. So, what I do right over here is I'm going to the Masjid. I'm reading the Quran, reflecting. These are the kinds of activities that I'm doing. Sometimes go to the Masjid, of course. I'm focusing on my prayer. Sometimes solitary extra prayers in the evening is also very good to just wind down and get into the mood of of going to bed. Reading Quran, reading some other books, maybe. But most of the time, it's just Quran. Because all of those business books contain a lot of information that your brain keeps going crazy. So, Quran is just peaceful. It's just really good for your heart, for your mind. So, it's amazing to do that before you go to bed. Reciting Surah al-Mulk also very important to do before you go to bed. So, these kinds of things. And the are things that I'm doing. Sometimes I just grab not a piece of paper, and I'm writing down my thoughts. Maybe you have noticed that before you go to bed, all of the thoughts start running, and you cannot sleep. That's because you're not taking time to let your thoughts come out. You know, you're constantly, uh, when daytime is there, you only thing that you're doing is letting information in. When you have some rest, you're opening your social media, you're scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, watching Netflix, YouTube videos all day, like this video. This is information that I'm bringing to you. This is a lot of new information, and this is good. It's very good that you're watching this video, mashallah. But it's also important that you take some time sometimes to just write down your thoughts because you are a person that can produce as well. Do not only consume the whole day. Because that's also a big reason why people are experiencing stress, burnout, even like that. It already, it all starts by just overstimulating your brain.
So, between Isha and bedtime, it is very important for me to just wind down and not do anything except from just peaceful things. I even have a have some glasses. Let me see if where it is. Oh, here it is. So, actually, in during this time, what I'm wearing are these cool glasses. And these glasses are, maybe you can see it a little bit when I put it over here. When you're looking through these glasses, the whole environment turns a little bit red. And the reason why, the reason why I'm wearing those glasses is because the, uh, red, the color red, is the lowest color in the Kelvin spectrum. And this color red stimulates the creation of, uh, the hormone melatonin. And melatonin is the hormone in your brain that you need in order to, uh, fall asleep. So, between this, no screens, because blue light, all of these lights during the day, uh, you shouldn't have that after some sunrise. It's very bad for your, uh, biological rhythms, everything like that. It's very bad for your sleep, the quality of your sleep. And usually, it takes a lot of time to fall asleep if you're not taking time to wind down a little bit. So, that was only the evening routine. So, one more time, the evening routine is the most important thing if you want to have a productive day. After that, good qualitative sleep, then you have the morning.
So, my alarm wakes me up for Fajr. And in the morning, when I wake up for Fajr, the most beautiful thing is to just do Wudu, fresh up a little bit, and go outside to the Masjid. If there is a Masjid nearby, I always go. If I'm currently staying, traveling at a place where I'm not really close to a Masjid, then I unfortunately have to pray at home. But currently, here, alhamdulillah, in Dubai, there are a lot of Masjids, a lot of Musjids all over the place. There's just one here around the corner. And it's also really nice to wake up that way because you're catching some fresh air, which is very good for your body. You're moving a little bit, you know. So, it's, it's easier for your body to wake up. So, a lot of benefits are for going to the Masjid. And I'm even speaking about the Barakah that's in your morning when you really go to the Masjid and you pray together. So, the first thing, like I said, is again, I go to the Masjids. And I also do some reading and Quran. For me, one of the best moments of the day to start learning, learning and memorizing Quran a little bit is also in the morning because your brain is really fresh, you know. There's not a lot of things in your brain going on. So, as you already can see, the first thing before we're talking about work, before we're talking about going to the gym, when I'm going to have food, the first things is looking at the prayer times. And how can I even, because I'm having a very busy day, I'm having a lot of responsibility throughout the day, but the first thing I try to prioritize is my Deen. You cannot have a bad day if you already have such blessing in your day, you know, having quality to sleep, you're full of energy, and you end and start your day with Quran, with your Deen, with peace in mind, alhamdulillah. That's, uh, that's amazing.
Then, the second thing of the day, what you actually seeing is these five lines, red lines, are the moments of my daily prayers. Which means you have five moments, five parts of your day. So, the biggest mistake, I think, that people are making is that throughout the whole day, they are very reactive. So, in the morning, they are already answering calls, going to the gym in the morning, then they are going to, uh, have some calls in between. They're in the mid, in the afternoon, they are going to do some extra work, and then, uh, they're having the family in between, and then they're doing this, and then, like, it's a complete chaos. Like, for me, the best thing with that works is just dividing my day into these five parts. And then the first thing what I do is I dive into some work. And not just normal work, I go and dive into deep work. Deep work. And the reason why I'm writing this so big is that is the biggest and most important part of my day. So, after going to the Masjid in the morning, I dive into my deep work. Now, what is deep work? Deep work is a moment of the day where you are working without being distracted. So, that means, like, this is my actual computer, actually, as you can see. So, when I go come home after my prayer, I sit down, and I make sure that I don't have any phone with me. My phone is not with me. So, when I come home, I sit down behind my desk, and I start with deep work. I start with deep work. And deep work means no distraction and full concentrated work on certain tasks. The most important tasks of the day first. Because the actual goal of having a good and productive day is catching as much wins as possible. A win is that I have good sleep. A win is that I go to the Masjid. A win is that I read the Quran. A win is that I go to the Masid in the morning again. And the other win, one of the biggest win for me for my company and for my business is doing the most important tasks first. And I'll get in a second later at the end of this video what kind of list I'm working on because I do that at the end of the day after Maghrib. I try to schedule my whole day. But I will get into that in a second later on.
So, what I believe is that if you are an entrepreneur and you don't have any deep focus throughout the day, then you don't have a productive day. You cannot tell me that you have a productive day if you're not deep working. Especially when you're starting out in the beginning, this is all that matters. And I'm currently managing three businesses at the same time. And to do that, if without deep work, if you're constantly in meetings, how can you do your to-dos? It's very, very hard. So, I strive for at least four hours of deep work, at least. So, sometimes, like you can see right over here, at 10 a.m., sometimes right over here, I have some meetings. And I mean, I don't really prefer to have meetings in the morning, but sometimes unfortunately it just happens, and you have to do that. But if I don't have any meetings, this just continues. I just have the, uh, deep work until Dhuhr. So, that means the time between Fajr and Dhuhr is completely dedicated to in the morning going to the Masjid. But after that, I immediately go into work. And some people say, "Oh, I, I am more productive in the evening or in the night or whatever." But it goes against the whole thing that I said here. If you work in the night or if you work in the evening, your sleep will be less good. And that's the reason why you don't have a productive morning routine. The reason, reason why you are not productive in the morning and why you can't be productive in the morning is because you don't have a good evening routine. That's the whole reason. Don't tell me that you cannot do this in the morning. Everyone can. But you just need to make sure that you build your routine around it.
And let me give you another reason. Because you don't need to listen to me. You need to listen to our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he made a Dua. He made a Dua to Allah subhana wa ta'ala for the people who are being productive in the morning. Because what he said, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he said, "Oh Allah, bless my Ummah in the early mornings." So, for that reason, I also dedicate some time to the Quran because those blessings are the best blessings, of course. But also, I try to do my most important things in the morning because that's the moment when our Ummah, we are blessed, our work is blessed, we have Barakah in what we do. And also, one other thing for the people that say, "Oh, I'm productive in the night." When you look into the Islam sources, it is also not really recommended to do anything between Isha and Fajr. Our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said as well, the only reason for staying up is if you're doing that for prayer or reading Quran and getting knowledge. Other than that, Allah subhana wa ta'ala made the day and the night for us to to separate the day. So, it's not really a smart idea to do things in the night, in the evening.
And then, after Fajr and a productive morning, it's time for prayer. And at the time of at 1:00 p.m. right over here in Dubai, it means that I already had a working day of seven hours. Seven hours at time. In the middle of the day, I've already worked seven hours. And these seven hours are not comparable with the eight hours of a 9-to-5 worker. Why? Because I'm having deep work. And most people in 9-to-5 or people at working at an office, they're constantly distracted. You know, they're constantly having conversations with other people, they're getting calls, getting phone, they need to send messages and things like that. Like, people cannot call me in these hours. Sometimes I'm having meetings, but these are pre-scheduled meetings, not meetings that get out of nowhere between this. So, right over here, I'm having no phone. So, this is a phone. I'm having no phones. You cannot contact me in between this time. So, that means that these seven hours can be maybe the same as 14 hours of someone who's working in productive, you know. So, in between Fajr and Dhuhr, I did amazing things. I went to the Masjid. I had a productive day. I had some meetings if necessary.
So, then it's time for a break. I worked hard. It's time for a break. And if you want to stay sharp, sometimes it's good to take a break. You have people and entrepreneurs again, business owners, CEOs that are working from here to there. And I mean, you can do that. But I think the best and most important thing is invest in your health as well. Invest in your sleep, invest in time to the Masjid, like your mental peace. But also to not work like complete 10 hours in a day.
So, then the next thing that I do, and that's between 1 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. So, that's two hours after Dhuhr. I take time for my prayer. And then what I'm doing is sports. I'm taking time for fitness, going to the gym, things like that. Plus, I'm having a brunch. Now, you might be thinking, what is a brunch? Because I haven't even talked about food yet. And you're correct. I don't eat. I don't eat after I woke up. I'm not eating somewhere here. I'm just doing something that is called intermittent fasting. And intermittent fasting is something that, uh, people here in the West, in the Western world, made a very big thing. But fasting is very important. Islam stimulates it. During Ramadan, we are obligated to do that. We need to do that as Muslims. And even our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, on Mondays and Thursdays, he fasted voluntary, which I try to do once in a while as well. But it's just very important that we don't eat throughout the whole day. I mean, our bodies are not meant to eat breakfast or eating lunch, snacks in between, dinner, and then snacks in the evening. Because your body is constantly processing food. I mean, we have to learn from nature. We have to learn from the creation of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. And if people, people have existed for millions of years, you know, millions of years. We have evolved. We have learned things. And throughout this whole period, and this tiny part right over here, this is the modern world, you know, where we have fridges where we can put food in the fridge so that it stays good. Those millions of years before the modern time, we didn't had fridges. We, we were lucky if we had hunted one chicken or one cow, one beef, you know. So, sometimes you even needed to spend days without food. If you look at the life of our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he didn't eat that much food. And there's also this Hadith about the proportion of food that we need: one-third of our stomach for food, one-third for water, and one-third for air. So, that means don't fill up your body constantly. And that's what we're actually doing. People are obese. I mean, people back in the days were not obese. People right now are not fit, not in a good shape, not in a good health condition. Why? Because we're constantly eating. And not only eating, we're constantly eating unhealthy food, junk food. We're eating before sleep, eating in the morning, things like that. I don't do that. I don't do that. I'm having brunch, which means breakfast and lunch in one. Brunch. It's not something I, it's, it's actually a very popular word for people that didn't know brunch. And I'm doing that until here. I'm taking my time. I'm taking my time to go to the gym. And it can be different. Sometimes I'm going to the gym, sometimes I'm going for a run, sometimes I'm going to play soccer with friends or anything like that. I, I really love sports, you know. So, it's just very important that I, I make my body in motion, in moving. Because I'm having a job where I need to do things online. We're into marketing, software, and building all of those things. So, most part of the day, I'm sitting still, I'm working behind the screen. So, for me, it's really important that I'm also having a part of my day where my body is in movement, where I can go outside, where I can play sports, anything like that. Because it's very important to stay in in a healthy, good condition, you know. So, I'm taking time for sport about one hour, maybe one and a half. And then I'm having brunch. I'm making sure that I'm going to eat some healthy food. And what I'm currently doing already for a couple of months is OMAD. OMAD, which is one meal a day. So, I'm just eating one meal a day. It's a bigger meal than what people are normally launching. I'm eating like half a kilo of beef or chicken combined with one whole avocado, some extra vegetables or things like that, five to six eggs. So, that I'm making sure that after sports, I'm filling up my body with proteins, with vitamins, and all of the necessaries for the for the day. And it's not completely that I'm doing OMAD. Because sometimes after Asr, I'm having some fruit, some nuts, some dates throughout the day. And I mean, I'm a human as well. Sometimes I want snacks as well. But actually, let me check somewhere. Yeah, here. The best snack that you can have is dates. Like our Prophet wasallam did that as well. These are containing a lot of healthy things. This is coming straight out of nature. If you're eating chocolate and all of those things throughout the day, then it's really bad for your body, you know.
And what I must realize as well, as a CEO, you're responsible for not only your company, for your money, for taking care of your family, and take care of your team. But it's the most important thing that you take care of yourself. I'm not taking care of myself, then how can I do this throughout the day? How can I have energy? How can I make sure that I'm fit? If I'm not fit, then I cannot do all of those things. I cannot be responsible for my own company. If I'm not sleeping well, if I'm not prioritizing my Deen, if I'm not eating healthy, then I would constantly have brain fog. I would not be sharp. I would not really be able to to make sure that, uh, uh, that I be productive and that I get the right results, you know. So, what I do is called OMAD. But sometimes I'm eating some snacks over here. And when I'm really fasting for the sake of Allah subhana wa ta'ala, then the OMAD, the one meal is right over here. So, sometimes when I'm voluntary fasting, the OMAD, so the one meal a day is after Maghrib, after I break my my fast. So, the schedule is also very easy to adapt if you're fasting. Even in Ramadan, this is a very amazing schedule to use, you know.
So, after a quick break, I did a shower. After sporting, I switched my clothes, I freshened up, I've eaten, I'm fit, I went outside, maybe even after going to the gym, I'm going for a quick walk. I'm completely fresh. It feels like a whole new day is about to start after that. So, then at 3 and Asr is at 4:00. I'm having time. I'm having a lot of time between Dhuhr and Asr. And this can be completely different depending on my day. But the afternoon can consist of some light work. By the way, really sorry for my bad handwriting because, yeah, I don't have any excuses. I'm sorry. So, it can be light work. It can be meetings. It can be brainstorming about new ideas. But it can also be time for some fun. Damn, my handwriting is so bad. But it can also be for fun activities, time with a family or something like that. Sometimes I'm even taking time to have meetings outside. Actually, my day is open. It really depends on on my day. So, I can do take time for some light work. Sometimes I'm having meetings, brainstorming. But also I have a lot of time for fun activities or take time for family or things like that. And the reason that I can do that is because of this morning. Because I prioritize all of the important things. Actually, it, it doesn't really matter what I do after that. Do you see how I prioritize all of the things throughout the day? So, first, I look at the prayer times. Then I look at my sleep for my energy. Then I look at how to implement time for my religion, for going to the Masjid, reading Quran, all of those things. Then I try to finish the most important things that I have to do for my work first, which I do with deep work. Then sometimes I'm having meetings. Then I prioritize my health with sports. I'm going to eat healthy. I'm going to the gym. And then throughout the whole day, even before Asr until Isha, I have all the time. I have all the time to just have fun. Because sometimes people are thinking, as a CEO, as an entrepreneur, you cannot have fun anymore. It's so busy. And yes, it is very busy. I have a lot of responsibilities. And sometimes throughout the day, I have to work from until sometimes I have to do that. Sometimes even after Maghrib in the evening, I'm still working. It really happens. But even right now, for example, it is, uh, just a little bit after Asr. And, um, I'm currently recording a video. It doesn't really matter what I do. I just do the things that are important. Sometimes it's taking time for family and things like that.
After Maghrib, what I do is I take time for things like family or time for reading or other activities. But it's also very important that I must make sure that the 3-2-1 rule is about to start somewhere over here. And the biggest mistake that a lot of people are making, and I made it myself as well, a bunch of times, is that this is going well. I'm having an amazing day. Everything is going well. Business is running. I did all of the things that I have to do. And then Maghrib is there. And then after that, I forget that actually the day is starting then again, you know. So, I'm still on social media or something like that. I'm, I'm still taking time with family. And that's getting late and late and late. But you must remember that if you are right over here, not taking time for a good routine, then the days after that will, uh, also not be be right.
Now, let me see. Did I forget anything? There's one thing over here. Before, uh, Isha, I plan my whole day. So, I plan all of this what is about to happen for the next day. Is I schedule it. Everything. I schedule also my light work or my fun activities or things like that. Because I need to wake up with purpose. Let me actually write that. Purpose. The most important thing is that you have purpose in life. How can you work on a plan? How can you level up every single day if you don't have a plan? A normal day starts with a plan, good sleep, prioritizing your Deen. And then you have it. The most productive routine that I have ever seen. And this is not something that I just, uh, did out of nowhere. This is after a couple of years of optimizing. After I referred to Islam, I needed to flip the whole schedule as well. But this is just by testing and and feeling and and looking and optimizing about what works best for me. And it's not, this doesn't mean that you have to do the exact same thing. I mean, if you're still going to school, or if you have a 9-to-5 job, it might be very hard to do it like this. Then I suggest you become an entrepreneur. It's much easier to schedule your own time. But also, maybe you have an own business, business, and where where you cannot align it with this. Maybe you cannot go to the gym in the middle of, uh, of the day. Maybe you need to do it in the morning or in the afternoon or in the, uh, evening. I just share this video to give you a little bit more of an insight in my days, how I do it. And I think it can be very valuable for you as well. Try to learn, try to be adaptive. And also, when you're just starting out, really important. I'm taking sometimes seven hours of deep work. So, I'm really working hard with between Fajr and Dhuhr. But if you're just starting out, it's really hard to concentrate. This is something you really have to train. So, try to implement some of these things step by step if you're just starting out. But the goal should be that you do as much as you can in your day while still taking time for your prayers and for Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Go to the Masjid. And also for your family, fun activities. If I'm off vacation, I can do this because I'm still taking time with family. If I'm in a busy period, I can do this because I can dedicate my time or for work. Even after Isha and stuff, it doesn't really matter. This is, this is it. This is it. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.
So, I hope this video is insightful for you. If you want to learn more, click in the first link here down below because I've got something amazing for you. How you can learn these things as well. How can you can build your own business, set it up in a Halal way, 100% Halal way. And then, uh, I'll speak to you next time.