Productivity & Mastery

– A faith-conscious framework for governing attention in the age of infinite scrolling

PREFACE

I’m resuming this newsletter after a six-week pause. In next week’s edition, I will share what I learned during that pause.

One visible shift: I am orienting this newsletter around the Hijri calendar. For me, sacred time carries meaning and alignment.

This edition marks the 4th Tuesday of Shaʿban, with our usual 4th Tuesday theme:

Faith-Conscious in Practice: translating principles into tools, case studies and lived application.

Let us begin.

YOUR PHONE IS NOT NEUTRAL

Recently I listened to a conversation on the Blogging Theology podcast, hosted by Paul Williams, featuring Subboor Ahmad, author of the book, Zombie Scrolling.

The podcast episode title, Your Phone Is Not Neutral: The Truth About Zombie Scrolling hooked me in!

The “infinite scroll” mechanism was engineered (by Aza Raskin, who later regretted it) using slot-machine psychology. It removes cues for stopping. It keeps the thumb moving. It rewards unpredictability.

Indeed, design influences behaviour. Digital environments shape spiritual states.

So a faith-conscious leader must ask. What is this environment shaping within me? Where is my attention being trained?

THIS IS ABOUT ATTENTION

Not all phone use is the same.

Purposeful research, communication, structured learning — these are intentional.

Zombie scrolling is directionless (ghafla), compulsive engagement. Awareness fades and time dissolves.

Neuroscience suggests rapid, unpredictable content creates dopamine spikes. When stimulation becomes frequent, baseline motivation shifts. Ordinary tasks feel heavier. Deep reading requires effort. Salah (prayer) requires presence that feels harder to access.

This touches something deeper than productivity.

Attention is amanah (sacred trust). The heart follows where attention settles.

A CRISIS OF MEANING

On-the-surface solutions circulate widely: delete the app, install a blocker, or reduce screen time.

Structure can help. I’ve tried.

Subboor Ahmad proposes that it is direction that determines sustainability. When purpose clarifies, behaviour follows.

If you have a journey to catch in the morning, preparation shapes your night; you won’t be scrolling past midnight.

If you are entrusted with responsibility, your schedule reflects it.

Subboor describes zombie scrolling as a crisis of meaning. That language resonates deeply within our tradition. Allah says:

“And the worldly life is not but amusement and diversion; but the home of the Hereafter is best for those who fear Allah. So will you not reason?” — Qur’an 6:32

The Qur’an speaks of amusement and diversion as temporary engagements that can eclipse higher purpose.

Entertainment occupies a place.

Orientation determines its weight.

Diversion expands when purpose thins.

Shaʿban invites recalibration.

Read More “Beyond Zombie Scrolling: Reclaiming Attention Before Ramadan”

– A faith-conscious goal setting for leaders seeking focus, steadiness and follow-through

FROM PARADIGM TO PRACTICE

In the previous edition, we explored how renewal begins with a paradigm shift in the heart. That inner shift matters because it determines what we choose to pursue, how we pursue it and how we respond when circumstances change.

This edition moves from inner clarity to practical structure.

Once the heart realigns, a natural question follows:

How do I translate this clarity into goals that guide my year without overwhelming me?

This is where the concept I call Anchored Goals comes in.

It is a way of setting goals that reflects the life we are actually living, the responsibilities we carry and the capacity we realistically have over twelve months.

WHY GOALS DRIFT WITHOUT ANCHORS

Many professionals set goals every year. Fewer feel guided by them.

From my coaching experience, goals tend to lose relevance when they are created without sufficient regard for the roles we live in daily, the energy each role requires and the emotional centre of the year.

When goals float without anchors, attention fragments, review becomes irregular and commitment weakens gradually.

Allah reminds us:

“So remain on a right course as you have been commanded…” — Qur’an 11:112

Anchored Goals begins by restoring structure and proportion, then shaping goals that fit within that reality.

STEP 1: CLARIFY THE ROLES YOU WILL BE PLAYING IN THE COMING YEAR

Before defining goals, we need to recognise the roles we already inhabit.

A role is an ongoing responsibility, not a glamorous title for status. It represents something that calls on your time, attention and emotional presence throughout the year.

Some roles are steady and do not require specific goals. Some have been neglected. Some are emerging.

Examples of roles leaders often carry include:

• leader (CEO or senior executive)
• entrepreneur or business owner
• professional (manager, consultant, coach, facilitator)
• spouse
• parent
• extended family member
• learner
• contributor to community
• servant of Allah
• self-caretaker

Make it deliberate to include self-caretaker as a role. Leaders often deprioritise health, renewal and inner development. Naming this role restores balance.

Limit your list to no more than eight roles. Combine or simplify where needed.

Then reflect:

• Which roles currently receive most of my energy?
• Which roles are under-attended?
• Which roles will become more significant this coming year?

This step restores perspective. It allows us to see life as an integrated system rather than a collection of disconnected goals.

Read More “Anchored Goals: Turning Inner Clarity into a One-Year Plan That Sticks”

– How leaders can internalize muhasabah in the workplace with sincerity and clarity

THE QUIET WORK OF RETURNING TO OURSELVES

In leadership, strategy and work, we review performance, numbers and outcomes. Yet the most important review often goes untouched: the one inside.

The scholars call self-examination Muhasabah, or Stocktaking.

The book The Wayfarer’s Journey Towards Allah, which is an abridgement of Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah’s Madārij al-Sālikīn, describes Stocktaking as awakening to blessing, responsibility, doubts and duties.

My accountability buddy powerfully summarised three reminders on Stocktaking from the book, as follows:

• Awareness. Become aware of what belongs to oneself and what one owes. Distinguish what comes from Allah and what one does for oneself.
  
  
• Comparison. Every blessing is a favour. Every disfavour is an act of justice. Prior to drawing this comparison, a person is totally unaware of one’s own reality and the Lordship of one’s Creator. The comparison shows a person that the soul is the source of every flaw and evil and that the soul ignorantly embarks on wrongdoing.

• Humility. Stocktaking relies primarily on self-doubt. To think well and highly of oneself precludes proper examination and leads to confusion. People of firm resolve, and good insight pray most for forgiveness immediately after doing some good thing, such as voluntary prayer or fasting. They realise that despite what they do, they remain short of fulfilling their duties.
  

Read More “Faith-Conscious Stocktaking: Aligning the Heart For Us To Lead”

– How redha, sabr and ikhtiar transform frustration into purposeful initiative

THE “BANE” OF WORK PROCESSES

Almost every professional faces it: the bane of bureaucracy.

Procedures pile up, approvals drag and paperwork feels endless.

In a conversation (8½-minute video below) in 2023, I spoke with Dr. Nadiah Suki, an academic whose work life sometimes revolves around forms, reviews, ISO checklists and audits. Yet, instead of loudly complaining, she has learned to view these frustrations through a faith-conscious lens.

I encourage readers to watch patiently! It’s longer than my usual clips, but worth it. What unfolds is a journey from irritation to insight and finally to initiative.

Read More “Beyond Whining: Faith-Conscious Action in the Face of Bureaucracy”

– When GTD meets deen: unlearning secular patterns, striving for faith-conscious productivity

PRODUCTIVITY BOTTOM-UP OR TOP-DOWN?

David Allen’s GTD® (Getting Things Done®) methodology has been beneficial for me for two decades.

GTD’s 5 Steps, with all the techniques and tools I’ve been using, have systematically helped me manage overwhelm and stress, truly, i.e. in cruising to try finish more than a hundred (!) to-do tasks at any one time (GTD calls them Next Actions) at the “runaway level.”

Read More “Getting Things Deen: Faith-Conscious-izing GTD”

IN SEARCH OF THE RIGHT WORD

From the 1970’s I have been reading a lot, and in 1982 I picked up the book In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. It became a business classic that shaped management thinking for decades. “Excellence” became a benchmark for organizations seeking to outperform competitors and sustain growth.

Forty years later I discovered the profound word that signifies an internal state for excellence, and the word is ihsan. The word takes on a spiritual lens. Beyond efficiency, KPIs, or customer satisfaction, ihsan asks: how do we bring beauty, sincerity, and God-consciousness into our work?

Read More “In Search of Excellence: Ihsan or Itqan?”