Exploring intentional productivity, GTD (Getting Things Done), and faith-guided mastery — where purpose meets performance.
You’re welcome to my (virtual) co-working space:
https://space.edneylearnx.com/hasansaidin
Working solo can be tough — and sometimes, just knowing someone else is working alongside you (even silently) can make all the difference.
Read More “Co-Working Space for Body Doubling”
Photo credit: image from webpage of Trello
After a 3-month hiatus, I’ve been easing back into work over the past couple of weeks. It feels good to return, and to gradually get the engine running again.
There’s quite a bit waiting in the backlog, but I’m grateful for the recordings, summaries and documentation from before the break. They’ve made it much easier to pick up where I left off and shape a revised plan.
Read More “To Do, Doing, Done”
Compact with impact!
Hopefully… 😊
Our panel session,
“Self-Discipline Across Cultures”
is 30 minutes only
(MYT Friday, 24th November, 5:00pm),
but isn’t less more…?
Come and take away a few nuggets from Chrishanne, Yuva and I.
My own self-discipline comes from a blending of corporate culture (professionally) and tradition culture (personally). I wish to contribute an idea or two that you might adapt to your discipline!
Register and get your free ticket to the entire Summit at this Eventbrite link site or app: https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/how-to-create-positive-change-in-life-business-tickets-723822311017
4th Global Empowerment Summit #GES2023 with Andrea Zsapka (thank you!), Chrishanne Sebastiampillai (thank you!) and Yuvarajan Devandran (thank you!)
Certainty Anchors – what are yours?
I discovered that in a book called “Uncertainty,” Jonathan Fields speaks about the power of rituals and habits that occur at specific intervals during the day in order to help us live more creative lives.
“The simple physical act of engaging in ritual and routine serves as a certainty anchor…
…A certainty anchor is a practice or process that adds something known and reliable to your life when you may otherwise feel you’re spinning off in a million different directions.
Rituals and routines can function as certainty anchors by offering a sense of connection with the divine or with a like-minded community.”
What are yours?
Monthly, I meet my coach.
Weekly, I update my accountability buddies.
Daily, my 5 daily prayers (“salah” or “solat”). Within them my favourite posture is the prostration (“sujood”).
Prostrating in utter humility, my heart is at a higher level than my head, so I literally FEEL the gush of blood to my brain.
I believe that when I prostrate (total of 34 times in the 5 times a day) my brain receives more nourishment, which has a good effect upon memory, vision, hearing, concentration, psyche and all other cognitive abilities.
Again, what are your certainty anchors, be they daily or other frequencies in the month?
Benefits of certainty anchors include the following.
✔️ Reduced anxiety: Certainty anchors can provide a sense of stability and security in uncertain times, helping to reduce anxiety and stress.
✔️ Enhanced decision-making: Having a few key certainties in life can make decision-making easier, as you can base choices on your core values and beliefs.
✔️ Increased resilience: Certainty anchors can help you bounce back from setbacks and adapt to changing circumstances, as they provide a foundation of stability.
✔️ Improved focus and productivity: Knowing your certainty anchors can help you prioritize and concentrate on what truly matters to you.
✔️ Greater well-being: Having a sense of certainty can contribute to overall well-being and a more positive outlook on life.
Jonathan Fields’ approach encourages individuals to identify and cultivate their own certainty anchors to navigate the uncertainties of life effectively.
Related posts:
There are lots of literature that describe the benefits of prostration (“sujood” or “sajdah”). Here is one:
Amazing Benefits of Prostration in Islam and new science on “Earthing”
With or without ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), Accountability Coaching outcomes are:
Image: Co-Working Space (virtual) – my view
As your Accountability Coach, I keep you accountable on your planned tasks daily and help you handle unplanned demands of the day and week.
This is also called body doubling. I become your body double.
Email me at: hasan@rubah.my
Call/message me at: +6012 200 3251
Book my time directly in my calendar:
Related information: Learning Experiences
With or without ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), Accountability Coaching outcomes are:
Image: Co-Working Space (virtual) – my view
As your Accountability Coach, I keep you accountable on your planned tasks daily and help you handle unplanned demands of the day and week.
This is also called body doubling. I become your body double.
Email me at: hasan@rubah.my
Call/message me at: +6012 200 3251
Book my time directly in my calendar:
Related information: Learning Experiences
Image credit: The Minds Journal
So boring! So monotonous!!!
– What if it’s “sacred monotony”? 🤔
In a previous post,
I said that rather than lamenting on what could be felt as doing a meaningless task (e.g. a work “process” step),
connecting it to a higher purpose reframes our feeling to that of gratitude.
Do we feel that day in, day out
we are in a “same old same old” routine and monotony?
What if we treat the monotony as “sacred monotony”?
Sacred monotony becomes skillful monotony and fulfilling monotony,
like in the above example of “meaningless task”
when we can:
✔️ check it against a higher purpose.
If not the highest purpose each time,
then the cascaded lower sub-purpose(s).
Sacred monotony is when we enter any task
with intention (a.k.a. niat, niyyah, nawaitu),
versus mindless, automatic drifting.
Archers, violinists or other achievers
who repeat and practise hours on end
for months or years on end
do not complain of boring routine!
We perform religious rituals with sacred monotony
(except if we approach them in automatic mode).
Try this:
– remembrance of deep intention, and
– mindfulness (being fully present every moment in every task) for all daily activities,
be they for religious rituals or mundane work and life routines.
An alternative is: escape from boredom
through falling for distractions,
bingeing on entertainment,
and other heedless forms,
but beware – where are we really heading to?
Have a blessed Friday,
have a good weekend,
(even with monotony)!
Video: my conversation with Nadiah Suki on her accepting “process” for a greater good, and how her not whining about it is actually her practising gratitude.
Here is the reason I was so emphatic on “no complaining” when I had that conversation with Nadiah Suki: I recently completed a “no complaining” endurance in my recent 35-day Hajj trip! 😊
Prior to the Hajj trip, the teacher at my Hajj course had said that this is a journey of the heart.
The Sheikh taught me that with the 2 million plus people in Makkah, I should take heed of these (also see Appendix 2 further below):
The above apply before, during and after Hajj.
Before and during the trip, I prayed that my ears don’t hear and my eyes don’t see people complaining, arguing or proposing solutions. I also intended to avoid those kind of people.
Sure enough, there were some tests of those kind of people. Still, Allah did spare me from many, I am sure.
As an example at Kuala Lumpur International Airport when we were waiting to board the plane to Jeddah, my wife Marsila beside me suddenly said, “Oops, my bad, I shouldn’t have said that.” Truth was I really didn’t hear anything she said before that.
And as we were about to board the plane, a fellow pilgrim said to me, “Ada satu kecacatan (There is one defect)..” referring to the start of our journey, but at that time we were standing up to get on the bus to board the plane, so he could not finish his sentence.
In the first couple of days in Makkah, the tests of noticing people’s whining did continue. The travel package I bought had me share the hotel room with 3 other pilgrims, so they become new friends. To one of them I confided, in tears, that I was trying my best not to complain, not to add fuel to the fire of other people complaining, and not to be in the company of complainers.
Why? Because I am a guest of Allah and as a guest, I do not want to kecilkan hati (displease) my Host, Allah Himself!
This concept of not kecilkan hati Tuan Rumah (Host) was reminded to me before the trip by my friend, an earlier Hajah, Farah Rahim.
I texted Farah from Makkah that I was just keeping quiet when people complain. Farah suggested I smile while in the company of complainers, and I would be rewarded. So I did try to smile a lot throughout the pilgrimage. 😊
The pilgrimage was meant to be arduous, at different levels for different people. The congestion in the main mosque of Masjid Haram when we did the Tawaf and Sa’ie rituals as well as the daily prayers, the 40 degrees Celcius plus HEAT (!), the delays, the crammed camps in Arafah and Mina, the ratio of 60:1 people to toilet in the camps, the list goes on.
I think I was patient enough with the tests, Alhamdulillah, including when I smiled at supposedly intelligent suggestions people raised about the toilet situation, the meals menu prepared by the travel agency, etc., etc.
I decided to adapt to the new routines and travel situations (after all, I am a seasoned world traveler), and count the relative blessings I had.
Especially when another roommate said, “Allah loves you, Hasan – He gives you “corner lot” each time!” My roommate was referring to the positioning of my beds in Makkah, Arafah and Mina.
I was first to arrive at the hotel room in Makkah, thus I could choose the bed by the window.
In the Arafah camp, somehow I got the end bed (very narrow sofa bed/mattress – side-by-side literally touching the next one) by the wall, giving a bit of space to put my stuff between bed and wall.
In the Mina camp, my narrow bed (same cramming like in Arafah) was by the doorway of the room, giving “breathing space” to the next bed on the other side of the doorway.
(Read on, below)
Read More “No Whining = Gratitude”
“What the heck is a soliloquy? 😄😄😄 Ohhhh….cakap sorang-sorang.”
Today I spoke by myself, then sent the 4 minutes 20 seconds recording to the other two members of our Accountability Triad.
What the heck is an Accountability Triad?
Three members accountable to own selves and accountable to each other.
Every Friday from 8am to 8:30am we get on a Zoom call and update on each of our previous week’s declarations then declare our new goals for the coming week.
Three members. Triangle. Prism. Get it? Hopefully the light that gets in refracts out as colours of the rainbow.
(I also still have the vinyl for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon album.)
This week when the other two members were not available, I decided to keep the momentum with a soliloquy, and it doesn’t matter to me if they don’t replay it.
Two of us started this in May 2022 as a dyad. It became a triad about a month later. May it go on and on, because we love it.
I had agreed to this idea from the other member because I was partly inspired by Marshall Goldsmith’s “6 Daily Questions.”
We do whatever works for us! 😁
