This is continuation of parts 1&2. If you haven't read those yet, read it here.

The Qur’an treats time like a spiritual liability.

Loss is the default state.

In this letter we will talk about how to structure your time using The Divine Time Block system.

Before we begin:

Let’s get back to it.

Time blocking.

If I were to rate this I’d give it a 10/10.

You see it show up on modern-day entrepreneurs as color-coded Google Calendars.

Time blocking is the act of assigning a specific task to a specific block of time versus keeping a loose to do list.

A to do list says:
“Write newsletter.”

A time block says:
“Write newsletter from 8:00 to 9:30 AM.”

It looks small but psychologically it’s a game changer.

Why else do billionaires live by it?

There are 3 core psychological mechanisms at play:

If you give yourself 2 hours, your brain unconsciously paces itself for 2 hours.

If you give yourself 1 week, your brain unconsciously paces itself for 1 week.

Parkinson illustrated this with an elderly woman whose only daily task was to mail a postcard. Because she had all day, she spent hours finding the card, searching for glasses, and writing the message, stretching what would be a 3-minute task into a full day of toil.

I’ve seen this happen firsthand with myself.

If I go to a cafe with my laptop charger, I will take all day until the cafe closes to get all the tasks done. But if I don’t bring my charger, and get there with about 29% of charge left, I am forced to finish my tasks within that time frame.

I never bring my laptop charger outside with me.

Time is elastic (you’ll notice this when I talk about barakah in time in the next section).

Constraint creates compression.

Compression increases intensity.

Intensity increases focus.

So if you find yourself taking forever to get something done?

Set a timer.

Humans underestimate how long things take.

A student estimates a research paper will take a week to do even though past papers took 3 weeks.

Software developers underestimate how long it will take to build a new feature because they don’t account for bugs or testing.

Time blocking forces you to confront reality.

When you see “3 hours blocked” you stop pretending like it’s a 30 minute task in your head. And over time, your judgment sharpens because if you blocked 3 hours but it reality it took 6 hours, you’ll remember that the next time you have to block it on your calendar or notebook again.

avoid decision making altogether*

I already created the graphic and didn’t wanna go back to update it. lol.

Every open ended day creates micro decisions:

What should I do now?

*reverts to checking phone*

If you don’t know what to do next in your day, chances are you’re gonna pick up your phone, check instagram, your emails, your Whatsapp, your other random notifications, whatever you got on your phone. And we all know what repeatedly looking at your phone does.

IT RUINS YOUR ABILITY TO FOCUS.

Don’t start your day until it’s finished on paper.

Design the day before it happens.

I do this every Ramadan with Eternah’s ramadan planner so I don’t waste any precious time.

Peter Drucker (the author of The Effective Executive) tracked the time of executives and found that most leaders had no idea where their hours went.

So I gave this a try a few weeks ago and literally wrote down everything I did in 15-min intervals by setting a constant timer on my iPhone:

It was insane how much more conscious I was of my minutes. The amount of time I spent on my phone was ridiculous. I recommend you all to try it. You can just use a simple excel sheet to track it.

And as a chronic writer, let me tell you:

Creativity EXPLODES under restriction.

It sounds counter-intuitive but like I was procrastinating on this newsletter. So right now I’m at a cafe and I’ve been just plowing through this because the cafe is going to close in 43 minutes.

If you give yourself an entire day to write, you don’t write good and you lose focus.

If you give yourself 90 minutes, you are going to lock in.

Deadlines do a few things. They:

-create artificial urgency.
-force prioritization.
-reduce perfectionism
-define the minimal viable product (MVP).
-make feedback faster
-expose inefficiency
-accelerate decision-making
-increase cognitive intensity

Without a time boundary, if you are a perfectionist, your perfectionism will never end.

It will keep expanding like the universe.

I am a total perfectionist.

This is why when I launch a product I have to always give a public date of launch. Because it gives me an internal deadline otherwise that product is never going to be worked on.

Remember how I said the price increase of the TMC GPTs will be Feb 18?

Prime example.

Now all of this is mechanical efficiency.

But none of it explains why 2 people can work the same hours and produce very different outcomes.

This is where we transition to: barakah.

Hello, this newsletter is called the Barakah Hour.

How can we ever leave that part out?

Time can be expanded.

A time warp is a phenomenon that changes the flow of time by speeding it up or making it run more slowly.

They exist.

If any of you have been to Madinah, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

An hour feels like a day.
A day feels like a week.
A week feels like a month.
A month feels like a year.|
A year feels like a decade.

It felt the same way when I was in the Sahara Desert back in 2018.

But it's the complete opposite in the West.

The West is filled with immorality and sins. It's no wonder there's no collective barakah in our time. And I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like it’s gotten worse after COVIS in 2020.

If you find time slipping through your fingers like sand, the first thing you need to do is stop sins. There is a correlation between barakah in time and the output of good deeds as the Prophet ﷺ said:

Time is an amānah. We all have a limited amount. We are being tested with how we spend each second. Most people do not realize the value of their time until its too late:

They wish they could go back in time and do more. It may seem nearly impossible to create barakah in our time with constant pressures from work, school, and family. But it's not about the amount of hours. It's about where you focus your consciousness.

Islām gives us the cheat codes to tap into these time warps.

Reading the blessed book brings divine blessings. The more time you give the Qur'an, the more time it will give back to you. Anyone doing hifdh (memorization of the Qur'an) experiences this.

Every time I adopted an aggressive memorization style of like 2-3 pages a day, I went in knowing it would cut into my work time.

The complete opposite happened.

I would finished my portion for the day and it would only 9am.

What in the world.

I felt like I had even MORE time than before.

My experience is just a drop of what's possible.

The salaf (pious predecessors) read a great deal of Qur'an. Scholars in the past would attend 12 lessons a day with teachers, then review and implement them. Where was the time for sleeping? For eating? For praying? For tahajjud? Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه اللّه died at the age of 67, leaving around 500 written books. That's near impossible for someone today. The secret to their productivity had to be barakah. They dedicated their lives to Allah and experienced the blessings that came with.

Create a wird (a portion) of the Qur'an to read in the morning and evening.

Allah swears by Fajr and 'Asr. Two times of the day when people are sleeping in or busy with the world. Take advantage of these times and recite your portions of the Qur'an. Even if it's just 5 minutes or a few verses. The more regular you get with doing it, the more you'll notice the blessings in your day.

Make du'a.

We are told to make du'a even if for something as small as breaking a shoelace.

This du'a below is part of a longer supplication. It is often recited in Witr prayer. It asks for Allah's blessings in what He has given and protection from harm:

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ وَقِنِي شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ
O Allah bless me in what You have bestowed, and save me from the evil of what You have decreed [Sunan an-Nasa'i]

Another powerful du'a to protect you from laziness (one of my favorites):

اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّي أَعْوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الهَـمِّ وَ الْحُـزْنِ، والعًجْـزِ والكَسَلِ والبُخْـلِ والجُـبْنِ وضَلْـعِ الـدَّيْنِ وغَلَبَـةِ الرِّجال
O Allah, I seek refuge in you from grief and sadness, from weakness and from laziness, from miserliness and from cowardice, from being overcome by debt and overpowered by men (i.e. others). [Bukhari]

There are 5 parts of seeking refuge in this du'a.
We will focus on the first 2.

1. Worry and Grief (الهمّ والحزن)
Worry is anxiety about the future. Grief is sorrow over the past. Both disrupt peace and productivity. Humans have 80,000 thoughts a day. 95% is the same as yesterday.

“I wish I did that differently.”
“When am I gonna get married?"
"When am I gonna have kids?"
"When is my content gonna go viral?”
"How am I gonna pay for this?”

How much time do we spend worrying about the past and regretting mistakes? The awliyā (friends) of Allah do not worry or grieve. They are living in the complete present.

Repeat this du'a to seek refuge from the whispers of Satan who fills your mind with these thoughts. He is working overtime right now the week before Ramadan.

2. Incapacity and Laziness (العجز والكسل)
Incapacity is when you can't do good deeds or fulfill responsibilities due to physical, mental, or situational limits. You want to do something but have no energy. Laziness is when you can do something but you lack the will or motivation. You have the energy but don't want to do it.

Repeat this du'a to seek refuge from these barriers that prevent you from doing good.

If you want a book with all the du'as from the Qur'an, check out Quranic Du'as here. It includes who said the du'a, why it was said, and recommended times for supplication.

Al-Hasan al-Basri commented that if you are experiencing delays in your rizq, marriage, work, or health… you should examine your salah.

Ask yourself: are you delaying your prayers? How can you expect to have time and blessings when you don't make time for the One who created time?

There's no denying this one. Anyone who's stayed up after Fajr knows this. By 12 PM it feels like you're entering part 2 of the day. What a beautiful feeling it is to complete the most important tasks before most people get up.

During the Night Journey and Ascension (al-Isra wal-Mi’raj), Allah The Most High initially gave us 50 daily prayers upon the Ummah to the Prophet ﷺ.

On his way back, he ﷺ met Prophet Musa (may peace be upon him).

Musa asked what had been prescribed. When he heard it was 50, Musa said: “Return to your Lord and ask for reduction, for your Ummah will not be able to bear it. I have tested the Children of Israel.”

The Prophet ﷺ went back and the number was reduced.
He ﷺ returned to Musa.
Musa told him to go back again.

This repeated several times until the prayers were reduced to 5.

Then Allah said they are 5 in action but equal to 50 in reward. Allah is the Greatest!

Musa even asked to go back after 5 but then the Prophet ﷺ said: “Now I feel shy of asking my Lord again.”

First off, shout out to Prophet Musa (may peace be upon him) for negotiating on our behalf to take the prayers down from 50 to 5.

Imagine we had 50 fixed timings?!

Most people can’t even do their 5.

Scheduling your day around the 5 prayers gives you both the benefits of:

And if you think about it, they are 5 identity check-ins and identity is the strongest driver of behavior. Your goals don’t really mean much. You act according to who you believe you are.

That’s why when you pray 5x a day, you are naturally pulled away from sins and evil.

You keep reinforcing your identity as a Muslim who submits to the Creator and that is very very verrrry powerful.

So instead of structuring your life around your job…

Structure it around you shahadah.

Because what is more powerful than

La ilaha illa Allah
I bear witness that the only deity worthy of worship except Allah alone!

Most people structure their day like this:

Wake up.
Work.
Eat.
Work.
Go home.
Eat.
Scroll.
Pray.
Sleep.

Nuh uh. Not here.

You are not building structure from scratch.

Allah already divided the day for you! He truly makes life so easy.

Think of it as 5 pillars holding up the architecture of your life.

Everything else fits between them.

Instead of building around a 9 to 5 job…

You build:

Fajr → Dhuhr
Dhuhr → Asr
Asr → Maghrib
Maghrib → Isha
Isha → Sleep

In The Muslim Creative, I give everyone a Notion template to do this and walk them through my content creation schedule.

This is the most cognitively powerful window of the day.

Eat the frog.

Do the hardest thing first.

This is not motivational fluff.

We are explicity told there is barakah in the early hours.

And mornings naturally have:

• Lowest distraction
• Fresh prefrontal cortex
• Higher willpower reserves
• Spiritually clear mind after prayer

Have you ever noticed if you don’t miss Fajr, your brain feels cloudy all day?

In this block:

Write.
Strategize.
Build.
Memorize.
Think.

Don’t take any meetings, don’t scroll, and don’t do any low level admin worl.

If you waste this window, the rest of the day is gonna feel like trash.

Energy dips slightly.

Use this for:

Calls.
Team communication.
Admin.
Fulfillment.
Logistics

This is maintenance mode.

You are tending what you planted in the morning.

Instead of letting the late afternoon turn into distraction, channel it.

Use this block for:

Creative planning.
Content ideation.
Light thinking.
Skill development.

It’s a softer work window.

After Maghrib, you are no longer building your empire.

You are building your soul and your home.

Family.
Qur’an.
Study.
Presence.

Treat the night as restoration.

The Prophet ﷺ disliked unnecessary talk after Isha.

Sleep protects Fajr.

And protecting Fajr protects the entire system.

If you struggle with Fajr, you most likely struggle with your sleep hygiene.

In summary:

Block 1: Fajr → Dhuhr
Deep work. Revenue-generating tasks. No phone.

Block 2: Dhuhr → Asr
Operations. Communication. Admin.

Block 3: Asr → Maghrib
Creative thinking. Strategy. Skill growth.

Block 4: Maghrib → Isha
Family. Study. Reading. Qur’an.

After Isha
Sleep unless intentional night worship.

When prayer interrupts your day, it:

-breaks obsessive loops
-prevents burnout
-resets intentions
-and purifies attention

This is anti-hustle culture.

And paradoxically, the anti-hustle produces higher quality output.

Now in Ramadan, this system sharpens.

Energy shifts around.
Sleep shifts around.
The spiritual intensity rises.

Your time blocks become:

Suhoor → Fajr
Fajr → Mid Morning (Qur’an heavy)
Mid Morning → Dhuhr
Dhuhr → Asr
Asr → Maghrib
Maghrib → Isha
Isha → Taraweeh

You can read about my Ramadan routine here, if you haven’t already.

Remember, Ramadan is not productivity month.

It is purification month.

Yet some of the most barakah-filled work happens here.

I am the MOST productive all year in the month of Ramadan.

Why?

Because intention is cleaner.
Distractions are lower.
Sins are minimized because you are more aware of Allah.
There’s more time when you don’t have to eat or prepare food 3x a day.
Everyone around you is on that spiritual high.

When you build your day around prayer, you are not just organizing hours.

You are declaring what governs your life.

And what governs your life governs your outcomes.

Thanks for reading it this far.

We have in the next parts:

Until next time.

مع حبي (with love)

— Saufiyah ♡

TMC GPTs (price goes to $49 on Feb 18)
AI writing systems built on viral frameworks to help you create non-AI sounding content in seconds instead of hours.

The Muslim Business Launchpad
Step-by-step systems to build your first halāl income stream.

The Muslim Creative Community
A private mentorship circle for Muslim entrepreneurs combining strategy, design, and spirituality.

Eternah
Intentional Islāmic tools. Ramadan Planners, qur'ān journals, du'ā books, digital ilm, and visual guides to live with barakah.