Where's My Time Going?

"What Happened to My Time?"
Good Question - Islam says..

ISLAM NEWSROOM EMAILS & REPLIES: "Where's My Time Going" answered by Yusuf Estes

Allah says in Quran:

"By the passing of time, all of mankind is in loss (on the Day of Judgment), except for those who come to the true belief (in One God, without partners) and do righteous acts, calling each other to truth and exhorting each other to persevere in steadfast patience".

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us (meaning):

"Time in the Last Days will go by quickly. Yet only the believers will notice and benefit from it".

__________

A wonderful brother emailed me several times and finally, having no reply back, he asked me about the delay.

Something came over me and I had to compose this (over one hour) and write back to him.

Bismillah Salam alaykum brother [name deleted for privacy],

I apologize for not having time to do more dear brother. But if you were here watching our projects you would understand.

Today I'm supposed to start by working up end-of-the-year financials for our projects, and at the same time prepare for tonight's live program on GUIDEUS.TV as well as work with our IT people on server problems --- etc., etc., and so on..

But for some reason I broke my routine and just opened my email to look for replies from last night's program. Then I came across your emails to me.

Please don't ever think I don't want to dialog back and forth in emails, text messages, our social media network like Facebook, Twitter (now those are real time consumers) and phone calls. It is not like that at all.

The real problem is time!

I want to reply to the hundreds of emails - My REAL PROBLEM IS - I don't have time for eveything I want to do.

So, I decided to find out why I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do. (I know this doesn't make sense - to use my time to talk about "my time" LOL)

OK. Let me start with what my mom used to say to us, "There are only 24 hours in a day". (That's 1,440 minutes)

 

Over the years we have had hundreds of volunteers (may Allah bless them all) and only a few paid workers on staff. That is because we can only spend what we have.

Our funding relies directly on how many mosques, universities, schools and conferences I can visit, set up a little table and ask people to donate. This takes planning, research, writing, editing, translating, posting, phone calls, travel (lots of travel - some times 250 days a year).

So, obviously even now I have people waiting for me to call back, send emails, pay bills and give dawah (oh yes, we still have to do "daily dawah" for Allah).

Because I really want to know why I just don't seem to have time for everything - I decided to break it all down and find out:

"Exactly where does my time go?"

OK, let's see. Let me start with 24 hours (1,440 minutes).

I limit my eating and sleep time to less than 5 1/2 hours (330 minutes), shopping, household and outside yard chores - 45 minutes, family time, personal calls - 45 minutes:

Total 7 hours (420 minutes)

17 hours (1,190 minutes) left for daily work of which:

2 1/2 hours (150 minutes) to monitor our 2,800+ websites (www.ShareIslam.com), another 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes) sorting, packing, going to Post Office for mailout free Qurans (www.AFreeQuran.com project), 2 1/2 hours (150 minutes) to research, cross reference, compile and edit articles for news (www.IslamNewsroom.com).

Total 6 1/2 hours (390 minutes).

Still have 10 1/2 hours (630 minutes), of which:

1 1/2 (90 minutes) hours for recordings or broadcasts including discussions with producer/director and TV channel people, 45 minutes travel projects, 45 minutes bookings & negotiations with mosques & universities.

Total 2 1/2 hours (180 minutes).

Now 7 1/2 hours (450 minutes) remain, of which:

1 hour (60 minutes) to update dawah campaigns, 45 minutes discussions with imams, scholars, admin people across the country and around the world, 30 oversee monitors/moderators for online dawah, 45 minutes support to new Muslims.

Total 3 hours (180 minutes).

Now we're down to 4 1/2 remaining hours, of which:

Replies to calls and texts - 45 minutes U.S. & overseas calls (average 10 to 20 minutes per call), 40 minutes research Quran references, 35 minutes Arabic translations.

Total 2 hours (180 minutes).

Only 2 1/2 hours (150) remain, of which:

30 minutes for layout, 30 minutes editing, 1 hour for graphic design work.

Total 2 hours (120 minutes).

Now just 1/2 hour (30 minutes) left, of which:

[FOR ALLAH] As Muslims we need at least: 25 to 30 minutes (give or take a few minutes for wudu & salat and thikr @5 minutes each, average).

What's left...?

​Brother, this is every day, 7 days a week - Once a week allowance for one hour (60 minutes) for Jummuah on Friday - Unless I'm in travel in which case we can combine and shorten prayers - but travel is a whole new schedule with more work, less sleep and no family time.

Confession: I just spent over 1 hour working on this email to you [brother]. But it was worth giving up a bit of sleep and food to find out what happens to my time.

Jazakallah khair for inspiring me to do this and for your patience with this old man (74 on Hijri calendar).

May Allah grant you the success and happiness in this life and the best in the Next Life, ameen.

Oh yeah, I guess this is now my latest campaign to really "shock" folks into reading and helping us "share" the messsage. You are welcome to copy/paste and put it out there, inshallah.

Salam alaykum,

Yusuf Estes

Director, Founder GUIDE US.TV & SHARE ISLAM.COM Project