Bismillah walhamdulillah
Would you be surprised to hear that there is such a thing as going to an extreme with Time Management? Well, there is.
One of the symptoms of it is that you make the people in your life feel unworthy of your time. They shy away from contacting you with legitimate concerns out of fear that they might be wasting your time.
You should be stingy with your time, but that “stinginess” means that you use it only to benefit yourself in this world and the aakhira (that includes benefiting others when you can). It doesn’t mean that you shun the masses entirely. You have to ask yourself, why are you trying to manage your time? For many, it is so that you can stop wasting time on useless matters, and spend your life in the service of Allah swt. One of the ways to serve Allah swt is that when your brother or sister is in a real need, and he or she contacts you for help, you put down what you are currently doing, and you help that person with whatever is in your capacity.
It is the time management that allows you to do this, because you have room for lee-way in your schedule when you cherish every minute. On the other hand, if you live life running from deadline to deadline, then when you are hit with something unexpected, things will come crashing down, and if someone contacts you for help at this time, you may not say it, but you’re thinking “Leave me alone! I can’t deal with this right now!”
Why don’t we just take a few minutes to ponder over Surah al-Asr, the whole thing:
By time,
Indeed, mankind is in loss,
Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.
Do you want to hear something interesting? The people that I know that engage in Time Management are actually the ones that are also the most reliable when I need to contact them for advice or help. Even though their schedule is packed, they somehow work you in and find a time to help you. May Allah SWT place barakah in our time. Ameen
waAllahu Alam
Al Muqarraboon 