Lesson 4 of 6 · Doing before feeling
Small enough that it will actually happen
The most common way this goes wrong is picking something too big on a good afternoon, failing at it on a bad morning, and taking the failure as more evidence.
So make it embarrassingly small. If you are thinking about going for a run, the version that works is putting your shoes on and standing outside the front door.
And judge it by whether it happened, not by whether it felt good. It very often will not feel good, especially early. The point of the action is not to produce a nice feeling. The point is to put one thing back into a day that has had everything taken out of it.
One thing worth setting beside this, carefully. The two reports below are about acts of worship rather than about chopping an onion, and they are not an endorsement of activity scheduling. What they hold is a principle about scale and about continuity. Take on what you are capable of, and the deed most beloved is the one that keeps going, even if it is small. That happens to point the same way the trials point, and the two are being put next to each other rather than one being read into the other.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Take on the deeds you are capable of doing. That is the scale half: what you pick is measured against what you can manage on a bad morning, not against what sounded right on a good afternoon. Two reports because there are two claims, and this is the one about size.
A'isha reported that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) had a mat and he used it for making an apartment during the night and observed prayer in it, and the people began to pray with him, and he spread it (the mat) during the day time. The people crowded round him one night. He (the Holy Prophet) then said:O people, perform such acts as you are capable of doing, for Allah does not grow weary but you will get tired. The acts most pleasing to Allah are those which are done continuously, even if they are small. And it was the habit of the members of Muhammad's (ﷺ) household that whenever they did an act they did it continuously
Sahih Muslim 782graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
The deed most beloved is the one that continues, even when it is small. That is the continuity half, and it is why the move here asks you to keep the same small thing for five days rather than do something larger once. Neither report is advice about activity scheduling.
Narrated `Aisha:The most beloved action to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was that whose doer did it continuously and regularly
Sahih al-Bukhari 6462graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading