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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
Travel disappears from planning because it does not feel like the task. Then the day gets built as though appointments touch each other end to end, and you spend the afternoon apologising. Put the whole shape in: leave at twenty to one, appointment at one, back at your desk by half two. Chronic lateness usually turns out to be a data entry problem rather than a character problem.
Hurry towards the reminder of God and leave off your trading (Quran 62:9). The leaving is part of the instruction, not something assumed to happen for free between two commitments.
الجمعة
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ إِذَا نُودِيَ لِلصَّلَوٰةِ مِن يَوۡمِ ٱلۡجُمُعَةِ فَٱسۡعَوۡاْ إِلَىٰ ذِكۡرِ ٱللَّهِ وَذَرُواْ ٱلۡبَيۡعَۚ ذَٰلِكُمۡ خَيۡرࣱ لَّكُمۡ إِن كُنتُمۡ تَعۡلَمُونَ
Believers! When the call to prayer is made on the day of congregation, hurry towards the reminder of God and leave off your trading––that is better for you, if only you knew––
Qur’an 62:9read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Two randomised trials tested a structured exercise that has people picture the outcome they want, then the obstacle in the way, then make an if then plan for meeting it. Naming the obstacle in advance is the working part, and the journey home is exactly the obstacle nobody names. Those trials were about bedtime rather than travel and were small, so take the shape of the method rather than the numbers.
Valshtein TJ, Oettingen G, Gollwitzer PM. (2020). Using mental contrasting with implementation intentions to reduce bedtime procrastination: two randomised trials.. Psychology & health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Time you never wrote down is time you will not have.
If you are the sort who leaves at the last possible second, the entry has to hold everything you need in order to walk out of the door. Address, door code, what to bring, who to ring if you get stuck.
Attach a new habit to one you already do: after wudu, I read one page.
Before planning anything, work out which date is actually true. Does Thursday mean Thursday, or does everybody know it means Friday, and is Thursday even possible?