The basic level of productivity that 5 daily prayers brings

So I often I find I get distracted. As is common place, you are living online and you see a video that describes someone as distractible, unproductive, procrastinating and 'unable' to escape this and you relate. You don't necessarily fit the profile for an official label, but you do kind of identify with a lot of the weirdly specific 'struggles'.

I have definitely been there and done that, I definitely have something going on in that region, and have been told so by many people throughout my life. But also it is just evident. I can become fixated on such a completely (in the grand scheme of life) unimportant thing. It might consume me for an hour or maybe a weekend or maybe it will become an intense hobby for a while till I abruptly drop it. It will definitely occupy a constant spot in my thoughts and constantly float around, randomly resurfacing in the middle of unrelated conversations. It will be on my mind if I wake in the night, in my dreams possibly. Whilst I am cooking, washing, cleaning, working etc etc.

And when I say completely unimportant, it can be really really small. Here is a list of some

• I need to find those insoles I know I have
• I want my photos to be organised and delete ones I don't want
• I need to sort my emails and passwords and accounts so they are all different and organised
• I want to code a theme for this notes app but the code doesn't do what it says it will
• Researching something to buy either for me or someone else - can take weeks or it can take hours
• Emailing that company to try and get that refund I am owed
• Contacting another place to inform them of bugs I have noticed in their software
• X tech thing doesn't work properly
  • Pretty major one this
• Really bad if I need to return something because it is faulty
• Finding an old thing I don't use anymore and making some way for it to still be useful

Now I come to think of it as I write this, two strong themes seem to be

1. Sorting, organising, finding
   1. Just needing it to be 'right'
2. Tech thing not doing as it should for whatever reason
   1. Just needing to know why

But there isn't much consistency to this either. I could stress about needing something to be exactly as I need it to be. But other things are a complete mess or jumble and that is of no bother.

If I go fully 'obsessive focus mode' I can genuinely lose time and forget to eat or drink or move from whatever I am doing.

Some things need to be in order, something's are fine to be a mess.

And I still do this these days - you kinda just learn to be fine with it, for the most part. It usually starts with you being really interested in the thing but at some point it stops being positive and it's more like you've become a machine working a production line, and you are nearly unable to have an influence over it at all, just spectating - 'its not even fun anymore I just want it done'.

However, with the 5 daily prayers I have found many many times that this has helped me, even with this element of existence.

Because, depending in the time of year, Duhr might be needed at lunch time, Asr might come at the end of work time. Maghrib or Ishaa might cut me off in the evening when I am obsessing over something - or I'm supposed to be getting ready for bed. So many times I have been doing something and then my phone or watch has notified with my reminder 15 mins before the prayer. Perhaps I had even forgotten to pray, and now I need to do so in the next 15 mins. At this point it is easy to get up and leave the desk or leave whatever I was doing, because I need to pray.

I may well end up thinking about the thing and going back to it straight after I have prayed, but not always.

Essentially I find it interesting all the times I noticed something that Islam does that seems to make sense - but in ways you don't initially think about. Of course the big stuff makes sense. But that for me - with how I am, the routine of praying correctly brings back focus. It helps you break up the day in a way that is proportionate to the time of year. The prayers are based on the day and the night - so no matter where you are in the world or what time of year it is - they will correctly break up that day.

The obligatory nature of them means it's not like an alarm that you set yourself - or that pomodoro app you downloaded, the reminders in your calendar. You actually cannot 'just skip' this one or 'snooze' it.

All of this is obvious of course - just interesting I think.