The Soulful Productivity 2024 Relaunch + Ramadan Mubarak!
A somewhat delayed re-introduction to Soulful Productivity newsletter, and Ramadan Mubarak!
Hello and a very warm welcome to this post. First and foremost, Ramadan Mubarak to all my readers. I hope to share some quick tips and resources for Ramadan very soon, but for now, we will be focusing on the Soulful Productivity Relaunch and reintroduction.
This post has been much-needed for a while, and it has also been much-planned for a while.
Why?
Because when I say ‘Soulful Productivity’, it might surprise you to learn that no such newsletter or Substack existed in this name, nor was there an official introduction on what this is about.
Instead, Soulful Productivity existed primarily as a podcast of the same name (it is still live, by the way, I am just not actively posting new episodes there).
This podcast was my first attempt at creating a platform that talked about and focused on my identity and values as a Muslim.
Me and my co-host had some fun making the initial few episodes but long story short, we started getting irregular with it, and I finally decided to keep it on hold until we could be more regular with it, which didn’t look like anytime soon.
At the same time, I kept getting these nudges to find some way to keep this new niche going, and at some point in 2023, I decided that I will at least start in the format that I am the most familiar with, which is written content, and decided to revive my old Substack for this.
However, it was not until a few weeks ago that I finalized what this space will be about, and now I am finally ready for The Launch.
First things first, what is Soulful Productivity:
Helping Muslims find success and joy and live productive, meaningful, spiritually fulfilling lives that are aligned with the values of Islam and pleasing to Allah
Ideas to live + work at your best and find joy in a way that aligns with the values of Islam
Balancing work, life and spirituality (as it relates to Islam/as a Muslim)
So, what is my inspiration for starting this?
As a productivity obsessed individual who was still not a workaholic, I started realising that productivity is not the end-all be-all solution that I used to think it is and that is still does not allow me to do it all the way I have always wanted to. I also realised that sometimes, productivity was causing me to become the person that I never thought I could be, which is someone who is beginning to compromise on other areas of her life while working on her passion, and the person who is not having as much fun or stopping to smell the roses.
These realisations were later augmented with my personal Islamic enlightenment, and after taking some inspiration from the book The Productive Muslim by Mohammad Faris, I realised that the time was now ripe to work on one of my old and at that time very distant idea of having a blog around Productivity for Muslims.
That’s how Soulful Productivity came into being.
‘Soulful’ signifies multiple things here.
It signifies Islam for my Muslim followers, because in Islam a person’s soul yearns to follow the path of Islam and yearns to worship its creator, Allah.
It also signifies making your life about more than just work and consumerism which we are all so very surrounded and often unwittingly trapped with, and choosing to focus on the other very important yet neglected things such as your relationships, taking the time to slow down and just be, doing things just for the joy of them, enjoying the journey, and accepting things that have a gradual, nonlinear progress, instead of being about efficiency and productivity and results all the time.
Basically, think minimalism, slow living, and other somewhat anti-consumerism buzzwords, but without them being reduced to the buzz.
Then why include productivity in the name at all?
Because productivity, when not reduced to blind hustle, does serve a very important purpose, which is giving direction and focus and the tools we need to bring our ideas to life. When done correctly, It also serves the purpose of allowing us to reach our potential while still being able to make time for the other, slower things that matter.
So, that’s in the name.
Now, onto what I will be talking about over here.
Until yesterday, and especially until late 2023, this was actually a hard question to answer. Because while my idea was well formed, I wasn’t entirely sure about the execution.
Namely, I was unsure if this place will be more focused on Islam or on Productivity-related topics that I have been covering for years. I wasn’t sure if I had enough good and Islamically-sound ideas for the Islamic niche. I wasn’t sure if I cared to write more about the productivity niche. I wasn’t sure how or if this will be able to cover my emerging interests such as sustainability, empathy, connecting with other people, career change or my past interests such as self help, blogging and content marketing. I wasn’t sure if I needed or wanted multiple blogs or just this one.
So, after multiple bouts of overthinking and rethinking which I am very familiar with from my days of trying to fit the entirety of my life purpose in a single blog and brand, I have decided to have multiple Substacks, which I will introduce in future posts, and to keep this one focused on the following things:
Occasional (~ 1-2X a month) long posts like this one which go deep into a topic that I have been thinking about for a while, potentially related to the topic of Islam, productivity, or the non-productive things that actually matter (and often matter more). I plan to start a digital garden around the ideas and topics I keep coming back to, to map the whole journey and to have a central resource, but more updates on that once it actually happens!
Newsletters curating the best resources for and relating to Muslims that I find online and offline such as articles, videos, newsletters, apps, products, magazines and more
Short newsletters that quickly talk about what’s on my mind or give quick updates about what I am up to (or a kaleidoscope of ideas I have had recently, on the same or different topics)
Updates from the larger Soulful Productivity community as it emerges, such as fun polls, Q&As, readers’ thoughts, maybe even an interactive online community!
All in all, expect 2-3 posts a month on Friday afternoons GMT time. This is by no means a fixed layout as I still need to give this space room to grow with me, but just a rough estimate on what you can expect
Lastly, expect some launches of Soulful Productivity social media channels, once again with more details coming up once it happens. This might also include a relaunch of the podcast itself!
Phew! We are finally done with the very lengthy and winding introduction. I hope that this was fun to read and of at least some value, and more importantly, I hope that the upcoming content is always fun and valuable for you.
That’s it for now. Expect a quick post in the next week or so compiling the best Ramadan resources I have found this year, share your thoughts on the Relaunch or your Ramadan plans below/by hitting reply to this email, and I will see you in the next one.
A very happy and blessed Ramadan to you and your family
Atiba
Ramadan Mubarak! Looking forward to the new content !