The Ramadan Routine
Maximizing productivity while fasting
Startup founders and employees often work 75+ hours each week (if not more) to build and sell their products, develop business relationships, manage operations and strategize. The to-do list of a founder or early employee at a startup is surely never-ending.
As someone who lives this lifestyle, I’m prone to drinking numerous cups of coffee a day, exercising to offset the long hours behind my Macbook Air and engaging in several brainstorming sessions each week with my colleagues to solve product and business challenges.
This certainly becomes tricky each year during my observation of the Islamic month of fasting — Ramadan. In short, Ramadan involves 29/30 days (lunar calendar) of fasting (i.e., no water, no food, no coffee!) from dawn to dusk. These days in San Francisco, that’s 16 hours each day (~4:30 am to ~8:30 pm).
While Ramadan is both a spiritual exercise and a social, community-oriented month, in the startup lifestyle, time is undoubtedly your most valuable asset. This has forced me to “iterate” my schedule during Ramadan to figure out how to best balance my business and spiritual goals. A few years of iteration have led to my Ramadan Routine:
3:30 am — Wake up, eat breakfast, drink coffee. To be most effective, make sure to have some fruit, protein over carbs, hydrate with water and limit coffee intake to 2 espresso shots or its equivalent. Having too much coffee will cause a spike and crash by 6 am.
4:30 am — Meditate/reflect/pray.
4:50 am — set goals for the day, update to-do list
5:00 am — since the morning hours are most productive, any “real work” (i.e., not email) should be prioritized. I tend to use the first 90 minutes of the workday handling product-related issues (e.g., interaction design) and, time permitting, begin research and writing for business-related tasks (e.g., content creation).
As light breaks the horizon before sunrise, the sky’s transformation is magnificent inspiration.
6:30 am — shower and commute to work. While I love reading fiction during my normal commute, limited hours of being “on” during Ramadan has forced me to take care of drafting email responses, follow-ups and new messages during the commute.
7:30 am — arrive at the office, review draft emails, hit send.
7:45 am — Continue “real-work” — research and content creation, video editing, etc. It’ll be another 90 minutes until my colleagues arrive at work and it’s imperative that I take advantage of this time window.
By the time my colleagues get in, I’ve had two 90 minute sprints of undisturbed productivity and taken care of the first wave of outbound communication. This is a great feeling.
9:15 am — time for a mental break. Chatting with colleagues and asking/answering questions that arose overnight can be slotted in here before everyone settles into their email-reading routine.
9:30 am — another 3-4 hours until dehydration hits you. Make the most of the remaining morning by having team brainstorming/decision-making sessions during the late morning. Other time during this window / if these sessions don’t apply today, continue research, analysis, content creation, and other “real-work”.
12:30 pm — time for fresh air, a walk and more reflection.
1:00 pm — Review inbound communication since the first wave of outbound emails in the morning. Respond as necessary.
1:30 pm — The best planning one can do during this month is to schedule as many meetings as possible during the afternoons. Whether it’s internal team meetings to review prior work, customer meetings or calls, the afternoon makes for the perfect time. At this point, staring at a screen is painful. Meetings are interactive and fit better here.
4:00 pm — schedule follow-ups, address miscellaneous tasks and wrap up the day’s conversations.
4:30 pm — pack up and go home to recharge.
At this point, most of the tasks I need to address today are completed. ~9 hours of productivity is in the books (there are days where a bit less is accomplished). Only another ~2 hours may be needed.
5:15 pm — 1.5 hour sleep episode, if possible. There are days where this just doesn’t fit. No sweat (literally, you’re dehydrated); accept as much sleep as the world throws your way.
6:45 pm — 105 minutes until water and food. If the sleep episode rejuvenates, you may be able to fit in a little exercise here. Otherwise it’s time to meditate, relax, read some scriptures.
Note on exercise — while I recognize that one may be most dehydrated towards the end of the fast, I’ve made the mistake of exercising early morning during Ramadan. This only tires you beyond belief and dehydrates you for the entire day. I find it better to exercise when time to drink water is near.
8:00 pm — begin preparing Iftar (Arabic for “breakfast”). Focus has to be on vitamin and electrolyte-rich liquids and “healthy foods” (define as you will).
8:30 pm — break fast as you watch the sunset. Add another 15 minutes for prayer and reflection.
9:00 pm — One more hour of productivity. By this time your colleagues have caught up to you and you have so much energy to put to use.
10:00 pm — if possible, I visit the mosque (usually happens on the weekends). The late night gatherings for prayer are the most lively. They are community-driven and are a good way to meet fellow habitants of the city. On weeknights, when I cannot visit, I tend to use this hour to reflect and wind down.
11:00 pm — sleep. repeat.
I’d love to hear if others have figured out a routine that’s effective.
Thanks for reading. Please recommend/share with your friends if you find this interesting.
