The best time of the year is upon us! Each day during this blessed month we are given the opportunity to connect with Allah through fasting, time spent reading and reflecting upon the Quran and doing good deeds. Ramadan is the only time of year when we are expected to look at every moment of our day and dedicate it in some small or large way to Allah. For this reason, it can sometimes feel anxiety inducing. We want so desperately to earn Allah’s favor and rewards that we set our ambitions high: finish the Quran, pray taraweh each night, volunteer, hosts iftars, and memorize new surahs. The list is endless! While it’s good to have high ambitions, it’s important to create sustainable goals that are more likely to get accomplished.

Here are a four ways to make sure you don’t get overwhelmed during this blessed month:

1. Use a Journal or Planner

Using a journal or a planner is a great way to set and track goals for yourself. While there are some busy months when I neglect my journal, I often find myself gravitating towards it during Ramadan. Because our time is so blessed during the holy month, we should be more attentive as to how we use it. Try using your journal to map out a plan for the month in small increments. 

For example, every Friday (before Jummah) you can write out your goals for the following seven days. You can list what type of good deeds you want to do, how many pages of Quran you intend to read, or what Islamic lecture series you want to watch. By writing a plan seven days at a time, your plans become more manageable. You can also use your journal to reflect at the end of each day to record your reflections and write down something new you’ve learned or read that day.

A few popular Ramadan journals are:

Ramadan Reflections: A Guided Journal by Aliyah Umm Raiyaan

Ramdan Legacy Planner

2. Find an Accountability Buddy

One of the best ways to maintain your goals is by having a buddy help you. Maybe your bestie is way faster at recitation than you. That’s fine! You don’t have to keep yourself at the same level, but if you just send each other a “thumbs up” emoji at least you can track whether or not you’re attempting to read at all. Another thing an accountability buddy can assist you with is doing things like volunteering with a new organization or attending a new masjid for iftar. Having someone that you can carpool with to events will make it easier for you to stick to your commitments and try new things. In terms of accountability tracking for charity, you can use websites like Launchgood that have automated giving. That way you can automate your sadaqa for all thirty nights.

3. Cook Ahead of Time

It may seem obvious, but doing meal prep for the week can make your life easier during Ramadan. The busy moms that feel obliged to cook elaborate iftars each night are missing out on using the precious minutes before maghrib for dua. It’s important that you work ahead of time to make meals and freeze them so that each night you are more focused on making dua, praying and reading Quran rather than cooking. 

4. Engage in Dhikr

One form of ibadah that people often overlook is dhikr. Dhikr is a form of worship that we are encouraged to say (as sunnah) at the end of every salat– subhanallah, alhumdullilah, la illah illah, allahukbar. It is recommended that we recite these 33 times each, but what if you said them more than that? What if you did dhikr on your drive to work, to the mosque, to the grocery store? What if in between your eating, praying and reading, your tongue was moist with remembrance? By focusing on dhikr this Ramadan you can feel a sense of calm and relief without even needing to plug it into your jam packed schedule. 

5. Don’t Compare Yourself

One of the worst ways to spend Ramadan is by feeling guilty. We set these lofty goals and then life gets in the way and the blessed month without much accomplished. Then, we look at our friends or family and see how successful they have been and realize that we are behind. Don’t do that! Focus on the good that you are able to do and ask Allah to help you continue doing the same ibadah outside of Ramadan.