Taken from Productive Muslim emails.

#deeeep :')

: There are many beautiful lessons in the Ihram and I'm sure you've heard many of them - but I'm interested in some of the lessons of Ihram that relate to productivity. Here are a few that come to mind:

1. We learn to be humble in life: We realise in a very visual way, that there's no difference between a king and a servant, a minister and an employee, all of us, at the very basic level are humans with feelings, desires, and needs. This means that when we want to be productive and serve others, we should aim to serve everyone without preference. We are all the children of Adam (alayhis) and Adam (alayhis) was made from dust.
2. We learn to be conscious of Allah (swt): When you're in a state of Ihram, you're always conscious of not breaking any of the Ihram rules, e.g. not putting perfume, not cutting your nails, not using scented soap, etc. This level of presence in the mind is training us to always keep Allah (swt) present in our minds and conscious of His laws and obligations, thus we lead a spiritually productive lifestyle when we go back home.
3. We learn to neglect our physical comforts for spiritual gain: Not being able to use scented soap, or not cutting your hair or nails might seem trivial, but you'll be amazed how you’ll start craving these small comforts once they become forbidden. Allah (swt) is teaching us to overcome our basic body desires, and instead focus on our Soul and Spiritual selves. He's teaching us to be masters of our bodies, instead of servants for its comforts.

These three lessons: being humble, being conscious, being masters of our physical comforts are extremely powerful in helping us lead productive lives...