WHAT

STUDENTS &
PEOPLE WITH NO SKILLS
SHOULD DO WITH THEIR

FREE TIME

OLANREWAJU ABDURRAHMAAN ADEDOKUN

A Sayf Academy publication

THE WEAPON: A SERIES OF BOOKLETS ON

FINDING THE BEST USE OF 'FREE TIME'
01 Introduction

08 Networking

10 Soft Skills

14 Mentorship

18 Learn A Skill

21 Start A Business
22 Have A Side Hustle

25 Study The Deen

Hard Work,
26 No Excuses
Introduction

It's not a curse. It is a promise.

Wasting the free time you have as a

student now will come to haunt you in
the future.

Sometime in 2019, a friend of my elder

brother graduated from the University of
Lagos, electrical and electronics
engineering department.

He met my brother and lamented that he

didn't know what was next for him after
service.

(He didn't have such a good grade, and

didn’t have much hope of securing a good
job.)

My brother asked him if he'd take a

software development course and see if
he liked it.

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Introduction

He agreed and was given a free course to

watch.

One and half years later, during the

COVID lockdown, I met him, and he
informed me he was working with a
company that paid him 100k.

"I should have left for a better company

but I am just trying to gather a lot of
experience here first. Very soon, I'll move."

He told me.

Then came the shocking part.

He revealed to me that all he did to get to

that point was to code for one hour after
every solat.

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Introduction

Just one hour after every solat.

But he never missed a day, no matter what

happened; one hour after every solat, no
excuses! In one and half years, he had a
job, and was saying he'd have taken a
better offer if not because he wanted to
gain a little more experience.

This was someone who finished the

university with a poor grade and was
almost depressed when he left the
university.

He still had one regret though: "If only I

had known this since I got admitted into
the university 5 years ago, maybe I'd be a
senior developer earning 500k by now." He
said.

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Introduction

Now you know what he wished he had

known: you know that if you spend just 2
hours EVERY day learning an extra skill,
you would come out of the university after
four years as a job-ready guru.

Another of my friends was a novice in

software development before the ASUU
strike commenced.

In the course of the 7-month strike, he

channeled most of his time and energy
into learning.

Sometimes, he would spend 8-10 hours

coding.

About a month ago, he informed me that

he was able to secure a small project from
abroad. He needed guidance and still had
a long way to go, but at least he had a
project that was going to pay him
something.
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Introduction

This is the same ASUU strike many took as

‘free time’ and wasted without having
anything they can display as an
achievement.

Most people have regrets when they leave

school, and this is why: Being a student
gives you so much opportunities: it gives
you the freedom to explore things, to meet
great minds, to try things out without much
expectation on you.

But being a student also gives you

something: a hiding place from reality.

School gives people a hiding place from

evaluating themselves, from having
something meaningful to measure their
progress.

I'll give you an example that will make this

clear.

5
Introduction

The ASUU strike has lasted 7 months now

and many, if not most students can not
point to any meaningful achievement in
that period.

For someone who is not a student, if you

go 7 months without achieving anything,
you will start feeling uncomfortable and
look for something to do.

Your family will not be okay with you just

walking around, but as a student, there's a
hiding place.

It is very easy to hide under the cover of "I

am a student, I am waiting for the strike to
be over" to not achieve anything and to
keep burning your time.

We saw a similar thing happen happen

during the lockdown too.

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Introduction
Meanwhile, if you add together the time
spent at home during the pandemic and
the current strike, you will realize that it is
more than enough to learn a complete skill
that you can depend on for the rest of
your life.

Being a student makes it very easy to

waste time because you feel like you are
achieving something and soon you will be
a graduate, while, (for most people) the
truth is that you are not achieving anything
at all.

The reality only sets in after you graduate

and realize that just like many others, you
have to start afresh, learning a skill or
starting a business.

Well, the time that has been wasted has

been wasted, how can you now make the
best use of your remaining free time as a
student?

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 Networking

When you leave school, I promise you you

will never see a place that gives you
access to so many people again in your
life.

If you are planning to start a business or

get popular with a skill, you must leverage
on the opportunity the university gives you
to meet over 40,000 people easily, that is
networking.

You must read widely and invest time into

thinking about how you can make the best
use of the crowd at your disposal.

In a school environment, it is easy to

create trends; read books that talk about
influencing people, creating trends and
getting people to join a bandwagon.

8
 Networking

If you sell some sort of shoes, If you sell

clothes If you repair phones and you are
not known in the university, where will you
be known?

9
Soft Skills

One of the things you should spend time

learning and improving on is soft skills,
especially if you plan to work with your
degree.

When I say soft skills, I mean things like:

time-management, empathy, leadership,
communication, growth mindset,
adaptation skills.

These skills often turn out to be more

useful in the professional world, and even
in our personal lives and businesses than
the things we are taught in classrooms.

I have a mentor who works in one of the

Nigeria's foremost oil companies.

He graduated as a civil engineer with a

2.1

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Soft Skills

He once told me, "if I were asked what

was most beneficial to me in my 5 years in
the university, I'd say it is the one year I
spent as the Ameer of MSSN.

It taught me a lot about leadership, human

resource management, safety, and
conflict resolution.

Today, I work as a project manager and I

can't remember the last time I had to use
my math or any of the things we learnt in
our undergraduate days.

All of what has benefited me at work has

been what I learnt from my time as a
leader".

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Soft Skills

You should spend your free time on these

soft skills; learning and reading about
them, especially/even if you plan to work
with your course of study.

Your good grade might get you a job, but

these skills are what will help you retain
your job and stay ahead of others.

Read books like Mindset: The New

Psychology of Success, Atomic habits,
Expert Secrets, How to Win Friends and
Influence People, and a lot of other good
books.

These books remain a part of you forever,

they shape how you see things and make
you more innovative and exposed.

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Soft Skills

Go to Google, search for "most valuable

soft skills to..(input your profession/
course of study)".

Pick each of those skills, search for the

best books on them.
Go to Coursera, search for free courses.
Go to EdX.
Go to Alison.
Go to YouTube and look for videos.
Go to Quora and read what people in
those fields say.

But don't go to Facebook to use your time

to pay someone else, and don’t come to
Whatsapp to constitute a nuisance with
your status updates that do not have much
benefit to those seeing it.

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Mentorship

Another thing you should spend your free

time on is mentorship.

You need to go out and seek guidance

from people who have achieved the things
you wish to.

Sometimes, they give one single advice

that would ease the course of your whole
journey.

Ask people who have succeeded before in

what you're trying to do to guide you.

Be very open to learning: if you hear of

anyone doing anything better than you, do
not think: ‘competition’, think: ‘opportunity
to learn’.

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Mentorship

If anyone tells you that Mr A does so and

so thing better than you, do not even try to
put up a defense, just ask questions to
improve.

Learn from different people.

Learn.
Whatever business, skill, profession or life
ambition you have, if you hear of anyone
doing well in that thing, you MUST go to
them and ask them questions.

Now, people who are doing well are very

likely to be busy, do not go to them saying,
come and mentor me, no!
Go and ask specific questions.
Don't waste their time.

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Mentorship

What is the single biggest thing that you

think makes you different from others?

If you could start again, what mistake

would you not want to make?

In your journey to memorizing the Quran,

how did you ensure to be consistent?

Questions like that.

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Mentorship

If you keep going with meaningful and

specific questions, they would pick an
interest in you and mentor you.

On a sidenote, you may be ignored many

times by the people you approach for help
and guidance.

Many of these people aren't bad people,

they're just busy and don't have time.

So you must not stop.

Some will answer.

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Learn A Skill

Coding is one of the most taxing things to

learn, and yet, I mentioned someone who
got an entry-level job after just about a
year of spending 5hours everyday on
learning.

If you spend 3hours, or even 2hours daily

for all of your four years in the university,
the reality is that for most skills, you'd get
to a very high level of proficiency.

But of course it doesn't have to be coding,

it could be any skill at all that you have an
interest in.

(Please read "What Should People With

Skills Do With Their Free Time" for some
insight into making good money out of any
skill you choose).

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Learn A Skill

It could be writing.

It could be teaching in fact.

I know a brother who makes 300k+

teaching A-level subjects from home.

Take your time to evaluate your interests,

and think about what skills you can learn.

Make some research too, watch YouTube

videos and ask qurstions on Google about
in-demand skills, see if anyone interests
you.

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Learn A Skill

Whatever skill it is you choose, apply the 5

principles mentioned in ("What Should
People With Skills Do With Their Free
Time") and ensure you seek out mentors,
people who have succeded and achieved
a lot in that field, for guidance.

Do not be in a rush to "cash out", the key

is to ensure that you seize maximum
control of this time that you have little
pressure on you to learn as much as you
can.

Even if you're not making money, you're

building up something great for the future
and not just wasting away.

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Start A Business

Like we have mentioned earlier, schools

are some of the best places to start a
business because of the crowd at your
disposal.

All you need to look for is a problem you

can solve.

Where there is a problem, there is always

money.

For example, if there is something students

crave a lot, but have to go off campus to
get, that is a problem, solve it for them by
bringing it nearer.

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Have A Side Hustle

If, as a student, you have all of your basic

needs fulfilled, then you do not need this.

But for someone starting from the

grassroots, someone who has no money to
even buy data, then it is necessary to find
a side job that would take care of your
basic needs. Basic needs, I said.

Look, you have to work hard.

You have to sleep less.

You have to waste no time.

You cannot be on social media joking

around when you know your background
does not favour you.

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Have A Side Hustle

You have to study, learn a skill, seek

knowledge and still have a side hustle?

Where do you see free time?

I have a friend who, after graduating,

started learning programming.

He didn't have a job then, so he used to

stay in a masjid.

Then he would work in a car wash during

the day and learnt programming at night.

He also taught during the weekends.

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Have A Side Hustle

Slowly, slowly, he began to get better at

what he was doing.

And with consistency, he was able to get

a job abroad in about two years.

He has his a startup of his own now.

So brother, the struggle is real, but only

for a while, insha Allah.

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Study The Deen

The same friend I talked about him

working in a car wash memorized the
quran during his four-year stay in OAU.

Many people regret not seizing the

opportunity that the schooling
environment offers to learn the deen.

When you leave school, you will get busier,

and it will most likely be harder to find a
religious environment like the one your
school presents, learn the Deen as much
as you can while you're in school.

If you see any brother who understands

Arabic, or one who is good with the
Quran, stick to them.

Learn from them.

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Hard Work, No Excuses

You must work hard and hard and hard.

As a student, excuses are very easy to

find.

Infact, you don't have to find them, they're

already available in abundance, you just
have to pick them.

Exams are coming, that's why you can't

code, but you can upload statuses?

You can chat on Facebook?

Come on!

You need to live like school does not exist.

In the part of this book dedicated to

employees, I talked about an 18-year old
who gets paid over 140k working just 3
hours daily.

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Hard Work, No Excuses

When I asked him how he got his jobs, he

said he had to try on Upwork more than 30
imes before getting one job.

Each time he exhausted his coin, he would

create a new account and start bidding
again.

It was not easy.

But he gave no excuses.

One of my friends works as a blockchain

developer.

He started learning without a laptop.

He would go over to sleep at a friend’s

place just to use his laptop.

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Hard Work, No Excuses

Don’t give us any excuses! Go out there

and do what you need to do.

Be patient, things might take a little time

before you start seeing results, that is why
you should start now that you are a
student, with not so much pressure on you,
and with time on your side.

Do not stop learning, improving, working

hard and praying.

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Hard Work, No Excuses

Hard Work, No Excuses

With these, you will see that you might

need to get a side hustle, network well,
learn a skill, improve on your soft skills,
study for school and study the deen.

Yet, when you have a skill or business, in

the —part of his book, we have listed
things you need to start doing then.

So tell me dear brothers, where do you

see that free time that you waste online?

Abeg let me know, cos i am in dire need of

it ooo.

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