अभ्यासेऽप्यसमर्थोऽसि मत्कर्मपरमो भव।मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन् सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि॥
abhyāse ’py asamartho ’si mat-karma-paramo bhavamad-artham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi
Word by word
The verse says
If you cannot manage even the practice, then make my work your highest aim. Doing your actions for my sake, you will reach completeness.
In plain words
The second if, and the bar comes down again.
Not even able to keep up a practice. Fine: then just do your work, and do it for him.
This requires nothing to be added to a day. It is the same day, redirected.
Where you've felt this · at work
Your cousin has three children, two jobs and a mother who needs looking after. She is not going to start a daily practice and she knows it. What she can do is decide, on the way to work, who the day is for. That takes about four seconds and she can do it on the days she is late.
Going deeper
The third rung is the one most readers actually need, and it costs nothing in time.
By now the chapter has conceded twice. You cannot hold your mind there. You cannot keep up a practice either. What is left is the only thing everybody has: a day that is going to happen anyway. Make it for him, and the verse says that reaches completeness — the same word used for the highest outcomes elsewhere in the book.
That is a remarkable thing to say and it is said without ceremony.
It also quietly removes the excuse that circumstances prevent a spiritual life. Nothing here requires time, quiet, health, money or education. It requires a decision about what the work in front of you is for, which is available to somebody in the middle of a bad week.