The Curious Case of Benjamin Franklin's Schedule
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Name three founding fathers. Easy, right?
I would bet my life’s savings that one of the first names you thought of was Benjamin Franklin. He’s my favorite from the bunch.
Writer, printer, politician, scientist, inventor, humorist, diplomat, civic activist… is there one thing this man couldn’t do?
Sure he must’ve had a lot of formal education, you might say. People that come from wealthy families usually do.
Turns out, he was neither wealthy nor formally educated. He dropped out of school at age 10 to continue his studies through voracious reading. He was already a fine writer by age twelve when he started his apprenticeship at his brother’s printing business.
How did he manage to get so much done during his 85 years of life?
Maybe he was a gifted man. Or maybe a very disciplined one. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
While reading about his personal life, I found out he had a very strict daily routine that he followed to the letter. Here's a picture of his actual schedule:
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Notice how this is not an ordinary schedule. Right after waking up at 5 AM, Franklin would say his prayers and plan the day ahead of him, making a point of addressing the most important task of the day first. After that, while having breakfast, Franklin would ponder the question:
What good shall I do today?
When was the last time you started out your day with a reflection like this? I know that’s not a habit of mine.
After a solid day of work, he would make time for organizing his life and “put things in their places”. After that, he would have dinner and spend some time socializing. Before going to bed, he would then revisit his daily goal of doing good.
If you’re reading this, chances are you probably won’t be in the history books a hundred years from now. But maybe you can learn a thing or two with Franklin that will make you a more accomplished person.
I’ll be trying Franklin’s routine for the next week and see where it takes me. Ok, I'll probably wake up and go to sleep a little later. We have electricity, after all. Maybe that's why Franklin was so obsessed with it?[1]
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sage up,
Hi, how are you doing? I post regularly on subjects related to cryptocurrency and new tech. If you like my stuff and want to get it fresh off the keyboard, follow me @sek3.
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That is defiantly a schedule of somebody determined to work hard and accomplish something instead of just getting by, although I bet most all the founding fathers were very dedicated and determined.
I'm tempted to give it a try too, but knowing me even if I do it'll only be for a day or so.
I'm sure the waking up part will be a challenge, but let's see how far I can take it.
Defiantly.
My daily schedule more or less follows the base of the schedule with a break or two (like the one I'm taking to type this reply); and a different sleeping schedule, which is the really hard one to change.
Reminds me of Tony Robbins' priming exercise in the morning where you focus on three different things that you are grateful for. Intentionally focusing your mind on something positive does feel great, it helps to set your anchor of perspective for the day somewhere healthy (like: "I'm so glad I have running water and four functional limbs") instead of mired in the bullshit ("This job is so annoying and I wish I had more beer left and blah blah blah")
I'll be trying that out for a change, starting tomorrow. I'm sure it's way better than getting by on the old grumpy autopilot.
Very regimented lifestyle. I need to get into that. Since I've got out of the military, I've strayed a bit from routines.
As a result, life seems a bit more chaotic. Maybe I should give this Ben Franklin thing a try! Thanks for sharing.