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Daily Routine of Benjamin Franklin

By Effluo | Published November 4, 2021 | 1 Comment

What if you could glimpse into the past, and take a look at what a typical day in the life of a person was? Fortunately, we can take a look at the daily routine of one of the most well-known people of our history, Benjamin Franklin.

In his autobiography, Benjamin spent a good amount of time describing habits he was working on developing. For detailed information on these habits read 13 Virtues to Focus on and Habits to Develop. One of the habits that Benjamin focused on was the habit of Order. Specifically, he said, “Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time“.

So, how did someone who was an integral part of our history and who…

• Worked on the Declaration of Independence
• Negotiated a peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War
• Was a scientist
• Was a publisher
• Among other things, invented bifocals and a lightning rod

How did he spend his days?
What was his daily routine?
What can we learn from him?

Morning Routine

Benjamin said “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise“. According to his daily routine, his day began at 5 am. His morning routine lasted good three hours ending at 8 am, right in time for work. The following were the steps in his morning routine.

1. “Rise, Wash, and address Powerful Goodness” This is a time for self care and spiritual assessment.
2. “Contrive Day’s Business and take the Resolution of the Day” This is the time when he planned his day and set daily goals. Setting goals is paramount in order to have a productive day. Without a goal or resolution of the day, you can spend the day completing many tasks, but may not be productive and will not get any closer to completing your goals.
3. “Prosecute the present Study:” Benjamin spent time learning something new and unrelated to day to day work. Wether it was learning a new skill, studying a new language, or just exploring ideas.
4. “and breakfast” Franklin did not specify what his typical breakfast was, other than he set time aside for breakfast.
5. “The Morning Question, What Good shall I do this Day?” He asked himself this question every morning. His focus was on bettering the world around him, and this seemingly simple question may have been the catalyst that pushed him to create a library, open a fire department among many other ways that he served the public.

Work and Lunchtime Routine

Like many of his contemporaries and our contemporaries, Benjamin spent the majority of his day working. He devoted good 8 hours of the day to work. Today, this may not seem like a lot, especially given that today the normal workday is around 9-12 hours. However, given that he still accomplished quite a lot in his lifetime, it is safe to assume that an eight-hour workday was sufficient for him, and may possibly be sufficient for us.

Shockingly he took 2 hours in the middle of the day for lunch. In our society where lunches are eaten at our desks, this seems like a luxury that we do not have the privilege of having. What did he do during the 2 hour lunch period? “Read, or overlook my Accounts, and dine” This is the time Benjamin Franklin spent reading and going through his accounts and eating lunch.

Imagine yourself taking a lunch break in the middle of the day, away from your desk. Then instead of rushing back to work, you are able to unwind and do some leisurely reading and go over your accounts. These could be your finances or your social media accounts. How better focused would you be on your work after such a break? There have been multiple articles written on the benefits of taking a lunch break like, Take Your Lunch Break! By Harvard Business Review, and multiple studies like, Brief Diversions Vastly Improve Focus by the University of Illinois, that reveal the benefits of longer breaks.

However, no amount of studies and articles can outweigh personal experience. Challenge yourself to take a longer break away from the desk, it doesn’t have to be anything dramatic, just take a longer break than usual and away from your desk. Then see if you are more focused and more productive as a result.

Evening Routine

After work, Benjamin Franklin did activities that were not work-related. Again this seems like a foreign concept in today’s society. Many of us today, come home, have dinner, and go back to our laptops to answer “one more email” and “just finish that report for work”. Then when we are completely burnt out, we wonder, what happened to the work-life balance? Benjamin planned his evenings as follows:

1. “Put Things in their Places” This was the time used to bring order to the surroundings. Tidy things up, put items away.
2. “Supper” Have dinner. He did not elaborate on his meal plans so I will leave it as is.
3. “Musick, or Diversion, or Conversation” Evening was the time to relax, unwind, spend it with friends, listen to music and just enjoy the time of relaxing.

Sleep Quantity and Quality

I will quote Benjamin once again “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise“. According to his schedule, he went to bed around 10 pm. Given that he woke up at 5 am, that would give him a very solid 7 hours of sleep. Benjamin placed a lot of importance on getting enough sleep. So what is that ‘enough’ sleep? Mayo Clinic recommends 7 or more hours of sleep per night, for adults. National Sleep Foundation elaborates stating that an adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep.

According to OnePoll reported by Safety and Health Magazine, of 2,000 US adults that were surveyed, the average sleep time was 5 hours and 30 minutes. Mayo Clinic reports that side effects of sleep deprivation include “weight gain, having a body mass index of 30 or higher, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression.”

Lack of sleep can lead to many health issues and just general exhaustion. National Sleep Foundation in their recommendations note that the first step to improving sleep hygiene is “Sticking to the same sleep schedule every day, even on weekends.”

Summary

Benjamin Franklin’s schedule seems wonderful, and something that we can definitely benefit from if we were to follow it.

But, how good was Benjamin himself in following his perfect day? Right after he talked about his schedule, he confessed that he had a hard time following it. Something always came up, he would entertain people from work in the evening time, therefore conducting business in the evening. He pointed out that this schedule can be better followed by someone who has a specific set of hours he works in a day. Assuming that that person can get away with a two-hour lunch break.

So, should we disregard this schedule? Absolutely not, it gives us a great framework to build on, simply because it has that elusive work-life balance built into it. And, yes, very often it may not be realistic to follow a set schedule, but imagine yourself following it even a few days a week. It does not have to be exactly the same but the framework is there.

1. Begin the day with a routine, focus on intellectual and spiritual activities.
2. Have breakfast.
3. Work
4. Eat lunch away from the desk. If possible find time to unwind, read, take a nap, just do something that is not work related for a short period of time.
5. Work
6. Have dinner.
7. Use the evening to unwind and socialize
8. Go to bed at the same time every night

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