Benjamin Franklin's Daily Routine

Benjamin Franklin was a printer, writer, scientist and diplomat, and a Founding Father who signed the Declaration of Independence. He drew up his day as a timetable, opened by the question of what good he would do and closed by asking what good he had done.

He set it out in his Autobiography under the virtue of Order. From 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM he washed, planned the day and studied over breakfast. He worked from 8:00 AM to noon and from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, with reading, accounts and lunch between. From 6:00 PM he put things in their places, had supper with music or talk and examined the day, then slept from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

Adopt it if you want structure without austerity: 7 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work in two halves and a real evening. Mason Currey's Daily Rituals notes that his printing business often knocked him off the plan, a comfort on a bad day. The scheme repeats all week here, because he wrote only one.