If you are into personal finance, you have to respect Ben Franklin. Amongst many other things, he started a successful business and “retired” at 42, after which he devoted his time to science and later statesmanship. He wrote and published the Poor Richard’s Alamanac for over 25 years, probably the first version of a widely read “frugal blog”. Don’t miss reading this illustrated post by Maira Kalman.
Above is a peek into his daily schedule, originally from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which by the way is available for free in the public domain. Don’t miss the questions on the left part. Seven hours of sleep, not too bad. 🙂 Found via The Big Picture.
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It is pretty amazing to see a schedule such as that dating back to the days when money was nothing what it is today. I’m glad to see that he was an early bird! Somethings never change.
Interesting to note that work was limited to 8 hours a day.
Of course he was his own boss, and this was also before the industrial revolution when most people were turned into wage slaves. The union movement could have used Franklin’s schedule as a propaganda tool!
Actually, before and during the industrial revolution people used to work 14-16 hours/day, 6 days per week.
8 hour work day? 2 hour lunch? Ben Franklin is a slacker by today’s standards!
What a great review of Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule. You’ve inspired me to read more about his daily details. Perhaps he did work more or less, but he did write, “Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.”
He only slept 5 hours thats unusual back then.