So, this is Benjamin Franklin's daily schedule
So what am I doing, what is this all about? lately
I've been looking for methods and systems to incorporate in my life to be more productive more effective and more balanced.
I'm on a mission right now, and I'm trying to build up the habits that will help me get where I want to go
So what's the connection with Benjamin Franklin? Founding Father.
Incredible inventor.
He's on the hundred dollar bill, just crazy life right in his autobiography. He shares his daily schedule
And as soon as I saw it, I was like I've got to try this
So here's kind of a rundown basic rundown of what it looks like
He'd wake up at 5:00 in the morning and kind of do his morning routine for the next three hours
Including breakfast and studying and preparing for the day then he'd work for four hours
Lunch and look over accounts. So light work, I suppose, for a couple hours
Work again for four more hours and then from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m
He would kind of do like his evening routine dinner music or diversion or conversation
examination of the day
So reflection and then he'd sleep for seven hours a night and on the left hand side
He has something that's so simple and so again, and I think that's why I'm so drawn to it
It's basically just a morning question and an evening question. In the morning he'd ask himself
What good shall I do this day and in the evening, He asked himself what good have I done today? That's a fantastic question
I think to ask yourself and I don't think I do it at all or
Certainly not consciously. I'm excited to take it on
You know he I mean he is famous for saying
early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise and I think that is
Just like a fantastic quote
Hopefully it's true
So it's 5:45 a.m. On Monday he said to contrive day's business and take the resolution of the day
I'm gonna kind of plan out my day do some journaling and bullet journaling
I'm going to meditate and then he said to prosecute the present study. So I've got to learn something
I'm gonna study maybe a little bit of Italian and breakfast so I need some breakfast. Alright
Let's do this thing. (sigh)
This is currently what my Google Drive,
Just kidding. Google Calendar looks like
That doesn't look scary at all. I think that's yeah-- yeah.
I don't know what I signed myself up for. I have no idea if he did the same thing on Saturday and Sunday,
Probably not but I'm going to.
Why not? I'm kind of figuring exercise might fit into here into the evening routine. All right, so it's 12:15
So I'm a little bit late for taking the lunch break. I spent the last 4 ish hours working
Super super productive so far if I can have the discipline to maintain this throughout the whole week
I think I'm gonna have a ridiculous week because it was it's awesome just to start at 5:00, you know
It doesn't even get light out until like 7:30 8:00 right now cuz it's winter time
So I had like two and a half hours three hours to get ahead of the day
You know to prepare before it even starts
I guess what I'm gonna do at this point then is, well I'll have lunch, and then I'll probably chill out for a little bit.
Maybe listen to one of my audiobooks.
Yeah, something like that
I'm so used to being in the opposite situation where I'm rushing through the day always trying to catch up
I know it's day one, but man, it's like I have so much time
So it's only
For 42 p.m. Right now, but I'm starting to lose steam
I guess that's what happens when you wake up at 5:00 and you're not used to it
My plan is to just keep powering through and then go to bed early and hopefully I will feel
More used to this sort of system and more rested after a good night's sleep
Super happy with how they turned out awesome way to start the week. I'm just rendering a video right now
it's 9:15, but I think I'm just gonna go to bed right now because
Kind of dreading waking up at 5:00 tomorrow, I will be asking myself Ben Franklin's evening question. What good have I done today?
It's awesome question to ask yourself, you know
Day one.
Okay, I'm outside cuz I haven't been outside at all today so far and it's almost 2:00 already before I dive back into work
Which is all that Benjamin Franklin has for the next four hours according to the schedule
I just wanted to kind of give you an update things have been going really really well overall
But I do want to mention a few things for small waking up at 5:00 not getting easier was very difficult this morning
Hopefully I get more used to it as the week goes on
I don't know if Benjamin Franklin was familiar with the concept of deep work
But that is what I'm trying to do with these four hour blocks of time
I think I mentioned this yesterday, but I'm not used to blocking out that kind of time for work
So I'm trying to make the most of it by doing one activity or one type of activity during that time
Not saying I'm doing it successfully
I'm just saying I'm trying and the last thing I want to mention is it and this is gonna sound kind of weird but
Journaling by myself in the dark at 6:00 a.m. Is
Having such a positive impact on my days. I feel so grateful for what I've got
So so excited for the day ahead because I'm allowed to prepare for it
And I'm not having to run from the second I wake up
There's so much time before the day really starts with this sort of schedule that
It's awesome. I love that aspect to it. Not used to that. I'm not naturally a morning person. That's I'm trying to become one
So yeah back to work. Let's go
Today's Thursday
Day 4 of this experiment and a couple of problems have come up
The first problem was with sleep to be a positive and productive person and do the work that I do on a consistent basis
I need eight hours of sleep a night. I can go below that sometimes but not consistently
There are people out there that are capable of much less, you know hats off to you
I'm not one of those people and I honestly think
Most people are not like that. So I knew taking this on that right off the bat
I would be reducing the amount of sleep
I get per night by an hour because he goes to bed at 10:00 and wakes up at 5:00. That's seven hours
It's seven hours in theory
But in practice what ended up happening was I was going to bed after 10:00 and getting even less sleep
The problem is I was trying to fit in some of the stuff that I do in my daily life like work out
For example into the schedule that isn't built for that. Okay, so it's 8:50 right now at this point
I should honestly be starting like the preparations to go to bed
But I haven't had an opportunity to work out yet and Benjamin Franklin doesn't include it in his schedule
Guess it wasn't that much of a priority for him. So I'm just gonna do a quick little workout take a shower and then
Lights out. So what ended up happening was my productivity which was really high at the beginning of the week
I was amped about how much I was getting done ended up dropping off significantly. I remember waking up at 5:00 a.m
yesterday and
just
feeling a little bit beat up and when you feel that way like you're not you are not going to be attacking the day and
Attacking the things you've got to do with the same gusto the same vigor now
I think my productivity is actually coming back up because I've been
Prioritizing sleep a lot more and made a huge effort to go to bed last night at like nine ish p.m
But that introduced a whole new problem. I've noticed that I'm spending a lot of time by myself
Already, I have reduced the amount of time that I have available in my evenings
You know at nighttime and added that in too early in the morning, right? And that morning time is so low time
It's by myself. I enjoy it's really nice. But it's by myself that plus all the work time eight hours of work each day
Plus having lunch right in the middle of the day means there's only three hours of time each day
In theory that I could potentially spend with people for diversion for music, you know the things that he included in his daily schedule
But the problem is that time is also evening routine winding down
I guess work out if you want to squeeze it in
So that time evaporates immediately and what I've been left feeling is that there's like no time to like kind of do
Fun stuff or do stuff with friends or you know that sort of thing. I'm not sure how he handled it
I know he would have guests over for dinner
He included music in his evening schedule
But I also think it was a different time period when things got dark
You have a smartphone you didn't have a laptop
You didn't have a TV and all of that creates artificial light you can use that whenever you want at any time in the day
right
Back, then there was nothing to do or certainly a lot less
Candlelight is only going to take you so far
Plus I noticed that when things get when he gets dark and there's not a bunch to do I get tired
I just want to go to bed
This kid was also not built for the kind of work that I do right freelancing
I got called up on a shoot that I can't share any of the details about so I'll just show some clips of me driving
But yeah, like I couldn't follow this schedule and also do that. So I had to kind of bend it a little bit today
I still woke up at 5:00 still did the whole morning routine, etc. So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now
It's been a week now of this experiment and here's what I've learned first of all it's been a huge challenge
I don't know how much of that is down to my lack of discipline or if he was just an ultra disciplined individual
But whatever the case may be. I had a hard time keeping up with his tempo
I do want to mention that even he said he didn't always follow his own schedule
but it didn't keep him from
Consistently striving for greatness, right? I gained a lot of respect for Ben Franklin
I think I saw firsthand what it takes to be a high achiever and the commitment the
determination the consistency that you have to have day in and day out and also like some of the sacrifices that you have to make
In exchange for the the goals that you're trying to accomplish the the mission that you're on also
I do want to mention and I have already mentioned this this week
it was sort of a window into a
Different time period into a different way that humans used to live thought that being said and despite the that it was really challenging
I would say it was still a really amazing experience a really amazing experiment and I highly recommend anybody who's interested in trying this out
Go for it. The evenings were difficult and stressful because I'm not used to going to bed early and I'm not good at it
but the mornings were incredible and
It was so valuable to me to discover that I enjoy that time in the morning to prepare to reflect to think ahead
I've already started to adapt the schedule a little bit to see if I can kind of mold it into something that
Could work for me more long-term. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed watching this video
I really
enjoyed making it and I just want to take a few moments at the end of this video here to share a few ways you
Could potentially support me. Obviously. There's a subscribe button
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But I also have a newsletter a patreon page and an online store and all those are huge ways
You could help me be able to make more videos like this one. Alright
See you soon