The Ben Franklin schedule is a popular model of organization. But is it for everyone? And how can the majority of people implement it or a version of it to be more successful?
Ben Franklin was a Founding Father of the United States.
But aside from being a politician who fought for the independence of America, he was also an author, political theorist, scientist, and inventor, to name a few. So how was he able to do all of these things as such a busy person?
Well, let’s take a look at his popular schedule to find out:
Okay, if you look above, you can see Franklin’s schedule.
In it, you’ll notice that he breaks out large chunks of his day to do work and only work (I’m going to assume that he is doing creative work in these blocks of time as there are certain times in the day that he slotted in to do administrative work).
This is how he accomplishes so much –he works uninterrupted for many hours of the day.
This is what Cal Newport refers to as “deep work,” which is working intensely on a task in a distraction-free environment for a few hours.
During this time, you enter the “zone” if you will, and are able to perform at a high-level –your creativity and thinking, for instance, are optimized for the task that you are trying to solve or complete.
So, How Can Following Ben Franklin’s Schedule Benefit You?
If you want to complete anything that requires rigorous thinking and contemplation or deep thought, this is the only way to efficiently complete that task.
The reason is that it takes time to enter the “zone” and once you are in it, everything starts to click together –your ideas, your execution, your logic… things just start to connect and make sense.
But if you were to work on a project or try to learn something new in short chunks of time (15-30 mins), you will not reach the point of deep work.
You may get to the beginning of it, but you won’t be taking full advantage of it because it lasts for at least a couple of hours.
Thus, it will take much longer for you to complete your task or master your skill.
Think of it as a pre-workout.
This is a supplement that you take before you exercise and it’s meant to energize you.
Now, let’s say it takes about 30 minutes to kick in. But instead of working out past 30 minutes and taking advantage of the pre-workout, you just exercise for half an hour.
This is a waste of your time.
The reason is, had you just worked out longer until the pre-workout wore off, you would’ve completed more with quality performance.
You wouldn’t have had to come back to the gym the next day to complete what could’ve been done the previous day.
So if you are a student who needs to do a project, this is one of the best techniques for you to use.
Additionally, if you want to master a skill or subject, the most efficient way to reach mastery is to do what Franklin does and break off a chunk of your day (a couple hours or so) and devote it to developing your skills and knowledge on the subject.
How to Mimic the Ben Franklin Schedule
Here’s how you can mimic Franklin’s schedule to be more productive if you are a student or someone who wants to master a new skill.
As a student or someone with commitments such as a job, you may not have as much time as Franklin did to work on your side projects.
According to his schedule, he spent 8 hours a day on deep or creative work.
You probably can’t do that because you have classes or work.
But what you can take from his schedule are working in long, uninterrupted chunks of time, and answering the morning and evening questions.
So, every morning, ask yourself “what good shall I do this day?”
This could be what you will contribute to the world or what positive activity you will do for yourself. This could also be something that you need to do to propel your life forward.
In the evening, before bed or after supper, ask yourself “what good have I done today?”
Basically, you will answer if you have achieved your goals for the day or not.
That’s the first thing you can take from this schedule.
The second thing is his periods of deep work. To do this, find a time of day that you are free and distractions are less likely to occur.
This could be early in the morning before everyone wakes up or late in the evening when everyone is settled in bed.
You just need a few hours where you won’t get distracted or bothered so that you can focus on your task at hand.
The task can be a project you need to finish for your side hustle or a skill, such as archery, that you want to improve.
How I work
Most people, from what I’ve read and heard, prefer to do creative work early in the morning.
The reason they give is that they won’t be distracted by their families during those hours.
They also like it because it gives them a sense of loneliness -not in the way of being sad because you’re alone, but in the way that you are alone and are free to just work (I’m sure there’s a term that describes this better).
For me, I like to work during the hours before my job starts, which is in the afternoon, and late at night.
And since I have my own office space where I tutor, I like to go out there and just write for a few hours before my first students start rolling in.
It’s relatively distraction-free and I can just focus on being creative and doing work there.
Final Thoughts
The Ben Franklin schedule is pretty flexible if you modify it a bit.
So are you going to start implementing Franklin’s schedule to your own work schedule?
Share your thoughts below in the comments.