Some readers know me; I am obsessed with personal growth.
I am always looking for ways to boost my productivity, and if the new method helps me, I cannot wait to share it.
I developed this 30-day challenge series by trying new productivity routines from the most famous and successful people worldwide.
I tricked my brain into thinking I would only do this challenge for a while, especially if it were not interesting or boring; it was just a matter of 30 days.
I love to read non-fiction, the real stuff.
What happened in the past?
How did people overcome their obstacles?
We live in a digital world by merely spending $20 to buy the best book on the planet and jump inside the most successful person’s brain to learn how they accomplished so much.
Here’s what you’ll learn if you continue reading this experiential article based on my 30+ day challenges.
- A bit of background on Benjamin Franklin’s life continuing his professions
- What his daily routine looks like
- Did I make any changes?
- Why did I jump on to do his hectic daily routine?
- Day 1: How to start your day?
- Day 2–15: Getting into groovy mode
- Day 16–35: Challenges, adjustments, & accomplishments
- Should you follow Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine?
- What did I learn?
Why Franklin’s daily routine 30-day challenge?
Franklin was a productivity master. You must have heard the word prolific writer. Well, Franklin had a prolific career encompassing all these professions.
Printer
Writer
Politician
Entrepreneur
Inventor
Scientist
Postmaster
Diplomat
I am a voracious reader, and while reading his biographical essay and researching his life while reading this article, I came across this image.
Note — 1
If you love biographies, there is one accomplished professor to follow. He has written many biographies about successful people in the world. For example
Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Steve Jobs
Elon Musk
Leonardo Da Vinci
We are creatures of habit.
By consistently following something, achieving massive success in life is possible. Frank was a morning person.
He was always up at the same time, went to bed at the same time, and worked certain hours a day.
That’s it.
He preferred to work in two 4-hour shifts.
One he did in the morning and the second after lunch.
Here is Frank’s daily routine.
5–8 am
“Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness; contrive day’s business and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study; and breakfast.”
8–12 pm
“work”
12–2 pm
“Read or overlook my accounts and dine.”
2–6 pm
“work”
6–10 pm
“Put things in their places, supper, music, or diversion, or conversation; examination of the day.”
10 pm — 5 am
“Sleep”
Tweak — 1
As you can see, it’s a hectic schedule. It’s hard for humans to follow this strict daily routine, especially if they are beginners.
Therefore, I made the following tiny adjustments.
Instead of waking up at 5 am, I woke up at 6 am.
In the place where I live, the sunrise is at 6:39 am, and I love to see the sunrise, especially with a black cup of coffee from my window and a book.
It makes me happy, and I just read for the sake of reading instead of working (my work involves a lot of reading).
Tweak — 2
As you can see, I woke up at 6 AM instead of 5 AM but went to bed at 10 PM.
I love my sleep.
I worked hard to improve my sleep quality and was not looking for any experience that disturbed my sleep schedule.
Frank had 7 hours of sleep each night; I preferred to have 7+ hours but less than 8.
I don’t take my smartphone or electronic gadgets to the bedroom; it’s just the natural rhythm. I am up between 7 and 8 am without an alarm clock.
My Trick
Go to bed at 10 pm sharp.
I am glad I made these two tweaks.
Day 1: How to start your day?
5–8 am: rise, wash, breakfast
I love my sleep.
As I said earlier, I did not want to sacrifice my sleep to sleep for just 7 hours as Franklin did.
I slept a good 7+ hours sleep.
I woke up the first day around 6:25 am, brushed my teeth, and went to the kitchen.
I developed the habit of drinking a tall glass of water first thing in the morning with a pinch of salt. Sometimes, I prefer adding fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
It helps to improve gut health. Recently, I did Dr. Huberman’s daily routine. The review is pending due to a couple of questions I asked experts, and I am waiting for responses.
Then, I meditated for 10–15 minutes by sitting in an idol and looking at the backyard. I used to think meditation was useless until I meditated for a good four weeks. It’s just a habit that calms my thoughts and sets me up for the day.
After meditation, I went for a 41-minute walk. I usually do that trail by running, but it’s winter, and the trail is pretty slippery.
How long walks can help you to boost every area of your life?
Go on long walks without electronics — no phone, smartwatch, water, nothing. You will be okay with these things for 30–45 minutes.
If you can, prefer to walk along running water (river, waterfall, etc.)
Walk in nature (mountain, hiking trail, along the pond, etc.)
When I returned from the long walk, I planned out my to-do list for the day. I got to work at 8 am.
I work from home, and that’s the usual time I go to work. Here is another reason to follow Franklin’s daily schedule: I work a 4-hour day from 8 am to 12 pm every morning except Sundays.
Therefore, I faced little resistance.
By the way, after a long walk, I shower, have breakfast, and dress appropriately.
Here is another trick to boost your home office productivity.
Do not go to the office in the same clothes you wear when you walk around the home. If you can have a dedicated space, treat your home office as a work environment. It will boost your productivity.
8 am-12 pm: work
Franklin worked for 4 hours continuously; I broke down the 4 hours in the 50-minute pomo method.
Even before following Frank’s daily routine, I worked 50 minutes straight and took 10 minutes of break.
In those 10 minutes, I make sure to stand up, do push-ups, or do anything that makes sure I am not in the office for 10 minutes. I bought this simple kitchen timer to handle this task.
Then another 50 minutes. I took 40 40-minute breaks every 4 hours, which helped boost my productivity.
12–2 pm: Lunch & Reading time
I don’t take more than 30 minutes for a lunch break. If my wife is having lunch at home and working in the office, I prefer to have lunch with her and gossip for the rest of 25 minutes. She usually takes a break for one hour from the office.
The rest of the hour was spent reading.
I love to boost productivity. Recently, I bought the book, ‘Feel-Good Productivity’ by Ali Abdaal, an ex-doctor, accomplished YouTuber, and author. Stay tuned for my comprehensive book review.
2–6 pm: Work
As I mentioned earlier, Franklin had a prolific career. He worked on multiple projects in a single day.
I also have multiple side hustles. The first 4 hours I spent on my main hustle writing.
For the rest of the 4 hours, I worked on a new business venture on which I am working with an international client. More on this later.
In the first 4 hours, I worked only on writing; however, in the 2nd four hours, I worked on three different projects using the same Pomodoro method, 50 minutes of solid work routine then, followed by a 10-minute break.
6–10 pm: Supper, music, conversation
My mom and my younger brother are visiting.
My mother is a great cook; she cooked two or three meals, including my favorite, biryani(rice with chicken).
We had a great supper when Mom always had something to share. We had a great time at the dining table.
Around 8 pm, everyone went to their rooms. Sitting alone in the living room, I thought maybe it was the right time to work on my website.
Recently, I launched my website to share my thoughts in detail. I have a massive plan for the future to bring more awareness about reading and writing and how to boost productivity under an umbrella.
I worked a good two hours on my website design, migrating content from this platform to my sufyanmaan.com blog, adjusting images, etc. I am glad I launched my website last month, and it has already gained more than 1000 sessions from Google (organic search).
Back to Franklin’s daily routine
I don’t listen to music unless I’m at the gym, so that part was outside the scope.
10 pm-5 am
I slept until 6:25 AM because I did not want to disturb my sleep. After many experiments, I realized that I need a good 7+ hours of sleep.
If I sleep more than 8 hours, I get exhausted.
If I sleep less than 7 hours, I get fatigued.
My sweet spot is between 7 and 8 hours. I sleep roughly seven hours and 20 minutes.
Recall: On the first day, I did the following tasks:
I woke up at 6:25 AM.
Brush my teeth
Drink a tall glass of water. Add fresh lemon, apple cider vinegar, salt, or nothing else.
Did my 30-minute reading
Went for a long walk (without any electronics)
Came back and made a to-do list (I don’t prefer to add more than three of the most important things on my to-do list)
Had a shower
Dress up properly
I had a healthy breakfast ( I prefer a cup of white eggs, one orange, spinach, and a few walnuts)—I have the same breakfast every day except Sundays.
Then, I made another black cup of coffee.
Worked a solid 4 hours
Had lunch within 30 minutes
Read for 1 hour
Back to work — plugged in another solid 4 hours
Had supper with family
Worked on my side project — sufyanmaan.com (my blog)
Had a solid sleep for 7+ hours.
Let’s move on to day TWO+.
Day 2–15: Getting into groovy mode
The first day was the hardest one; after that, I kind of started to get into groovy.
There could be many reasons.
- Benjamin routine wasn’t hectic than my usual routine.
- The 30-day challenge is new to me. I have accomplished many in the past.
- I also tweaked a little bit to get the maximum out of his daily routine without sacrificing my health.
I used to work 50-minute deep sessions and a 10-minute break to leave the desk literally. In those 10 minutes, you can stretch, listen to music, or go for a short walk around the neighborhood. I go in my backyard and chill; it depends on my mood.
Day 16–35: Accomplishments
In the third week, I was actually doing almost everything Benjamin did to get the most out of the day.
I also observed that his second half of the day after lunch was a bit of a struggle.
There could be many reasons.
- I do the hardest thing first thing in the morning. The first four hours of my work day are 100% focused work. I don’t even look at the phone or worry about anything else. Until I am done, the first four hours are quality work.
- Then lunch, walk, reading, etc
- However, in the second half of the day, I used to do mostly admin work or replying to leads if I was interested in working, taking 1-on-1 calls, etc. In these 35 days, I tried to put in actual work instead of just passive activities, mostly admin work.
Should you follow Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine?
Short answer: YES
Benjamin Franklin had a fixed daily schedule that would help you manage your day better and develop discipline in the long run.
After this experiment, I can say that Benjmin’s daily routine has only benefits. I did not see any side effects. Maybe the routine was not that hectic, and I also tweaked it a bit.
However, the rigid schedule might be challenging in the first 1–2 weeks.
Benjmin’s daily routine is not for everyone; some people need more flexibility. As I always say, we are unique.
We can learn from each other, but deep down, it’s up to us to implement or maximize the results.
It’s not going to be easy. Simply doing all the tasks is hard, especially in the first 1–2 weeks; it tricks your brain that you are doing for merely 30 days.
What did I learn?
One Word: More Discipline
I also learned that instead of my weekly introspection or reflecting on what is working and what is not, it was a bit longer than I was supposed to do.
I learned that it’s important to reflect every day instead of fixing it at the end of the week; it’s way easier to fix after 24 hours or at least think I need to fix this. It’s not working out anymore, or I am heading towards a different path.
I also learned to improve 1% at a time. Not a single person on the planet has the power to change a bad habit or develop a strong one in one day; good things take time.
The bottom line
Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine is straightforward; however, it’s not easy to implement in the first 1–2 weeks.
It’s one of the best routines you can follow if you struggle to boost your productivity.
Although the routine is more than 250 years old, it still works. It will work more now because of our toxic digital lives and our declining focus span.
Don’t aim for perfection. If you miss a day or two, that’s fine.
However, make sure never to miss more than two days in a row.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. — Benjamin Franklin
The above-mentioned quote summed up my 35-day journey. I documented it every day, which helped me focus on creating valuable content.
I don’t share anything if I don’t believe it’s not going to help even a single person. I learned from Benjamin’s daily routine that your life should be purposeful; we are here to work hard and contribute to society.
Let me recall his daily routine.
5–8 am — Wake up, brush, breakfast
8–12 pm — Work
12–2 pm — Dine, Read
2–6 pm — work
6–10 pm — Reflect, supper, and music
10 pm — 5 am — Quality Sleep
My final thought: Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine will lead you to massive productivity.
Bonus: How can you boost your energy levels?
Many readers asked if I consume any supplements to maximize my 30+ days of challenges.
Yes, I do.
However, I prefer to eat whole foods and avoid canned ones. I also believe that recent food quality has lacked proper nutrition, so I take supplements to fill the gap.
I only consume proven and continuously consumed supplements by scientists like Andrew Huberman or experimental gentleman Tim Ferris. Supplements will help you enhance your overall life.
Here is My Supplements Stack with Daily Routine
It will help you build your supplement routine to improve your overall health.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health, productivity, and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and 30+ days of experiments (29 completed so far) to build a sustainable healthy lifestyle.
