Money and Finance

What Ben Franklin can teach execs

A 2006 Fortune article from Justin Fox.

Let others take the credit, set goals for the workday, and don't drink rum all day. And when your time-management fails, you're still better off for the attempt.

You'll never catch me reading a Stephen Covey book or attending one of David Allen's "Getting Things Done" seminars.

Why not? It's a combination of misplaced snobbery, an allergy to inspirational messages, and the fear that, once I've started on somebody's failsafe program for time-management success, I'll inevitably fall off the wagon and hate myself for it.

Now, however, I have found an acceptable alternative. It is the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It's history! It's literature! It's Franklin! And yeah, it is also something of a self-help/time-management bible.

…

The book is mostly, as advertised, an autobiography -- sprinkled as most good autobiographies are with the occasional life lesson. One is astounded by all that Franklin manages to do (he teaches himself French, Spanish, and Italian in the evenings after full days of running a print shop, publishing a newspaper, and busying himself with Pennsylvania politics).

There is a steady stream of advice about interpersonal relations, the common thread of which is this: You can get a lot more accomplished if you let others take the credit. Franklin also argues that you can be more productive at work if you don't drink rum or beer all day, apparently a revolutionary concept in the 18th century.

It was during a sea voyage home from London in 1726 that Franklin had time to think more deeply about what constituted effectiveness, and how to achieve it. He refined his ideas over the following couple of years into a list of virtues (temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, humility), after which he drew up a scorecard to keep track of how he was doing on each of them. Achieving order was a particular struggle, so he devised a template for his workdays that he consulted regularly:

"THE MORNING," it began. "Question: What good shall I do this day?" Then he was to spend 5 through 7 a.m. rising, washing, and eating. More importantly, he was to "Contrive day's business, and take the resolution of the day..." In the evening, after his day's work, he was, among other things, to ask himself, "What good have I done today?"

This emphasis on setting goals for the day ahead and taking stock afterward remains a staple of time-management advice. (At least, so I'm told.) There's clearly something to it: I know that I'm far more likely to accomplish something when I have a well-defined to-do list for the day. But in a work world where conflicting, competing priorities are the norm, it's really hard to stick to such a list. Which is why most of us seldom get around to devising one.

Ben Franklin certainly didn't. As a small-businessman he had to jump at the whims of his customers. Also, his interests were so many that he struggled to keep track them all. "I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order," he admitted in the Autobiography. "But on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of attaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man ..."

This is perhaps the most appealing aspect of Franklin's time-management advice: He was an admitted failure at it, and yet that was ... okay. Which is just about the most inspirational message conceivable.

……….

Related previous post:

Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues

Related book:

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

- Links
How America Lost Track of Ben Franklin’s Definition of Success [H/T @AlexRubalcava] (LINK) [Related book: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin] According to Franklin, what mattered in business was humility, restraint, and discipline....

- Links
Aswath Damodaran - The Education Business: A Road Map for Disruption (LINK) Related mini-book (PDF): Hire Education: Mastery, Modularization, and the Workforce RevolutionRelated book: Disrupting ClassAndrew Smithers: The contested ties between asset...

- Benjamin Franklin And The Birth Of A Paper Money Economy - By Farley Grubb
Link to: Benjamin Franklin And the Birth of a Paper Money Economy Paper money has often been controversial and misunderstood. Why it has value, why that value changes over time, how it influences economic activity, who should be allowed to make it,...

- Ben Franklin On Humility (and Some Crafty Advice On Persuasion)
From his autobiography: My list of virtues contain'd at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show'd itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being...

- Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation. 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time. 4....

Money and Finance