On resolutions, and such: TIL Ben Franklin was the founding father of life hacks
Posted: January 4, 2012 Filed under: Life Hacks, Productivity | Tags: life hacking, life hacks, New Year's, productivity, resolutions, self improvement Leave a comment »TIL (Today I Learned, for those not hip to Reddit), after suffering a seasonally-related mental breakdown of sorts, that Benjamin Franklin was much more than a founding father who had his hands in pretty much everything (including the ladies, apparently). He was, as the blog 43 Folders puts it, “the spiritual father of all life hacks.”
Life hacks, for those not familiar, are productivity shortcuts, tips and tricks (originally a programming term, now applied to any part of one’s life).
"Ben Franklin" with Pam on The Office
My husband was the one who imparted the wisdom of Franklin today as we discussed our New Year’s resolutions over a sink of dirty dishes. One of our resolutions was to keep more on top of the housework. But the resolution talk just kept flowing, as it became pretty clear just how depressingly unsatisfied we were with our performance as adult human beings in 2011 (related). Okay, so that was a bit overly negative – we’re really just ambitious people, happy with most of what we did last year, but ready to top it in 2012.
My husband, who studied architecture in college, mentioned that he used Franklin’s “life hacks” as an approach to studying. He’d make a list of things he needed to memorize, and go through them one by one, tracking his progress and repeating when necessary.
Self improvement, the nerd way
Franklin himself had a list he called the 13 Virtues. He was trying to live a more moral life, like pretty much all of us try to do, by resolving to follow this list. But, because he’s a genius, instead of just rattling off a few things like “yeah, I’m gonna go to ye olde gymnasium every day” or “I’m trying to cut out the sweets” or “Gee, I should stop hitting this [tobacco] pipe so often”, he had a methodical approach that helped him see more success in achieving his daily goals.
In addition to having an organized and specific list of items that were of personal import, Franklin tracked his progress on the daily with a spreadsheet-like journal. He tackled his goals one at a time and kept at it until he felt he’d either achieved them, or somehow became a better person.
So, while you may not be a complete success at living a life of piety (or debauchery, depending on your style), at least you can look back in your nerded-out journal of goals and milestones and feel like you’ve accomplished something, and are a more complete or fulfilled individual for it. Even if you don’t keep a journal, making a basic list and attacking each item one at a time, over a longer period of time (rather than trying to do it all at once and burning yourself out) might help you see more success in achieving at least a few of your resolutions this year.
Happy 2012!
PS – As you can probably tell, another of my resolutions was to blog more, hence why this blog is being updated for the first time in…god, I don’t even want to think about it.
