Start hereSeneca went over his whole day at bedtime. Pepys paid a fine when he broke a vow. Trollope wrote with his watch in front of him. Each habit comes with a record of how it went, in the person's own words or a witness's.
Twelve people from history left a record of how they spent their days. Eight wrote it down themselves, in essays, notes, letters, diaries, prayers and autobiographies. Four were described by people who knew them: a nephew, a son, a secretary, and, for Kant, De Quincey’s retelling of people who knew him.
Below are their habits in their own words, with the place each one is recorded. One thing to keep in mind as you read: a famous person’s habit shows what one person tried, not what works.
Habits from ancient Rome
Three Romans left their routines in their own writing, and a fourth was described by the nephew who watched him work.
1. Seneca: reviewing the day at bedtime
Seneca went over his whole day each night before sleep.
Seneca was Nero’s tutor and later one of his advisers. In his essay On Anger, he describes a habit he borrowed from another philosopher.
In On Anger 3.36, Seneca describes the custom of the philosopher Sextius, who asked himself each evening: “What bad habit of yours have you cured to-day? what vice have you checked? in what respect are you better?” Seneca says he does the same, once the lamp is out and his wife has fallen silent. He goes through everything he said and did that day, and hides nothing from himself. He is firm with himself, but kind.
Our suggestion: you could ask Sextius’s three questions tonight and answer each in one line.
How sure: Strong the passage is in Seneca’s own essay, in a translation anyone can read for free.
2. Marcus Aurelius: a sentence for getting out of bed
On mornings when he did not want to get up, Marcus Aurelius gave himself a reason to.
The Meditations are notes the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote to and for himself. One of them is about the warm bed.
On mornings he would rather stay in bed he tells himself, “I am rising to the work of a human being” (5.1). He goes on to ask whether he was made “to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm”.
The habit here is a short sentence kept ready for a hard moment. Our reading: it reminds him why the task matters, at the very moment he wants to skip it.
How sure: Strong the passage is in his own notes, read here in George Long’s translation.
3. Pliny the Elder: never wasting an hour
Pliny the Elder studied at night and had books read to him at nearly every spare moment.
This one comes from his nephew, Pliny the Younger, in a letter. He writes that his uncle “always began to study at midnight at the time of the feast of Vulcan”. In winter, he adds, his uncle started “generally at one in the morning, but never later than two”.
Often in summer, when he was free from business, he lay in the sun after a light midday meal, and “some author was read to him, while he took notes and made extracts”. He used to say that “no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it”. A shorthand writer went everywhere with him, with book and tablets.
The nephew remembers being scolded for walking: “You need not,” his uncle said, “lose these hours.” He left his nephew 160 volumes of extracts.
Notice what this habit needed: other people reading and writing for him. His routine rested on a staff of helpers, which most readers today will not have.
How sure: Strong an eyewitness wrote it: the nephew describes what he saw in his uncle’s house.
4. Pliny the Younger: thinking in the dark, then dictating
Pliny the Younger described his whole summer day in a letter, and it starts with thinking before speaking.
When a man named Fuscus asked how he spends his day at his summer villa, Pliny answered in a letter. He gets up “generally about sunrise, often earlier”.
He keeps the shutters closed, because he finds that darkness and silence help him think. If he has work in hand, he thinks it out “word for word” in the dark. Then he calls his secretary, opens the shutters and dictates.
Later in the day he reads a Greek or Latin speech aloud, which he says is “not so much for the sake of strengthening my voice as my digestion”, though he adds that it strengthens the voice too. He takes his walk at about ten or eleven, “for I do not observe one fixed hour”.
For example, you could try his order on a small task: think the whole thing through first, with nothing in front of you, then write it down in one go.
How sure: Strong this is his own letter about his own day. His reason for reading aloud is his belief, not a finding.
Habits from the 1600s and 1700s
Four people from these two centuries kept rules for themselves, and three of them wrote down how often the rules slipped.
5. Samuel Pepys: vows with a fine attached
Pepys wrote vows against wine and plays, reread them, and paid a fine when he broke them.
Pepys kept his diary from January 1660 to May 1669. He wrote it in a shorthand system made public by Thomas Shelton.
On 17 August 1662 he “walked an hour in the Temple-garden, reading my vows”. On 20 October 1662 he went to a play against his vow, then paid a crown into the poor’s box “according to my vow”. On 31 October he credited “my vowes against wine and plays” with keeping him to his business.
His habit had a price built in. Our reading: a rule with a small cost you set in advance is easier to keep honest, because breaking it leaves a mark.
He ended the diary on 31 May 1669 because he feared it was ruining his eyes. His editor adds that the belief he was going blind turned out to be wrong.
How sure: Strong these are his own diary entries, in a printed edition decoded from the shorthand.
6. Benjamin Franklin: a question at each end of the day
Franklin planned his day hour by hour and opened and closed it with a question.
His virtue of Order called for every part of his business to have its time, so he drew up a scheme for the 24 hours of a day. His morning, from 5 o’clock, begins “Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness!”, beside the morning question, “What good shall I do this day?” In the evening the question was “What good have I done to-day?”, along with putting things in their places and an examination of the day.
He did not keep it perfectly. He says he kept up his plan of self-examination “with occasional intermissions for some time”. He found an exact timetable impossible for “a master, who must mix with the world”. Order, he says, “cost me so much painful attention” that he nearly gave up on it.
For example, you could borrow only the two questions, without the timetable. They take a minute each.
How sure: Strong the scheme and his doubts about it are both in his own autobiography.
7. Samuel Johnson: the resolution to rise at eight
Johnson resolved again and again, over many years, to get up at eight.
His Prayers and Meditations were first published in 1785, the year after he died. They are prayers and notes he wrote for his own use on days he kept with religious solemnity and on other occasions.
On Easter Day 1765 he resolved to rise at eight, writing that “it will be much earlier than I now rise, for I often lie till two”. In the same entry he wrote that “it is necessary to combat evil habits singly”.
On 1 January 1769 he hoped “to rise early in the morning, at eight, and by degrees at six”. On Easter Day 1779 he recorded rising “about half an hour after nine”. That day his list of purposes began “To rise at eight, or as soon as I can”.
This card is about trying, not succeeding. The same resolution comes back across fourteen years, which is a very human record. Our reading: his idea of fighting one habit at a time is the part worth keeping.
How sure: Strong these are his own dated entries, read in a later edition of the 1785 book.
8. Immanuel Kant: the same day, every day
Kant’s servant called him at the same minute each morning, and the day ran to a fixed plan.
This account comes second-hand. Thomas De Quincey’s essay on Kant’s last days says it draws mainly on Wasianski’s memoirs, “checked and supported by the collateral testimonies” of other people who knew him. De Quincey also warns that Wasianski is not responsible for every single detail he reports.
At five minutes before five, winter and summer, his servant Lampe came in and called, “Mr Professor, the time is come.” Kant got up at once, even after a sleepless night. After tea he smoked his one pipe of the day and thought over his plans.
About seven he went to lecture, and after his walk he read at his library table until dusk. A quarter of an hour before bed, he turned his mind away from any thought that needed effort, so it would not keep him awake.
You may have heard a story about neighbours and their clocks; it is not in De Quincey’s account.
How sure: Moderate an English retelling of memoirs by people who knew him, and De Quincey says not every detail comes from his main witness, Wasianski.
Habits from the 1800s
Four figures from the 1800s show how a routine fits around a life, from retirement to poor health.
9. Thomas Jefferson: reading before sleep, up with the sun
When a doctor asked Jefferson about his habits, he described reading at bedtime and rising with the sun.
In a letter dated 21 March 1819, Jefferson answered a request for “the history of my physical habits”. He began modestly: “I live so much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as the history of my own.”
He never went to bed without half an hour or an hour of reading “something moral, whereon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep”. And “whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun.” Retired and aged 76, he called himself “again a hard student”.
He bathed his feet in cold water every morning for sixty years, and he credited this “partly” for how rarely he caught a chest cold. That is one man’s guess about his own health. It is not evidence that the habit prevents colds.
How sure: Strong this is his own letter, read in Thomas Jefferson Randolph’s edition of his papers.
10. Ludwig van Beethoven: sixty beans a cup
Beethoven’s secretary says the composer counted out sixty coffee beans for each cup.
Anton Schindler writes that Beethoven usually took coffee for breakfast, often making it himself. He “allowed sixty beans for each cup”, and counted them out, especially when he had visitors.
Schindler is a source to read with care. The Beethoven-Haus in Bonn says that after Beethoven’s death, Schindler falsified or removed entries in the composer’s conversation books. It says he did this partly to make his own role in Beethoven’s life seem more important.
That does not make the coffee story false. But it rests on one witness who altered other records, so treat it as a story, not a measured fact.
How sure: Limited a single eyewitness, and a museum that holds Beethoven’s papers says this witness altered other records.
11. Anthony Trollope: 250 words every quarter of an hour
Trollope wrote before breakfast to a strict word count and logged his pages every day.
He writes that he was at his table “every morning at 5.30 A.M.” He credited his full life of work, hunting and society “altogether to the virtue of early hours”. An old groom called him, paid £5 a year extra for the job, and brought his coffee. Starting that early, he could finish his writing before he dressed for breakfast.
He wrote with his watch in front of him and asked himself for 250 words every quarter of an hour. He began each session by reading over the work of the day before. He thought three hours a day produced as much as a writer ought to write.
He kept a diary, divided into weeks, and entered the number of pages written each day. The number of pages he set himself each week averaged about 40, as low as 20 and as high as 112.
For example, you could keep his log without his pace: write down each day what you did, and look at the weekly total.
How sure: Strong he describes all of this himself, in his autobiography.
12. Charles Darwin: a short walk and a good morning’s work
Darwin worked in short blocks, took a walk at midday, and fitted it all around poor health.
His son Francis describes the routine in a chapter of reminiscences. Darwin “took a short turn before breakfast”, a habit that began at a water-cure establishment. He counted the hour and a half from 8 to 9.30 among his best working times.
By around noon he would often say, “I’VE done a good day’s work.” In earlier years he counted his daily rounds of the Sand-walk with a heap of flints, kicking one out each time he passed. He worked again from about half-past four to half-past five.
His son explains that half an hour more conversation could cost him a sleepless night and perhaps half the next day’s work. The routine was shaped by illness as much as by choice.
How sure: Strong an eyewitness account by his son, who grew up in the house.
What a habit from history can and can’t show
These records tell us what people did, not whether it is good for us.
A famous person’s routine is one life, not a test. Nobody compared Kant with a Kant who slept in. Their success may have come from many other things, such as talent, money or help.
Several of these routines also leaned on other people. Pliny the Elder had a shorthand writer, Trollope paid a groom to call him, and Kant had a servant to call him.
Several record struggling, too. Franklin found Order painful, and Johnson wrote the same resolution for years. That may be the most useful part: even people with famous discipline wrote down their slips.
If you want to build a habit, research on ordinary people may help more than any one biography. In a 2010 study of people building one new daily habit, the time to reach 95% of their own plateau of automaticity ranged from 18 to 254 days.
Where to learn more
- Franklin’s thirteen virtues and his chart: our summary of Franklin’s Autobiography.
- Marcus Aurelius and his notes to himself: our summary of the Meditations.
- Seneca’s letters on time and daily practice: our summary of Letters from a Stoic.
- The Stoic evening review and other exercises: our page on Stoicism.
- What the research says about building habits: our summary of Atomic Habits.
Quick answers
What daily habits did famous historical figures have?
Several reviewed their day, such as Seneca at bedtime and Franklin with his evening question. Others kept fixed hours, such as Trollope at his table at 5.30 in the morning and Kant, called by his servant at five minutes before five.
How did Benjamin Franklin plan his day?
He drew up a scheme for the 24 hours of a day. It opened with the question "What good shall I do this day?" and closed with "What good have I done to-day?"
Did Kant's neighbours set their clocks by his walk?
We did not find that story in De Quincey's account of Kant's days, which draws mainly on the memoirs of people who knew him.
Does copying a famous person's routine work?
A famous person's habit shows what one person tried, not what works. In a 2010 study of people building one new daily habit, the time to reach 95% of their own plateau of automaticity ranged from 18 to 254 days.
Use this
Our suggestion: three ways to borrow from these records without copying anyone's whole day.
Try one habit, log it, then decide.
Quick quiz
Nothing is scored or saved. Recalling it once now is what makes it last.
1. What did Pepys do after he broke his vow against plays?
Answer: He paid a crown into the poor's box.Read it again ↑
2. How many words did Trollope ask of himself every quarter of an hour?
Answer: 250.Read it again ↑
3. Why is Schindler's coffee story about Beethoven worth reading with care?
Answer: A museum says he altered other records.Read it again ↑
How we checked this · Last checked November 2026
- We read each habit in the person's own writing or in an account by someone who knew them, using free editions on Project Gutenberg, Wikisource and the Internet Archive.
- Jefferson's letter is read in the edition of his papers edited by his grandson, because the Founders Online copy could not be opened.
- Beethoven's coffee habit rests on one witness, Anton Schindler, and the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn says he altered other records. Kant's day comes to us through De Quincey's English retelling of memoirs by people who knew him.
- Franklin's thirteen virtues, the Meditations, Seneca's letters and the research on habits each have their own page, linked at the end.