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Benjamin Franklin knew the importance of sticking to the same schedule everyday, so he made sure to include it in his autobiography. Some of the things that were on his schedule would be helpful for us to do everyday, but there are some things that will depend on the person and what they like to do. He got up everyday at 5:00am so that he could get more stuff done in the morning. But Thomas Frank said that not everyone needs to get up super early every morning, but it is good to get up at the same time every morning, even on the weekends. Even though Ben Franklin was such a busy man, he made sure to schedule time in his day to take a break and rest his mind. All of us can learn, by looking at his daily schedule, that even if we have a lot to do one day it is good to take a break so that you don't wear yourself out.

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It is very beneficial for everyone to have a routine that they follow daily. You want to make sure to get up at a time that will give you plenty of time to get ready for your day, instead of just rolling out of bed 20 minutes before you have somewhere to be. In order to do this, you must have good self-discipline to make sure that you do not hit the snooze button when your alarm goes off. There are many apps for your phone where you can record your daily routine and make sure that you stick to it everyday. Instead of just laying around the house in the morning, you want to be productive with your time. For example, you can meditate, read, or have more time to make and eat a good breakfast

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How to Create a Morning Routine (and Stick to It Long-Term)

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Thomas Frank has found a way for him to get up early every morning, and punish himself if he doesn't. He used an app to send out a twitter post every morning at 6:10am unless he deletes it that morning. He sets his alarm for 6:00, and the twitter post says that if he isn't up by 6:10am, he will pay everyone who comments $5. This way, he is motivated to get up, because he doesn't want to have to give others his money. However, this will only work for you if you have good self discipline. You could always lie to people and say that you were up by 6:10, even if you weren't, but this would mean that you failed at your goal and it doesn't help you at all.

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My Hack for Waking Up at 6 A.M. Every Day - College Info Geek

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100% of the time.... it works every time. My book "10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades" is coming out in January and it's free! Get it here: http://collegeinfogeek.com/get-better-grades/ If you want to get even more strategies and tips on becoming a more productive, successful student, subscribe to my channel right here: http://buff.ly/1vQP5ar Connect with me on Twitter!

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The author gets up at 6:00 every morning, sot because she wants to, but because her dog wakes her up then. Most dogs get up around the same time every morning and like to eat their meals at the same time everyday. Even though dogs are a lot different than humans are, we can learn what type of routines we need in our life to be healthy. When we are children, parents try to get their kids to bed at the same time every night, but things don't always work out as planned. An adult's body wants the same consistency that dogs want, but it can be harder for people to get up at the same time each day. When adults get older, if they are still following a regular schedule, it can help them recover quicker than someone there age with no normal routine.

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Waking up at 6 AM every weekend? There might be something healthy going on.

Much to my dismay, at 6:00 every morning my Italian Greyhound Pip nudges me awake, so that I can feed him. Not at 5:55 or 6:05, but at 6:00, on the dot, every morning. His inner alarm bell starts ringing, and it becomes critical that he has his breakfast. Pip is nothing if not a model of regularity. He's also a model sleeper, an excellent squirrel chaser, and, most importantly, is filled with joy every single day. What does Pip know that I don't? Probably many things, but one in particular is how important routine is in our daily lives.

As any parent will attest, a routine is paramount for achieving a successful bedtime with children. Even beyond helping to make the transition to bedtime easier, routines during early childhood are related to better cognitive performance and reduced behavior problems. However, achieving this consistency is easier said than done. According to the National Sleep Foundation's own 2014 Sleep in America Poll, only about half of children under age 11 had consistent bed and wake times. The good news is that after investing the initial effort to establish regular bed and wake times, your child's body clock will automatically align with a regular schedule.

What about for adults? How critical is maintaining a daily routine for our well-being? It turns out that, like Pip, our bodies crave consistency. With regular daily activities, our various body systems are able to prepare for and anticipate events. We naturally become more alert closer to our wake-up time. Our digestive systems become activated in advance of regular meal times in order to more efficiently process food. We start to relax and become sleepy prior to bedtimes. It turns out that these regular daily events serve to anchor our underlying daily rhythms.

Maintaining a daily routine is just as important when we transition to the later years of life. Aging is associated with many occupational, social, and health changes. With retirement and changing social and family obligations, older adults may have fewer "anchors" in their daily lives to help them maintain a regular schedule. Despite these changes, research suggests that older adults are particularly good at maintaining a regular schedule. In fact, being older is associated with greater lifestyle regularity compared to younger and middle-aged adults. Furthermore, this regularity appears to be adaptive by helping older adults sleep better and recover more quickly from losses.

So, although Pip and I differ in many ways (e.g., he has fur and a tail), I think it's safe to say that we're alike in at least one way. We both can benefit from a regular routine. If only I could serve breakfast a little later in the day!

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The Importance of A Healthy Sleep Routine | Sleep.org

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Much to my dismay, at 6:00 every morning my Italian Greyhound Pip nudges me awake, so that I can feed him. Not at 5:55 or 6:05, but at 6:00, on the dot, every morning. His inner alarm bell starts ringing, and it becomes critical that he has his breakfast.

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By scheduling your time and being more productive during the day, you can live a healthier and happier life. Jack Dorsey (the founder of Twitter) dedicates each day of the week to a certain area of his business. Evan Williams takes a break in the middle of work everyday to go to the gym so that they have more energy. Winston Churchill would eat all of his meals at the same time everyday. Leo Babauta makes a list of the top 3 things that they need to get done at the beginning of the day to make sure they know what needs to be done during the afternoon. And, Barack Obama made sure to eat dinner with his family every night before going back to work.

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Belle Beth Cooper of Buffer has collected the daily routines of seven extremely famous and successful entrepreneurs so that you may learn to construct a fantastic routine yourself. From Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, to Benjamin Franklin: here's how you can get the most out of your days.

Our daily routines can make a huge difference to how healthy, happy and productive we are. I've recently tried adjusting my own routine in the hopes of getting more done and wasting less time in-between tasks or activities.

While it's important to understand how your own brain works and what routine will suit your body best, I always find it interesting to see what works for others when planning something new for myself.

Amazing routines of 7 successful entrepreneurs

In the hopes of building the best routine I could, I did some research on the daily routines of some of the most successful people I know of. They certainly inspired me to think about different parts of my routine - perhaps they'll be useful to you as well.

Jack Dorsey, CEO Square & Founder of Twitter

In this video interview with Twitter and Square co-founder, Jack Dorsey, he explains his daily routineas he juggles a full-time role at both companies.

To get everything done, Jack puts in an 8-hour day at each company, every day. Of course, in a recent interview Jack said that he only did this routine for a limited time and today he is more fully focused on Square.

Back then, when he wrote the post however, it meant that he's doing 16-hour workdays, Monday-Friday. Whether that's the kind of workday you're aiming for or not, you'd have to admit it's impressive that he can fit it in!

The only way to do this is to be very disciplined and very practiced

Jack's trick in staying productive while putting in such long hours is to theme his days. Each weekday is dedicated to a particular area of the business at both companies. Here's what his themed week looks like:

Monday: Management and running the company
Tuesday: Product
Wednesday: Marketing and communications, growth
Thursday: Developers and partnerships
Friday: Company culture and recruiting

Jack says this method of theming his days helps him to stay focused even when he's often interrupted:

There is interruption all the time but I can quickly deal with an interruption and then know that it's Tuesday, I have product meetings and I need to focus on product stuff.

16-hour days might sound like workaholic territory, but Jack still makes time to disconnect and recharge on the weekends:

Saturday I take off. I hike. And then Sunday is reflections, feedback, strategy and getting ready for the rest of the week.

It's nice to know that even while working two full-time jobs, it's possible to get away sometimes and relax. It's interesting to compare that to the actual origin of the 8 hour work-day, as it can appear quite counter-intuitive at first.

Benjamin Franklin: "Evening question: What good have I done today?"

Benjamin Franklin is known for being keen on self-improvement. He famously detailed a thirteen-week plan to practice important virutes such as cleanliness, temperance, etc. Each day he tracked his progress on a chart.

Benjamin also set himself a strict daily routine, which included time for sleeping, meals and working, all set for specific times of the day. Unfortuantely, the demands of his printing business made it difficult for him to always stick to his routine, but this image shows how he aimed to spend his time:

One thing that isn't detailed in this daily routine is habit he adopted later on, which I found really fascinating: a daily "air bath." Although cold baths were considered beneficial at that time, Benjamin believed that cold water shocked the body too much, and preferred "bathing" in cold air instead:

I rise early almost every morning, and sit in my chamber without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing. This practice is not in the least painful, but on the contrary, agreeable; and if I return to bed afterwards, before I dress myself, as sometimes happens, I make a supplement to my night's rest, of one or two hours of the most pleasing sleep that can be imagined.

I'm not always the best sleeper, so I'm tempted to try this and see if I too can have some of "the most pleasing sleep that can be imagined"!

Evan Williams: "Take the middle of the day off"

As the founder of high-profile companies like Blogger, Twitter and Medium, you'd probably expect Evan Williams to be at work more than most of us. Particularly in the middle of the day, right? But in fact, Evan takes a break from work in the middle of the day to visit the gym.

We've looked at energy levels before, and how they fluctuate during the day. Everyone's body is different, so it's helpful for us to understand how our own energy fluctuations affect our productivity.

Although Evan used to go to the gym in the mornings, he found that it wasn't the best natural time for him to be there:

My focus is usually great first thing in the morning, so going to the gym first is a trade off of very productive time. Instead, I've started going mid-morning or late afternoon (especially on days I work late).

Although Evan's now leaving the office mid-way through his workday, he's found that overall it's been a beneficial change to his routine:

It feels weird (at first) to leave the office in the middle of the day, but total time spent is nearly the same with higher energy and focus across the board.

Winston Churchill: "Start the day by working from bed"

Being Prime Minister is probably one of the busiest lifestyles you can have. Yet, somehow among everything he had to get done, Winston Churchill managed to stick to his daily routinefor years.

He would wake up around 7:30am every day and spend most of his morning in bed. Here, he had breakfast, read his mail, caught up on all of the national newspapers and dictated to his secretaries.

Around 11am he got out of bed, washed and took a walk in the garden.

Lunch went from 1-3:30pm most days, and was usually a full three-course meal with his family and guests. After lunch he would often work again until around 5pm.

Being a fan of naps, I'm glad to hear that Churchill took a long one at around 5pm every day-usually for an hour and a half.

At 8pm he would have dinner -dining again with family and guests. Usually he returned to his study for another hour or so of work after dinner.

I like how much variety Churchill was able to pack into his days, even though he was working for much of them. That's definitely something I'd like to get better at!

Leo Babauta: "Start your day by planning what you need to get done"

A morning routine can be particularly important to setting up your day in the best way. Leo Babauta of Zen Habits sharedhis schedule when he began experimenting with the best morning routine for him:

Wake at 4:30 a.m.

Drink water.

Set 3 Most Important Things (MITs) for today.

Fix lunches for kids and myself.

Eat breakfast, read.

Exercise (run, bike, swim, strength, or yardwork) or meditate.

Shower.

Wake wife & kids at 6:30 a.m.

Leo's routine is all about starting his day in the best way possible:

The reason I like having a morning routine is that not only does it instill a sense of purpose, peace and ritual to my day, but it ensures that I'm getting certain things done every morning ... namely, my goals.

You'll notice that one of Leo's items is a flexible one: exercise or meditate. On Fridays he meditates, rather than exercising, while every other day he does some exercise in the morning.

This flexibility is a great way to work in activities that you want to change based on the day. I've recently started running, and to keep my routine close to normal on the days I run, I just interchange my running time with my normal afternoon nap time.

Barack Obama: "Get a head start on tomorrow, tonight"

Like Winston Churchill, Barak Obama is a fan of sharing meals with his family. He eats breakfast with his wife and daughters every morning before helping to get his daughters ready for school. He reads newspapers and does his exercise (weights and cardio) early in the morning, before hitting the Oval Office around 9am.

Obama also makes sure to eat dinner with his family, before returning to work-sometimes staying as late as 10pm.

After his family retires to bed, Obama often stays up working on odds and ends left over from the day. Chief among his nightly responsibilities is leafing through the binder of documents that his staff has asked him to review.

Having this time alone at night gives him time to catch up on work and get ready for the following day, so he can afford to spend his morning exercising and eating with his family.

Obama is also very careful to minimize distractions like decision fatigue:

"I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing," he told Michael Lewis. "Because I have too many other decisions to make."

If anyone's going to struggle with work/family balance, it would surely be the President of the United States, but he seems to have a solid routine in place that helps fit everything in each day.

Tim Ferriss: "Keep your routine as flexible as possible"

Tim Ferriss often gets asked what he does all day long. The thing I love about his routine is that it's never the same-each day is different, depending on what he has on.

He does have some general rules for organizing his schedule, though: Mondays and Fridays are generally off-limits for phone calls from Tim's assistants, so he has the flexibility to take a long weekend on either side. He usually does general preparation and prioritizing for the week on Mondays, as well as general admin tasks.

Tim also schedules very few things into his calendar, so that he doesn't need to stress about multi-tasking to get things done:

The goal is to spend as much time possible doing what we want by maximizing output in minimal time.

Tim's routine is especially flexible, which I find really inspiring:

I don't have to do anything in this schedule. I choose to do them because I like them. None of them are financially-driven or unpleasant obligations. If the chance to do something more fun comes up last-minute, I can cancel all of them.

Who wouldn't want a schedule like that? It definitely also goes hand in hand with Tim's counter-intuitive advice on starting a business.

Our 6 best tips for designing your own routine

If you're ready to get started on your own awesome routine, here are some tips to get you started.

1. A good breakfast can still be fast and easy

This is a great suggestion from Lifehacker which can help you get your morning routine going. If you struggle to eat breakfast every day because it's too much effort or takes too long, this one's for you.

Preparing your breakfast the night before by getting out the dishes you'll need or cutting up fruit pieces can save you time the next morning. You might want to opt for a simple meal like cereal to save time and effort as well.

If something more time-intensive like oatmeal is your thing, you can make breakfast for the whole week in 5 minutes - perfect for a Sunday night before your week starts.

Here are some other fast, easy breakfast recipes you could try:

Dressed-up yogurt

Oatmeal muffins

No-bake oatmeal breakfast bars

Mason jar parfait

Frozen fruit smoothie

Omelette-in-a-pita

Do you have another great breakfast recipe that's easy to make? Share it in the comments below-the more the merrier! This is especially important since breakfast is so tightly connected to higher productivity.

2. Do creative work for when you're tired

Our bodies have built-in clocks that determine the best times for us to eat, sleep, exercise and work. You might not have the flexibility to do everything at the right time for you, but try listening to your body clock as much as you can.

If you do better creative work at night, for instance, try to put creative tasks off during the day and schedule more admin or analytical tasks for your mornings.

If you find, like Evan, that exercising is best for you in the middle of the day, you could try doing this during your lunch break or taking a mid-afternoon break from work and hanging back a little later in the evenings.

3. An alarm to wake you up might not be enough - have one to tell you to go to sleep

Most of us have alarms to wake us up in the mornings but we all-too-easily stay up later than we plan to. Having an alarm to remind us when it's bedtime can be a great help in sticking to a regular routine for sleep.

In Eric Barker's experiments with sleep, he found that setting an alarm to tell him when to go to bed was even more effective than one to get him up in the mornings.

To get you ready to wake up fresh and rested the next day, try simulating natural sleeping patterns as much as possible. An alarm clock like this that simulates sunrise, or even a gentle alarm sound like birds chirping can help you wake up more gently in the morning. Making your bedroom pitch-black and keeping the temperature low (and consistent) can also help with a more restful sleep.

4. Switch yourself off at night to sleep better - the "zero notifications" method

We're pretty fond of hacking and experimenting with our routines at Buffer, but a nightly wind-down routine is one we pay particular attention to. Many of us have found that this makes a big difference to how much-and how well-we sleep.

Our CEO, Joel, has written about his own routine before, and I really like how he explains his nightly wind-down habits:

Disengage: An activity to allow total disengagement from the day's work. For me, this is going for a 20 minute walk every evening at 9:30pm. This is a wind down period, and allows me to evaluate the day's work, think about the greater challenges, gradually stop thinking about work and reach a state of tiredness.

Avoid re-engaging: After the activity, go straight to bed. Be sure that all devices are in a separate room to the one you sleep (and slient). Once in bed, do not read books which are related to your work in any way. For me, this means reading fiction.

You might want to try a walk, like Joel, or some quiet reading time. Other great wind-down activites include meditation, drinking tea, sitting quietly, stretching and taking a bath.

And since light of any kind, including backlit screens like our computers and phones affect our sleep patterns negatively, try avoiding these for a while before you go to sleep.

5. Develop a morning routine that you keep on weekends too

Building up a habitual morning routine can help you to start your day in the best way. This is another one Joel is fond of, and he has a great suggestion for creating a consistent morning routine:

I certainly believe that allowing imperfection and some slack at the weekend is important, but I personally made the mistake of having a weekend wake up time which was too divergent from my week day wake up time. Only once I started to think about the weekend, I hit a chain of many days of early mornings.

I love this point especially, because I'm prone to have big sleep-ins and late nights on weekends, which can make my morning routine much harder to get into on a Monday morning.

6. Track your habits to understand yourself better

It takes time and effort to track everything you over a day. I recently started tracking my weekday activities and noticed that remembering to track each activity is the hardest part for me.

Having said that, if you can put in the effort for a few days, you might find the insights you need toimprove your daily routine. Understanding how you live right now can help you to work towards how you want to live.

With habits especially, it's good to follow Richard Branson's advice and start something before you feel ready. It's one of the most powerful things that has helped him succeed.
Belle Beth Cooper: Content Crafter at Buffer. Co-founder of Hello Code-creators of Exist . I write about social media, startups, life-hacking and science.
The Daily Routines of 7 Famous Entrepreneurs and How to Design Your Own Master Routine | Buffer

TIME. IT'S THE CURRENCY OF LIFE.

But unlike money, you can't make more. You can, however, maximize each and every second you spend. Lifehack's mission is to help you make enormous gains with the limited time you have. With the insights we provide, your seconds can be worth hours, and days can be worth years in value.

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Use These Daily Routines of 7 Famous Entrepreneurs To Create Your Own Routine

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Belle Beth Cooper of Buffer has collected the daily routines of seven extremely famous and successful entrepreneurs so that you may learn to construct a fantastic routine yourself. From Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, to Benjamin Franklin: here's how you can get the most out of your days.