Back in the late 1720s, a young man by the name of Benjamin Franklin sat down and opened up his journal.

He put together a plan.

A plan that he called a “bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection.”

As part of his project, he listed 13 virtues that he wanted to develop. His plan was to spend one week on each virtue so that he could master it, and then move on to the next one. Cycling through the entire list 4x per year.

Today, developing virtues is something that’s not often discussed. Especially not in the world of entrepreneurship and knowledge work.

The focus is on hacks. Methodologies. Frameworks. Tricks. Software tools.

There’s nothing wrong with these things. But they should sit on top of the foundational layer of virtue, character and commitment.

Hacks are fickle. Virtues are foundational.

If you’re a chronic procrastinator and you consistently seek the easy path when you know that you should be seeking the difficult path…

A hack will not help you.

It might give you a temporary boost of motivation.

You might discover a new tactic for scheduling work blocks in your calendar. Or a new morning routine that supposedly energizes you.

But inevitably you end up back where you were: in a state of dissatisfaction—knowing that you’re capable of more—but not making the necessary commitment to fundamentally change yourself and your character.

When you commit yourself to developing virtues and developing your character, you find that it’s the opposite of fickle.

It’s robust. It’s anti-fragile. It’s foundational.

You strip yourself of the anti-virtues: laziness, procrastination, seeking the easy path…

And replace them with moral virtues: discipline, diligence, duty, doing what you know you should do.

Hacks only work in specific contexts. Virtues are transferrable.

People can employ productivity hacks in their work life, but in other domains they suffer because those same hacks don’t work.

That’s why you’ll come across people who are productive at work because they’ve optimized their schedule, used productivity timers, created a focus-friendly environment…

But when it comes to fitness, health, their home, or other areas of life—they’re a mess. They are only disciplined in one area, which means that they’re arguably not disciplined at all.

Virtues are transferrable. Those who are considered “consistent” and “diligent” are usually so across multiple areas of life.

Those who persevere do so across multiple areas of life.

Hacks are no match for feelings. Virtues override them.

Our modern culture has a high view of feelings.

You see it manifest itself in the extreme political correctness, but also in individuals who absolve themselves of responsibility because it’s uncomfortable and they don’t feel like it.

I’m not grandstanding. I’ve been there. I’ve wasted months, if not years of my life procrastinating and avoiding responsibility—simply because I didn’t “feel” like it and I treated those feelings as my compass.

The philosophers of old realized that feelings were often unreliable, and should be subjugated to virtue.

And really, they can only be subjugated to virtue. Hacks are no match for them. Knowing how to use the pomodoro technique will not overcome your negative feelings.

I’m not saying we should avoid feeling and become robots. Simply that we should recognize that they are unreliable. Just because I don’t “feel” like working, doesn’t mean I should play video games all day. If I embody the virtue of discipline, I’ll do the work anyway—and likely my feelings will change, which is a bonus.

Virtue is a goal in and of itself

As Epictetus says, “Moral progress results in freedom from inner turmoil.”

Virtue isn’t a means to an end, but developing it is extremely likely to lead to better material outcomes.

When you lack virtue or you embody the anti-virtues like laziness, frivolity, carelessness, dishonesty, impulsivity…

There’s a low-level anxiety and stress that pervades your life. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

It’s like you can never truly relax. You can never truly be satisfied. Because you know something’s broken and you’re not fixing it.

But when you work towards developing virtue, you experience a sense of calm and peace that’s hard for me to articulate.

You feel mentally and emotionally stronger. You are more willing to do your work and finish your projects. You are less shaken up by bad events and bad news. You stay the path and develop good habits.

Do you want to achieve something, or do you want to be someone?

Anyone can achieve fleeting success.

A bit of luck. Some hard effort for a brief period of time.

But we all know people who’ve done that and then failed to replicate it. Or they’ve become egotistical as a result, and they just aren’t fun to be around anymore.

I don’t know about you, but when people talk about me behind my back, I don’t want them to talk about what I’ve achieved. I want them to talk about who I am.

I want to be known as the person who’s disciplined. Who has integrity. Who perseveres. Who’s patient and consistent.

Hacks might help you achieve something. Finish a project. Make some progress.

But cultivating virtue builds your true character. Who you are.

5 of Franklin’s Virtues Applied to Productivity & Work

As I mentioned at the start of this article, virtues aren’t often talked about today.

When’s the last time you heard someone say they want to develop the virtue of temperance or chastity?

And while the world we live in is very different to the one Franklin lived in—and the way we work has radically changed—human nature has remained the same. And the 13 virtues Franklin worked to develop are just as useful and powerful today.

So instead of coming up with a list of my own for this article—which I did think about doing—I figured it would be better to lean on the shoulders of giants like Franklin.

So let’s take a look at them, applying them in context to our 21st century age.

By the way, I’m thinking of making a dedicated video to each of these virtues—given them each a modern spin. It’s a big undertaking, but if you’d be interested in that then let me know in the comments.

Temperance

“eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation.”

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin selected temperance as a virtue he wanted to develop because:

“…it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations.”

If you can control your food intake and restrain from drinking too much alcohol, you’re halfway there.

Many people cannot. They eat to deal with stress. They overeat because food tastes good and they tell themselves “just this once” but end up doing it multiple times per week.

When you can control what you eat and drink, you build a confidence that flows into other habits like work ethic and good decision making. If you can temper the primal urges (like hunger), then you are better set to manage other urges (like procrastination).

Silence

“Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; Avoid trifling conversation.”

Benjamin Franklin

It seems like everyone needs to have an opinion on something today. Everyone needs to have a “take.”

Social media draws us into battles that we have no purpose being in. Trivial debates that pull our attention away from what we should be focusing on—our work.

Adopting the virtue of silence means avoiding this. Being more deliberate with your speech. Listening more.

But it also applies to the work we do. So many people feel the need to talk about their ideas. To broadcast them to the world. To say “I’m going to do X, and then Y.”

This doesn’t benefit others, and it certainly doesn’t benefit you. Instead, adopt the virtue of silence. Work in silence. Let the results speak for themselves.

Order

“Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”

Benjamin Franklin

Order, also called organization, is more important than ever in our modern age.

There’s more to distract us. More demands on our time. We’re busy. Largely disorganized. Running on the hamster wheel of life.

Creating order in your life looks like:

• Performing weekly & monthly reviews and plans to stay on top of what you need to do, find improvements that can be made, and benefit from regular introspection.
• Outsourcing (if you have the means) tasks that get in the way of you doing your most important work
• Having a daily routine. Reducing the flexibility that you think leads to freedom but rather leads to chaos.

Resolution

“Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”

Benjamin Franklin

Resolution is the lost virtue.

The person who’s developed the virtue of resolution—the person who has resolve—has rock-solid determination to accomplish what they set out to do.

Many budding entrepreneurs, creators, and modern workers I come across lack resolve. They have ideas. Plans. Goals. But they don’t follow through on them. Their resolution wasn’t there.

Industry

“Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.”

Benjamin Franklin

Volume matters. Even if you’re doing knowledge work—or creative work—the hours you put in matter.

Being industrious—having a strong work ethic—is the virtue that so many modern workers and solopreneurs are hesitant to develop.

They think there’s a shortcut. They think there’s a way to apply “leverage” instead of putting in the hard yards.

But there’s not.

You must be working hard. You must be using your time wisely. Not letting it go to waste.

The crucial phrase from Franklin here is “Be always employed in something useful.”

And the way I interpret this is not necessarily as working all the time, but rather being deliberate about how you’re spending your time.

Useful, to me, is:

• Work
• Exercise
• Spending time with family and friends
• Intentionally relaxing when I need it
• Reading
• Creative hobby

But then there’s the useless. The unnecessary actions:

• Procrastinating when I have work to get done
• Intentionally taking longer to do a certain task as a form of procrastination (when it could be outsourced or done much faster)
• The pursuit of perfectionism

Avoiding the anti-virtues

If we look at the virtues we want to develop, we can also clearly define what we want to avoid.

When it comes to work and productivity specifically, there are 7 virtues that I want to avoid—and I imagine you probably do too.

1. Laziness

Avoiding responsibility. Avoiding our work. Constantly seeking the easy path.

Laziness pervades all areas of life. It’s not a problem unique to our age, but you could argue that given our modern comforts it’s easier than ever to fall into a pattern of laziness.

2. Distraction

The modern superpower is the ability to focus deeply for extended periods of time.

One thing that holds us back from doing that is distraction.

Distraction while we’re trying to work (our phone, notifications, etc). And distraction from our core goals (shiny object syndrome).

3. Frivolity

You don’t need to take everything so serious, but you do need to take some things seriously.

The person who doesn’t take anything serious at all is frivolous. They don’t give anything weight. And so they don’t pursue what’s difficult and important. They jump from idea to idea. Project to project. They never take themselves or their work seriously.

4. Carelessness

Perfectionism is a form of procrastination, and we should avoid it. There’s something to be said about just shipping your project. Just getting it done even though it isn’t perfect.

But on the other end of the spectrum, there’s complete carelessness. Not caring about the end result at all—or not caring about it enough.

You should still want to do good work. And you need to care in order to do good work. Carelessness ruins your reputation.

5. Short sightedness

Part of being productive and and elite performer is about making good decision and judgments.

After all. It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you work on something that doesn’t matter.

If you’re short-sighted, you don’t make good judgment calls. You don’t look far enough into the future to see what’s likely or unlikely to happen. Often, people who embody this anti-virtue are short-sighted because they refuse to acknowledge what might be coming. Because the future might be uncomfortable. And they might need to adapt.

6. Impulsivity

The more impulsive you are, the more distracted you become, and the less depth you acquire in your work.

The overly-impulsive person is unreliable because they don’t stay the path. They make decisions without any thought. They let their emotions guide them.

7. Arrogance

Arrogance leads to poor work output because you think you’re better than you really are. There’s a benefit to humility that forces you to put in the hours to get better.

And if you’re in business and arrogant, it’s a recipe for getting lapped. I’ve seen so many people get too confident, too arrogant, and take their foot off the gas pedal only for a competitor to pass them. That includes me too, by the way. Big mistake.

Start Living Your Ideals

I want to end this video with a quote from Epictetus, from the book Art of Living.

“Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. Once you have determined the spiritual principles you wish to exemplify, abide by these rules as if they were laws, as if it were indeed sinful to compromise them. Don’t mind if others don’t share your convictions. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice—now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! You aren’t a child anymore. The sooner you set yourself to your spiritual program, the happier you will be. The longer you wait, the more you will be vulnerable to mediocrity and feel filled with shame and regret, because you know you are capable of better. From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do—now.”