Ben Franklin, in addition to being a scientist, ambassador, political leader, businessman, and author, probably should be credited for being the father of time management. His autobiography containing the list of thirteen virtues for success ironically was perhaps the only thing he never finished! Written over decades, the modest Franklin never conceived there would be such a great interest in his life and his lifetime of accomplishment.
Franklin sometime around the age of twenty observed the difference between successful and unsuccessful people. In deep personal reflection, he developed a list of thirteen virtues which he meticulously tracked on a chart every day. Each week, Franklin chose one attribute for his weekly focus for improvement. He continued to monitor the other twelve but concentrated on the one virtue to master for the week. At the end of the week, Franklin, after recording his progress, would move to the next attribute. By the end of the year, he had completed the list four times. Rather than record if he had achieved a daily goal of living up to the standard of the virtue, Franklin would mark on his chart where he had not attained the intent of the virtue. Franklin's goal was for moral perfection, which he readily admits in his autobiography (Franklin referred it as a memoir, believing autobiography was inappropriate self-serving) he never fully achieved.
His autobiography contains numerous references to how the application of the daily habit of having a clear set of goals and maintaining an accurate record guided Franklin's decisions the entirety of his life.
http://www.thirteenvirtues.com/
https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm
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