The 2-Question Journal That Predates Journaling Apps by 300 Years

Most journaling habits die at the same moment: staring at a blank page, not knowing what to write. Benjamin Franklin never had that problem, because he never faced a blank page. He journaled with exactly two fixed questions, every single day, for years.

No prompts to choose from, no decision fatigue, no pressure to write something profound. Just two short questions—one to open the day, one to close it.

Key Takeaways

• Franklin used a fixed morning question and evening question, not a blank page
• Morning: "What good shall I do this day?"
• Evening: "What good have I done today?"
• Fixed prompts remove the biggest reason people quit journaling: not knowing what to write
• The method took minutes, not an elaborate diary entry

The Blank Page Problem

Every popular journaling app eventually runs into the same wall: users open it, see an empty text box, and close it again without writing anything. Prompt libraries help a little, but choosing a prompt from a list is itself a small decision that adds friction.

Franklin's version had zero decisions to make. Same two questions, every day, at roughly the same two points in his daily schedule.

Franklin's Two Questions

In his Autobiography, Franklin laid out his ideal daily schedule with two questions bookending it:

Morning: "What good shall I do this day?"
Evening: "What good have I done today?"

That's the entire prompt library. Two questions, asked every day, answered honestly.

The Morning Question

"What good shall I do this day?" is an intention-setting question, not a to-do list. It's not asking what's on your calendar—it's asking what you want today to have been about, before the day has a chance to answer that question for you.

Answered first thing, before email or notifications, it gives you one sentence to measure the rest of the day against.

The Evening Question

"What good have I done today?" is the accountability half. It's deliberately not "what did I get done"— Franklin was pointing at contribution and character, tying back directly to his Justice virtue, not just productivity.

Answering it honestly, even on an unremarkable day, is what turns a diary into an actual reflection practice.

Why Two Questions Beat a Blank Page

Fixed prompts work for the same reason habit stacking works: they remove the decision that normally kills the habit. You're not deciding whether to journal, or what to journal about—you're just answering the same question you answered yesterday. That repetition is what makes it sustainable past the first week, which is where most journaling apps lose the vast majority of their users.

Try It Today

Tonight, before bed, write one honest sentence answering: "What good have I done today?" Tomorrow morning, before you check your phone, write one sentence answering: "What good shall I do this day?" That's the entire practice.

Our Ben Franklin Virtues app delivers both questions as a morning and evening reflection prompt automatically, alongside Franklin's 13-virtue tracker, so neither question depends on you remembering to open a blank notebook.