What Is the Virtue of Order? Franklin's Most Difficult Virtue

Benjamin Franklin could master electricity. He could master diplomacy. He could master prose. But there was one virtue that defeated him his entire life:Order.

In an extraordinary admission of failure, Franklin confessed that this virtue—the third on his list—gave him more trouble than any other. His struggle makes order perhaps the most relatable of his virtues, and his insights all the more valuable.

In this guide, you'll discover what Franklin meant by order, why he found it so difficult, how the Stoics and other philosophers approached organization, and how to create order in your own life—even if, like Franklin, you never fully master it.

Key Takeaways

• Franklin defined order as: "Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time."
• This was Franklin's most difficult virtue—by his own admission
• The Stoics, Confucius, and Kant all emphasized order as foundational to virtue
• Order connects external organization to internal peace of mind
• Modern applications include digital organization, time-blocking, and productivity systems

What Did Benjamin Franklin Say About Order?

Franklin's precept for order addresses both space and time:

"Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time."

This simple-sounding instruction conceals massive ambition: everything in its place, every activity in its time. Full implementation would require total organization of both physical possessions and daily schedule.

Franklin's Honest Struggle

What makes Franklin's treatment of order so valuable is his unusual candor about failing at it:

"Order... cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me so much... that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect."

Franklin identifies several reasons for his difficulty:

• Memory demands — Order requires constant attention to where things belong and when to do things
• Varied work — As a businessman with multiple enterprises, strict scheduling was impractical
• Late start — He felt habits of disorder formed before his virtue project were hard to break

His Consolation

Despite his struggles, Franklin made peace with imperfection through a characteristic bit of wit:

"A benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance."

He also noted that his partial progress on order—even without perfection—made him considerably better organized than he would have been without any effort.

The Ancient Wisdom: Order Through the Ages

Franklin's emphasis on order resonates with philosophical traditions across cultures and eras.

Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic View

The Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) repeatedly emphasized approaching each act with full attention and purpose:

"Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life."

This intensity of focus—doing one thing at a time with complete attention—is itself a form of order. The Stoics believed that a disordered mind produces a disordered life, and that imposing structure on our actions calms the inner turmoil.

Seneca: Letters on Time

Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) wrote extensively about time management—essentially the second half of Franklin's order precept:

"People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy."

Seneca practiced daily time accounting, reviewing how he spent each hour and holding himself accountable for waste. This ancient time-tracking anticipated Franklin's own methods by 1,700 years.

Confucius: Ritual and Order

The Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE) placed enormous emphasis onli—ritual propriety and orderly conduct. He believed that external order in behavior created internal order in character:

"If you govern with the power of your virtue, you will be like the North Star. It just stays in its place while all the other stars position themselves around it."

For Confucius, order wasn't mere tidiness—it was alignment with cosmic principles. The orderly person takes their proper place and, like the North Star, creates a stable reference point for all around them.

Immanuel Kant: Order as Discipline

The philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was legendary for his orderly habits. His daily walk was so precisely timed that neighbors could set their clocks by him. He ate at the same time, worked at the same time, and maintained an unwavering routine.

Kant believed this external order freed his mind for philosophical work. By eliminating decisions about mundane matters, he preserved his mental energy for what truly mattered.

Thomas Aquinas: Divine Order

The medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) saw order as a reflection of divine structure. Just as God created the universe with perfect order—each planet in its orbit, each creature in its ecological niche—humans should mirror this order in their own lives.

For Aquinas, disorder was a minor form of sin: a failure to reflect the structured perfection of creation. Order was not merely practical but spiritual.

What Makes Franklin's Approach Different?

While Franklin drew on ancient wisdom about order, his approach had distinctive characteristics.

The Dual Focus: Space and Time

Franklin's precept addresses both physical organization ("places") and time management ("time"). Many people excel at one while neglecting the other—a tidy desk owner who can't keep a schedule, or a meticulous calendar keeper who can never find their keys.

Franklin recognized that both are necessary. Objects without places create physical chaos. Activities without times create temporal chaos. Order requires mastering both dimensions.

The Honest Admission of Failure

Philosophy is full of systems for achieving order. What's rare is a philosopher honestly admitting he couldn't follow his own advice. Franklin's candor about his struggles makes his insights more trustworthy and more useful.

He doesn't pretend order is easy or that his system is foolproof. He tried, failed, kept trying, and accepted imperfect progress as sufficient—a realistic model for the rest of us.

Order Serves Higher Goals

For Franklin, order was never an end in itself. It was instrumental—a means to accomplish more meaningful work. His famous daily schedule, with its morning and evening questions, used structure to ensure each day served larger purposes.

Order in the Modern World: A 21st Century Interpretation

Franklin struggled to keep track of physical objects and schedule his printing business. We face these same challenges—amplified by digital complexity he couldn't have imagined.

Digital Disorder

Consider the modern equivalents of disorderly "places":

• Desktop files — Hundreds of documents with no naming convention
• Email inbox — Thousands of unprocessed messages
• Browser tabs — Dozens open because "I might need them"
• Photos — Years of unsorted images across devices
• Passwords — Stored everywhere, organized nowhere

Franklin's principle—let all things have their places—applies directly. Every file, every email, every digital asset needs a home.

Calendar Chaos

Modern time disorder manifests differently:

• Notification interruptions — Constant pings fragmenting attention
• Meeting overload — Calendars with no protected work time
• Task sprawl — Todo lists that grow but never shrink
• Priority confusion — Everything feels urgent, nothing is important

Franklin's principle—let each business have its time—demands we assign slots to activities and protect them from encroachment.

How to Practice Order Today

1. The One-Touch Rule — Handle each item (physical or digital) once: decide where it goes and put it there
2. Time-Blocking — Assign specific hours to specific types of work
3. Weekly Reset — Every Sunday, reset your space and review your calendar
4. Digital Homes — Create clear folder structures for files and photos
5. Closing Routines — End each work session by restoring order for tomorrow

Like Franklin, accept that perfect order may be unattainable—but reach for it anyway. Track your progress with our virtue tracking app, marking days when order felt achieved versus days of chaos.

Related Virtues

Continue your exploration of Franklin's virtue system:

• ← Silence: Franklin's Second Virtue
• → Resolution: Franklin's Fourth Virtue
• The Complete List of Franklin's 13 Virtues