CMP Review 2025-08-28

August 28, 2025

Benjamin Franklin’s 1758 The Way to Wealth includes this maxim: “Never leave that till tomorrow, which you can do today.” The rule is preceded by a rationale: “One today is worth two tomorrows.” I grew up hearing that rule at home and at school, and I remember that as a young person it did not so much inspire me as make me feel vaguely guilty.

Modern readers of Charlotte Mason’s Ourselves do a double-take on page 171 when she writes, “Never do to-day what you can put off till to-morrow.” Was this a misprint? Or a joke? (She does say, “It has been amusingly said…”) But as we read on, we are led to the inescapable conclusion: Mason was dead serious.

The inversion of Franklin’s rule, explains Mason, really means “putting first things first.” Today is for the business of today. The rationale for her inverted rule is actually the same as for Franklin’s original: “One today is worth two tomorrows.” Only today has the moral imperative of the present moment. Only today has the opportunity to shape all our tomorrows.

Charlotte Mason’s rule of putting first things first is just one component of her advanced and effective method of time management. It’s worth studying and adopting as adults. And even more so if we can pass it on to our children.

@artmiddlekauff