Seneca's Morning Routine
I’ve been re-reading “Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work” recently. It’s a wonderful collection of the daily routines of some of historys most iconic people. One person not in the book though? The Stoic philosopher Seneca. So here’s his morning routine according to his Letter LXXXIII.
He begins his day with some exercise. Usually a run with his trainer/slave Pharius. Only for a small amount of time though because as an older man he “only has to stir and is weary.”
After that he takes a plunge into his cold swimming pool.
Next, it’s time for breakfast and he has the most uncomplicated one imaginable: bread. He likes its simplicity, rejoicing that he doesn’t even have to lay the table.
Fitness, food, and bathing taken care of he follows them up with a short nap.
His morning routine is now over and the rest of his day is “wholly divided between rest and reading.”