Routines - George Washington
"Washington benefited from the unvarying regularity of his daily routine and found nothing monotonous about it. Like many thrifty farmers, he rose before sunrise and accomplished much work while others still slept. Prior to breakfast, he shuffled about in dressing gown and slippers and passed an hour or two in his library reading and handling correspondence. He also devoted time to private prayers before Billy Lee laid out his clothes, brushed his hair and tied it in a queue. Washington liked to examine his stables before breakfast, inspect his horses, and issue instructions to the grooms. Then he had an unchanging breakfast of corn cakes, tea and honey.
After breakfast Washington pulled on his tall black boots, mounted his horse, and began the prolonged circuit of his five farms, where he expected to find hands hard at work. Once again, he was a diligent boss, not a gentleman farmer. Each day he rode twenty miles on horseback and personally supervised field work, fence construction, ditch drainage, tree planting, and dozens of other activities. An active presence, he liked to demonstrate how things should be done, leading by example. One startled visitor expressed amazement that the master 'often works with his men himself, strips off his coat and labors like a common man.' Washington couldn't bear anything slovenly. 'I shall begrudge no reasonable expense that will contribute to the improvement and neatness of my farms, for nothing pleases me better than to see them in good order and everything trim, handsome, and thriving about them,' he advised one estate manager. 'No detail was too trivial to escape his notice, and he often spouted the Scottish adage 'Many mickles make a muckle' - that is, tiny things add up.
Washington made sure that he returned for dinner precisely at 2:45 p.m. when the first bell sounded for the large midday meal. According to legend, the clatter of his approaching hooves often coincided with the bell's loud clang. Washington then washed and dressed, powdered his hair, and appeared in the dining room by the stroke of three. He preferred a dinner of fish from the Potomac and typically ate with a hearty appetite. In this heavy-drinking era, he could polish off three or four glasses of an amber-colored wine known as Madeira without being thought a heavy drinker. The cloth was then removed, and Washington would lift his glass with his habitual toast to 'All our friends.' He then retired to his library before a light supper. Before going to bed at nine o'clock, he would often read aloud to the family from the newspaper or from sermons on Sunday evenings or join in a game of cards or backgammon."
Ron Chernow
Washington: A Life
Thank you. This is fantastic.
Add Newt's Valley Forge to your list ... you will enjoy Washington's leadership.
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