It ’s a parky day inFebruary 1877 , and Theodore Roosevelt , a newbie at Harvard , is busy . Very , very busybodied . He arouse up at 7:30 and breakfasts on “ hot biscuit , toast , chops or beef steak , and buckwheat cakes . ”
After breakfast , he reviews short letter from his classes — he ’s postulate classical literature ; composition and translation in Greek , Latin , and German ; trig and geometry ; cathartic ; and chemistry .
At 10 a.m. he eagerlydigsinto his postal service , reviewing the twenty-four hour period ’s letter , perhaps dashing off a few rapid - fire replies .
From 11 a.m. to noon he advert Romance recitation , after which he lead to the gym to civilize for an upcoming fisticuffs mate in the lightweight variance at Harvard .
Next , tiffin , where there is a “ free fight ” that send a fellow student under the table , prompting threats of forcing out from a Mrs. Morgan .
After tiffin , there is more study and more recitation until late into the good afternoon .
In the eventide he boom with a Mr. and Mrs. Tudor , writing later that he had “ a very pleasant home - like time . ”
From Mental Floss and iHeartRadio , this is History Vs . , a podcast about how your favorite historical figure face off against their bang-up foes . I ’m your host , Erin McCarthy , and this week ’s episode is TR versus Time .
Rooseveltonce declared , “ I have already lived and savour as much of life as any nine other men I know , ” and it ’s dependable — it ’s knockout to recollect of another person who accomplished as much as TR did , even though he was work with 24 60 minutes in the solar day , just like the residual of us .
That ’s Cal Newport , author of the booksDigital Minimalism : pick out a Focused Life in a Noisy WorldandDeep Work : rule for Focused Success in a Distracted World . He first read about TR ’s feat of productivity in historiographer Edmund Morris ’s book , The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt .
Roosevelt was rest home - schooled for most of his biography , because he was too weak to go to regular schooling , but he thrived under the strict schedule place by the Dresden family he live with in Germany for five month in 1873 .
It ’s perhaps this time in Germany that shape TR ’s lifelong obsession with a schedule . Each day , he would get up at 6:30 , eat breakfast until 7:30 , then study until 12:30 . Then he ’d have lunch , study until 3 , and enjoy gratis time until teatime at 7 . After that , it was consider until 10 , then layer . He wrote to his father , Thee , “ It is harder than I have ever contemplate before in my life , but I care it for I really feel that I am wee considerable advance . ”
When he had to take some prison term off after an asthma flack , he insisted that his tutor work him extra hard to make up what he had miss . When he was 15 , the Roosevelts reelect to the States , and TR take up with another private instructor , this metre with an ambitious end : Get into Harvard in the declination of 1876 , which meant passing the entrance test in the summertime of ‘ 75 .
Roosevelt had a yr and a half to cram , and he take six to eight hours every day . His coach , Arthur Cutler , later wrote , “ The young man never seemed to have a go at it what groundlessness was . ”
Accordingto generator David McCullough , in that time Roosevelt accomplished what normally took three years , and he passed his preliminary Harvard entrance exams in July 1875 .
TR keep just as busy while he was at Harvard , where he lived in a boarding home off campus because the dormitory were considered not ideal for his asthma .
He read endlessly , at a charge per unit of two to three page a minute . He box and wrestled and boost . He woo the ladies and had an alive societal spirit . He studied as much as36 hoursa week . And in between that , he constitute sentence to spell two works on ornithology and begin a Christian Bible that would later be placed on every Navy ship , The Naval War of 1812 . In the words of one classmate , TR was “ forever at it . ”
According to Morris , TR got through such vast amount of work due to “ iron ego - subject area ” that had become a drug abuse . He spend just a quarter of the daytime at his desk , but he concentrated so intemperately , and read so rapidly , that he could take more time off than most other students . But even his time off was not that relaxing . It waspackedwith activeness .
Newport was so inspired by Morris ’s verbal description of TR ’s productiveness that he boast Roosevelt inDeep Work .
Morris wrote that Roosevelt “ plotted every Clarence Day with the methodism of a Wesleyan government minister , ” and there ’s no well example of that than a schedule of one of his days from the campaign trail in 1900 . While incumbent presidential candidate William McKinley largely stayed off from the drive trail , frailty presidential candidate Roosevelt was crisscross the state .
The agenda itself is a will to his boundless energy , but so are the statistics of that campaign time of year : grant to Morris , Roosevelt , by November , had made “ 673 speeches in 567 townsfolk in 24 state ; he had travel 21,209 miles and speak an average of 20,000 watchword a day to 3 million hoi polloi . ”
One day on the track , his schedule went like this :
It ’s enough to make you desire to take a sleep .
Roosevelt ’s level of activity did n’t let up when he was in the White House . This might be best exemplify by a undertaking created by archivist Chloe Elder , who , in the summer of 2017 , was between masters degrees and doing a removed internship at the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University in North Dakota .
Every 24-hour interval , she ’d clock in and go through material piece by piece total metadata . A spate of the documents Elder was cataloging were letter written during Roosevelt ’s presidentship .
As she was crop , Elder lead off to detect a pattern .
So she decide to make acalendar — something that would allow her to visualize just what a calendar week in the life of President Roosevelt look like . She began searching through the digitized archive at the Center , as well as his desk diaries , which he kept every day . finally , she zeroed in on a workweek where Roosevelt was pose for a portrayal by John Singer Sargent .
After gathering all of the data and crunch the numbers , a picture begin to emerge , and that picture wasaction - packed . According to the calendar Elder create , sometimes TR would hold up to eight meeting in an hour , meaning that if they were all equal in length , they would have been a mere 7.5 minutes each .
But even for TR , liveliness does n’t neatly agree into such kempt chunks .
And on top of his busy docket , he was get off letter after missive after letter .
This is probably a unspoiled place for a prison-breaking . We ’ll be flop back .
In addition to his many coming together and his epic allegiance to correspondence , TR was also reading around a book a dayandmaking fourth dimension to be active .
Roosevelt play lawn tennis , though he was never photographed in his lawn tennis White River . He boxed , and when he could n’t do that anymore , he took upjiu - jitsu . He swam — nude — in the Potomac . And he regularly drag diplomats to Rock Creek Park to take a refreshing walk of life or maybe scale a drop .
As one such diplomatist laterrecalledof a sashay in the car park , “ He … made me struggle through bushes and over rock for two hours and a half , at an inconceivable amphetamine , till I was so done that I could hardly digest . His expectant delectation is rock mounting , which is my weakly point . I disgraced myself completely , and my arms and shoulder are still strong with puff myself up by roots and ledge . At one place I fairly stuck , and could not get over the top till he catch me by the collar and hauled at me . … He did almost all the talking , to my great ease , for I had no breather to spare . ”
After he leave the White House , TR ’s ability to get a lot done in very little clock time loom large . His heir , William Howard Taft , bemoaned , “ I would give anything in the world if I had the ability to net away workplace as Roosevelt did . ” Me too , Will . Me too .
If you , like me , are wonder where Roosevelt found the vigor to get so much done , one clue might be in his chocolate ingestion . He was say to drink up to a congius of coffee a Clarence Day , andaccordingto his boy Ted , his countenance was less like a steady coffee berry mug and “ more in the nature of a bathing tub . ” He put up to seven lump of sugar in each loving cup , too .
But harmonize to elderberry bush , that might not be Roosevelt ’s ultimate hack .
And when Newport thinks about how we can all be a piffling more like TR , he recall of a quote from an consultation Steve Martin did with Charlie Rose .
Credits
History Vs . is hosted by me , Erin McCarthy .
This installment was write by me , with fact checking by Austin Thompson .
The executive producers are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang .
The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan .
This show is edit by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
especial thanks to Cal Newport and Chloe Elder .
To pick up more about this installment , tick outmentalfloss.com/historyvs .
History Vs . is a output of iHeartRadio and Mental Floss .
