Thomas Jefferson had an impressive resume during his life (1743-1826). Known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, he became the Governor of Virginia before he was elected as the third President of the United States. He served two terms from 1801-1809.
Even before his political career, Jefferson attended William and Mary College before passing the bar in Virginia in 1767. He began building up his famed plantation, Monticello (formerly named Shadwell), in 1768 when he was just 25-years-old.
Clearly, Jefferson was not a lazy man. In fact, he often shared his wisdom on productivity through his extensive writing and personal letters.
Thomas Jefferson’s productivity advice
Jefferson was notoriously a hard worker, and believed that remaining active (with little down time) was the key to not wasting time and accomplishing much in life. In a letter to Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter when she was a teenager, dated May 5, 1787, he offered his wisdom on living a productive life:
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.”
Thomas and Patsy were extremely close. His wife and the mother of Patsy, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, died in 1782 when Patsy was just 10 years old. Martha helped her father through his grief, and he described her as “the cherished companion of my afflictions.”
He oversaw her education, and brought her to France while he servedas U.S. Minister to France from 1784-1789.
Jefferson’s warning against idleness
Merriam-Webster defines the word “idle” as: “not occupied or employed; not having any real purpose or value; shiftless, lazy; not having much activity.”
In another more extensive letter addressed to Patsy dated March 28, 1787 from Aix-en-Provence, France, Jefferson further explained his disdain for idleness.
“Of all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes it with so silent, yet so baneful a tooth, as indolence,” he said.
He harped on the harms it can cause, especially on mental and emotional well-being. Jefferson continued:
“Body & mind both unemployed, our being becomes a burthen, & every object about us loathsome, even the dearest. Idleness begets ennui, ennui the hypochondria, & that a diseased body. No laborious person was ever yet hysterical. Exercise & application produce order in our affairs, health of body, chearfulness [sic] of mind, & these make us precious to our friends.”
According to Jefferson, being industrious should be utilized most during youth.
He concluded: “It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed, if not then, it never is afterwards. The fortune of our lives therefore depends on employing well the short period of youth. If at any moment, my dear, you catch yourself…in idleness, start from it as you would from a precipice of a gulph. You are not however to consider yourself unemployed while taking exercise. That is necessary for your health, and health is the first of all objects.”
Jefferson’s impressive list of accomplishments prove he took his own advice.
