How Benjamin Franklin Made Self-Improvement a Science

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In this email, we want to share the unusual ‘self-tracking’ system that helped Benjamin Franklin become one of the truly great men of history, and propose a solution to the problem with much of the self-improvement world. 

These lessons are relevant to anyone, from athletes chasing new personal records to professionals striving for career growth, or anyone simply wanting to live a life that aligns more closely with their values.

Benjamin Franklin and the Quest for Moral Perfection

Benjamin Franklin, born in 1706, had 16 siblings and only attended school until the age of 10, yet by the end of his life had become not only one of America’s founding fathers but also a celebrated scientist and inventor, a wildly popular writer and philosopher, and a trusted state diplomat. 

(oh, and he spoke French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin.)

There are all sorts of reasons Franklin excelled so much—his crazy work ethic, sharp mind, and agreeable personality being just a few of them. 

But one particularly interesting fact about Franklin’s life recently caught our attention... 

Around the age of 20, Franklin started developing a journaling system that he believed would help him achieve ‘moral perfection.’

Here’s how it worked:

Franklin picked 13 virtues that he felt were necessary for perfect character. These virtues were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. 

Franklin built a simple chart with columns representing days of the week and one row per virtue. Every evening, Franklin would think about his behaviour during that day and mark any virtues he had failed to embody with a dot in that square. Each week he would reset the chart. The goal was to have as few dots as possible, and over time the visual representation of dots helped him identify patterns and refine his habits. 

Franklin knew moral perfection was unattainable, but that wasn’t the point. The act of striving for it made him a better person. 

And here’s what makes his approach so powerful: it wasn’t just philosophical—it was practical.

By quantifying his personal growth, he made self-improvement concrete, something he could see and measure.

Even now, over 300 years later, Franklin’s approach feels revolutionary.

Why?

Because self-improvement today still has a branding problem…

The Problem With & Science of “Self-Improvement”

The ability to genuinely change is one of the rarest and most valuable skills in the world. 

But for many, “self-improvement” or “self-help” conjures images of cheesy slogans, vague advice, and potentially shady gurus with expensive courses.

It feels like self-improvement is an undervalued skill right now, and we think that’s partially because it’s just so hard to figure out what actually works. 

For example, when your friend tells you they’re going to the gym to work out their back, that sounds totally reasonable. 

But if you tell your friend in return that you’re going to take a few hours to do some ‘emotional stability’ reps, or work out your ‘communication skills’, you’re going to get some strange looks. 

Part of the problem is that progress in the first category is much more measurable than the second.

Nobody debates whether going to the gym works because we can measure progress. You lift heavier weights. Your muscles grow. The results are visible, measurable, and undeniable.

On the other hand, self-improvement feels almost impossible to quantify and track. 

But why can’t it be? 

It will never be as simple as sticking a tape measure around your biceps every few weeks, but to not track it at all just because it’s a little more complicated is a mistake. 

Franklin already proved hundreds of years ago that it can be as simple as a few minutes of journaling each night, and with the advantages of modern technology, we’re set up to do far more powerful things for a similar amount of work. 

Today, we have access to powerful tools—apps, wearables, and trackers—that make collecting and analyzing this kind of data easier and more impactful than ever. 

Here are two examples from my own life…

1. My value to action alignment 

We all generally feel more self-respect when our actions line up with our values. 

So I decided to quantity this in the following way:

• I wrote down the 10 things I most value doing each day in a spreadsheet

• Each day I record whether or not I did that thing

• Over time, using a formula in the spreadsheet, I can see the % of my values that my actions are aligned with 

• If that % goes up, I know I’m making progress

2. Do I do what I say I’ll do?

If we say we’ll do something, it’s nice to feel like we’re the kind of people that will follow through on it.  

I decided to quantify this in the following way:

• Each night I write down everything I want to do the next day in a spreadsheet

• The next day I record what % of those things I actually do

• That % tells me how good I am at following through on commitments

• If that % goes up, I know I’m making progress

These two experiments are not perfect, but they’ve already enabled me to see my self-improvement as less of a mental exercise and something real that I can track over time. 

Conclusion

At What Counts, one of our goals is to figure out how to turn the process of self-improvement into a measurable science. What happens when we quantify the previously unquantified?

Whether you’re training for your next PR, sharpening your mental focus, or mastering a new skill, we want to make self-improvement something that you can actually track and optimize, with a system built entirely around you. 

The ability to change is one of the greatest skills we have. And when we treat it as a science, improvement stops being a guessing game—it becomes undeniable.

What will you track today that counts tomorrow?

Start small: pick one thing you want to improve and find a way to track it. It could be as simple as Franklin’s nightly reflection—or as detailed as a digital habit tracker. The key is to measure it, so you know it’s working

Until next week, 

Benji and Jacob

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