The 1-hour-a-day challenge was created by Benjamin Franklin, who essentially lived by this challenge. He would set aside 1 hour every day to do something different and meaningful that allowed him to achieve a goal to provide himself the time and opportunity to learn and grow as a person while having ‘me-time.’

Me-time is something that many people just don’t do anymore let alone make time for; instead, we rush around, trying to complete everything on our schedule daily. Franklin, however, valued this time as an opportunity to do what he pleased and would wake up daily and ask, “What good will I do today?” Similarly, he would end each day by asking “What good have I done today?”

The purpose of this challenge is simple: you set goals for yourself and you accomplish them with the time that you set aside for yourself daily. The point is to learn and continue to grow as a person instead of letting your life take control.

I view it as a reminder not to let life pass me by. Think about it: we work, do what we have to do, but we don’t always do what WE want to do. We often say, “Maybe later,” but we never actually come around and act on it. We seem to let our dreams, goals, and me-time pass us by because we have better or more productive things to do.

This inadvertently means that life is just slipping by because we put our personal growth, exploration and time for ourselves on pause. The 1-hour-a-day challenge is designed to remind us to grow as a person, and to do things for ourselves in life that make us happy; it is also there to get us to break free of ruts.