Reference Bennett, Arnold: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. 04 Aug 07

[RWood]

As requested by rjnagle and a book that I had thought of formatting and posting prior to that, here is How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett.

Written in 1925, it is part of a larger series entitled How to Live that also contained The Human Machine, Mental Efficiency, and Self and Self Management. Of these only the current title and The Human Machine are available on Project Gutenberg.

Often described as one of the first self help books, 24 Hours is very modern and could easily be mistaken for any number of current books on the same topic except for the dated examples.

The Wikipedia adds:

In the book, Bennett addressed the large and growing number of white-collar workers that had accumulated since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. In his view, these workers put in eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, at jobs they did not enjoy, and at worst hated. They worked to make a living, but their daily existence consisted of waking up, getting ready for work, working as little as possible during the work day, going home, unwinding, going to sleep, and repeating the process the next day. In short, he didn't believe they were really living.

Bennett addressed this problem by urging these "salarymen" to seize their extra time, and make the most of it to improve themselves. Extra time could be found at the beginning of the day, by waking up early, and on the ride to work, on the way home from work, in the evening hours, and especially during the weekends. During this time, he prescribed improvement measures such as reading great literature, taking an interest in the arts, reflecting on life, and learning self-discipline.

Bennett wrote that time is the most precious of commodities. He said that many books have been written on how to live on a certain amount of money each day. And he added that the old adage "Time is money" understates the matter, as time can often produce money, but money cannot produce more time. Time is extremely limited, and Bennett urged others to make the best of the time remaining in their lives.

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