Epictetus Discourses 1.10: How to Spend Our Time

The Discourses of Epictetus were recorded by his student Arrian during teaching sessions at Nicopolis in the early second century. Chapter 1.4 argued that we measure progress by the wrong standard. Chapter 1.8 argued that skills without virtue are dangerous. Chapter 1.10 completes the argument: we apply more devotion and energy to career advancement than to any of it. View the full Book 1 commentary.

What Epictetus Is Arguing in Discourses 1.10

What we devote our time to is an important question. Our time is finite, and we need to aim it at the proper goal. Arrian titled this discourse “To Those Who Have Devoted Their Efforts to Advancement at Rome.” When we bring that back to our modern day, Rome stands for the entire world. It shows our ambitions to climb the career ladder and reach the next level in society. The chapter opens with what sounds like an accusation directed at Epictetus’s students, and perhaps at himself.

There is a genuine reverence in this observation. The old men of Rome knew what their goal was and worked toward it with everything they had. Epictetus is not mocking them. He is pointing at their devotion and asking: What if we applied that same energy to understanding who we are and where our good lies? The only difference required is the right target.

As Soon as You Smell Rome

Epictetus makes his point vivid through a story. An older man, a former government official in charge of Rome’s corn supply, was passing through Nicopolis on his way back from exile. He spoke eloquently about how he had changed. When he returned to Rome, he would live simply and peacefully. He had only a little time left, and he intended to use it well. Epictetus’s response was blunt.

Epictetus went further. He told the man that if he got a chance to enter the Palace, he would push his way in and give God thanks. The resolution was not false. It was genuine. But it was formed in exile, away from everything that had shaped the old patterns. The moment the man returned to the environment that had always cued those patterns, the resolution would dissolve as if it had never been made.

This is something that happens to us as well. We resolve to change when we are on holiday, or at a retreat, or after a difficult period that has shown us what matters. Then we return to the ordinary environment and the ordinary patterns reassert themselves. The resolution was real, but the environment and patterns were stronger. Genuine change requires more than intention. It requires restructuring what surrounds us and what claims our attention every day. That restructuring is what Stoic practice is actually for.

The Proportion Question

The chapter’s central comparison is between two kinds of petition. One is the kind the old men at Rome process daily in their schemes for advancement.

We cannot say these two are the same. Our place in the universe, who we are, and where our good lies: these are serious explorations that require our attention at all times. They ask us to understand eudaimonia, what the genuinely good life actually consists in, and to direct our prohairesis accordingly. The corn petition and the career scheme are on a different level. They still require attention, and we should do our duty as well as we can. But the main effort belongs to being a virtuous person. That is what philosophy aims at and what we should hold as our main objective.

Prosochē: Where We Direct Our Attention

The Stoic term for what this chapter is demanding is prosochē: ongoing attention and vigilance about what we are doing with our inner life. The old men of Rome have extraordinary prosochē for their schemes. They miss nothing, forget nothing, pursue every angle with relentless focus. Epictetus is asking whether we bring even a fraction of that attentiveness to the question of who we are and how we are living.

Bringing this two thousand years forward: the modern version of the old men at Rome is the high achiever who tracks every career metric, optimises every hour, reads every book on productivity and leadership, attends every networking event, but cannot give a clear answer to the question of what their own good consists in. They have mastered the external game completely. The internal game has not received an hour of comparable attention. This is the chapter’s accusation, and it is as accurate now as it was then.

At the end of the day, we do have jobs to do and money to make. But we do get to decide how we do this and where we place our deepest attention. It does not always seem this way, but we have this choice to a meaningful extent. Unfortunately, the externals we chase tend to determine more and more for us. They hold us in their grip. The more we work on our own character, the more we see that we do not need all the things we now covet.

Devote Your Time to the Right Action

The last step is to act. Epictetus closes the chapter with an invitation rather than a command. If he saw students genuinely engaged in serious philosophical work, he would be energised to join them. Enthusiasm is contagious. We can find the inspiration we need all around us from those who actually live what they study. As teachers, it is our duty to ensure that the people who come after us devote their time to the improvement of their character. Not only by instruction but by example. The most powerful thing we can do is be someone whose life shows what philosophical practice actually looks like.

The Exercise: The Proportion Check

Discipline: Desire   |   Timing: End of day, once per week · 10 minutes

Before you sleep, account for today using two columns. Column one, the outer work: time spent on career positioning, income, reputation management, appearance, social standing, performance of any kind, anything whose value depends on how others receive it. Column two, the inner work: time spent examining your own character, reading or thinking about what the good life consists in, practising any of the three disciplines, sitting with an honest question about yourself without needing to resolve it quickly.

Count in rough hours or half-hours. Do not adjust the numbers. The point is not to feel good about the proportion. It is to see it clearly.

Epictetus observes that the old men at Rome apply extraordinary devotion to climbing. Stoic students who applied even a fraction of that same energy to the inner work would make extraordinary progress. Most do not, because the inner work produces no visible result until it does.

Do this for one week. At the end of the week, add the two columns. The ratio is the honest answer to whether Epictetus’s observation applies to you.

This exercise is one of 30 drawn from the Discourses. See the full 30 Epictetus exercises from Discourses Book 1.

← Discourses 1.9: What Is Stoic Cosmopolitanism? | → Discourses 1.11: What Does it Mean to Love Well?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Epictetus Discourses 1.10 about?

Discourses 1.10 asks whether we apply the same devotion to understanding ourselves as we do to career advancement. Epictetus observes that the old men at Rome pursue their schemes with extraordinary energy and attention, and wonders what Stoic students might achieve if they applied even that much effort to their own philosophical work. The chapter makes its point through the story of an exiled official who resolved to change his life, only to forget his resolution the moment he returned to Rome.

What does Epictetus mean by applying ourselves to our own work?

Our own work, for Epictetus, is the work of understanding who we are, where our good lies, and how to direct our faculty of choice toward virtue. This is distinct from career work, social advancement, or the accumulation of knowledge. These have their place, but the primary effort belongs to the inner life. The chapter’s argument is not that external work is wrong but that the proportion of our attention is badly misallocated: we give the best of ourselves to the external and the remainder to the internal.

What is prosochē in Stoic philosophy?

Prosochē is the Stoic practice of ongoing attention and vigilance about what we are doing with our inner life. It means continuously monitoring where our attention is going, what impressions we are assenting to, and whether our actions are aligned with our values. In Discourses 1.10, Epictetus is pointing out that the old men at Rome have extraordinary prosochē for their external schemes, and asking whether we bring that same quality of attention to our own character development.

Why does the exiled official forget his resolution in Discourses 1.10?

The official’s resolution was genuine, but it was formed away from the environment that shaped his old patterns. The moment he returned to Rome, the environmental cues that had always triggered his behavior reasserted themselves. His resolution dissolved not because it was false but because it was formed in the wrong conditions. Genuine change requires not just intention but a restructuring of what surrounds us and what claims our attention every day. Stoic practice provides that structure.

What is the Stoic exercise from Discourses 1.10?

The exercise is the proportion check. At the end of the day, note how many hours you devoted to external advancement: career, reputation, status, income. Then note how many hours you devoted to internal advancement: examining your character, practising the virtues, understanding what the good life consists in. The proportion between these numbers answers whether Epictetus’s observation applies to you. The goal is not to abandon external work but to ensure the internal work receives at least equal attention.

Want to Apply This to Your Own Life?

Reading the Discourses is the beginning, not the end. If you want to work through what Epictetus is asking of you and apply it to what you are actually dealing with right now, I offer one-on-one Stoic coaching. Start with a free consultation. Listen to The Via Stoica Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Browse the Epictetus quotes collection for more passages from the Discourses.

About the Author

Benny Voncken is the founder of Via Stoica and host of The Via Stoica Podcast. He has practiced Stoicism as a way of life for over seven years and draws on almost 15 years of teaching experience to turn dense ancient ideas into daily practice. Since 2023 he has coached clients around the world through one-on-one Stoic coaching. He also leads Stoic walks across Europe, writes the monthly newsletter The Pause, and has spoken at Stoicon.