While staying at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson kept a schedule very similar to the one he had kept most of his life when he was not a public servant. He awakened before dawn, took an early breakfast, and planned for the day. He spent his mornings horseback riding, reading, or writing. Jefferson maintained a library at Poplar Forest of more than 600 books in a variety of languages. Aesop, Virgil, Homer, Plato, Moliere, and Shakespeare were a few of the authors whose books were found in Jefferson’s Poplar Forest library. He also kept a portable polygraph in the parlor that he used to make copies of the letters and documents that he wrote. Some of the letters Jefferson wrote from Poplar Forest pertained to his business operations. He also wrote family and friends. In November of 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote former President John Adams from Poplar Forest.

These Jefferson-era artifacts were uncovered by Poplar Forest archaeologists right outside Jefferson's retreat home.

Dinner was usually between three and four o’clock. He dined with his family when they accompanied him. He also occasionally invited neighbors to join him for a meal. Neighbors often brought gifts of food such as asparagus, cider, homemade cheese, fruits, cakes, and even bear cub meat for the table. Sometimes Jefferson bought chickens or turkeys from his enslaved workers. Jefferson spent late afternoons talking with family members or strolling around the property.  His granddaughters Ellen and Cornelia Randolph visited Poplar Forest regularly from 1816-1823. Jefferson wrote that "about twilight of the evening, we sally out with the owls and bats and take our evening exercise on the terras (the flat roof on his wing of offices). "After tea in the early evening, Jefferson might read before retiring at 10. For more details about Jefferson’s life at Poplar Forest, refer to the letter his granddaughter Ellen wrote to author Henry S. Randall in 1856. This letter is considered by many to be one of the most detailed first-person accounts of Thomas Jefferson’s daily life at Poplar Forest.