As previously noted, canons could serve local churches as their parish priests. Such beneficed canons were expected to live as regular and austere a life as their cloistered brethren. They had to maintain a regular connection with the abbey, attend visitations and take part in elections. They were forbidden to eat with parishioners, but spiritually subject to the bishop.

Five orders of sin were recognised: levior, media, gravis, gravior, gravissima culpa. Punishments ranged from repeating one psalm and receiving one 'correction' if late for meals, to expulsion. In the case of gravioris culpae, the culprit sat alone in the refectory on the floor at a bare table, ate coarser bread and water, lay prostrate while the canons entered or left church services, was not spoken to, received no communion or kiss of peace and could not kiss the Text or hold any office.

The daily timetable was as follows.  
In winter (13th September to Ash Wednesday): early retirement with one single full meal at 2 pm; the day began at 2 a.m. and ended at 6.30 p.m.  
The 2 a.m. service consisted of prayers and the 15 gradual psalms, followed by Nocturns and prayers for the royal house. Matins followed at 5 a.m., with various prayers, then Lauds of All Saints and of the dead. Prime followed immediately if it was light; if not, they waited for dawn. Then there were three psalms, seven penitential psalms, litanies and prayers, lasting about ¾ hour. Between this and 8 a.m. there was space for reading in the cloister or for private masses. At 8 a.m. they returned to the dormitory, washed, and donned their day shoes. Back to choir for Tierce and the morrow Mass, which ended just before 9 a.m. and was followed by chapter (a meeting held in the Chapter House where a chapter of the Rule was read and any disciplinary actions were taken) which ended with prayers for the dead between about 9.30 and 10 a.m.. There was then a long stretch of work (sometimes manual) until 12.30 p.m., when there was Sext with other prayers, followed by High Mass. At this point the community remained in choir, but the servers and readers in the refectory had a snack of bread and beer and then returned to church. There followed the recitation of None and dinner at 2 p.m. Canons read from then till just before 3 p.m., when there was Vespers and Matins of the Dead. They then donned night shoes and performed Maundy of the Poor. A drink was then served in the refectory, with a short public reading in choir, followed by Compline. Canons then retired to bed.
In Lent: similar, but the meal was after Vespers, so at 5.30 or 6 pm.
In summer: later retirement; the night office was earlier and shorter, so there was a longer time between the night office (Matins and Lauds) and the first of the day hours (Prime), and a second sleep was taken in this gap; there were two meals (midday and around 6 pm), with a siesta after the midday meal.