I have already written above about the right setting and environment. Now we will touch briefly on the topic of daily routine. I am not going to impose my own routine; I only want to show, or rather quote, the daily routines of some great figures. For this I turn to Mason Currey's book "Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work". Here are quotes from some of them that I added to my notes to reread from time to time:
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) "...nor on his walks did he part with pen and ink but wrote down his thoughts, and when he rode he used a mnemonic device: for each thought he wanted to remember he pinned a scrap of paper to his clothes, and on returning home he took off the scraps and entered all the ideas in his journal. Imagine how he looked when he came back from long trips – covered in bits of paper on pins, like a beetle in autumn leaves!"
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) "One must write every day, not so much for the success of the work as so as not to fall out of the groove."
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) "If he could train himself to need less sleep, the inventor decided, there would be more time for work. His biographer J. Baldwin described the results of the 'Dymaxion sleep' experiment: 'A series of experiments in 1932 and 1933 convinced Fuller that when he felt tired or sleepy it meant that mind and body had already given too much and needed rest and recovery. He decided to go to sleep consciously before that point. If he slept before exhaustion set in, no "repair" or recovery period would be needed. Sleep would be rest only, and in that case a short sleep would be enough. If he stuck to a certain routine, he would not know fatigue. After trying many schemes, Bucky eventually found a schedule that suited him. After six hours of work he napped for half an hour; if he got what he called a "fixation or interest break" signal, rest came earlier. It worked (for him). I can attest that young colleagues and students could not keep up with him; he seemed never to tire, could give lectures for ten hours straight or more. He was always writing, sketching, reading, building models or preparing for something. His ability to work at that pace did not wane until he was well past 70."' … "Baldwin notes that Fuller 'alarmed observers by dropping off to sleep in a matter of seconds, as if he had pressed a switch in his head.'"
William James (1842–1910) "In April 1870 the 28-year-old William James wrote in his diary a piece of advice to himself: 'Remember that only when the habit of order is formed can one pass to truly interesting activity and gradually, grain by grain, accumulate considered choices, as a miser accumulates, not forgetting that every missed link brings down a huge mass with it.'" … "And yet the psychologist himself failed to follow his own advice. He did not keep a constant schedule, often fell into doubt, and led an unsettled and disorderly life."
Henry Green (1905–1973) "This man led a double life: as Henry Yorke – the name he was born with – he lived the life of an aristocrat running the business his father had built (the Pontifex company mainly made machines that sealed beer bottles under high pressure). But under the name Henry Green he wrote nine novels – including 'Loving', 'Living' and 'Party Going', among the most original works of the twentieth century. It is surprising that Green bothered to go to the office at all – with his inherited income he need not have worked."
… "Although from time to time he told friends he would give up Pontifex and live on his income so as not to work but only write, he became more and more convinced of how useful, even necessary, Henry Yorke's routine work was for Henry Green's creativity." … "Work gave him both stability and experience he could use in his books, and demanded far less of him than his imagination did."
John Cheever (1912–1982) "My best hour is between five and six in the morning. It's still dark. The first birds sing. I'm content with everyone and love everyone. I'll feel dissatisfaction closer to seven, when light pours into the room. I'm not ready to meet the day – not ready to meet it sober, I mean. Sometimes I want to slip straight to the sideboard and pour myself a drink. I repeat the incantation I made up three years ago when I was describing a man who constantly thinks about the bottle. Among other things, this situation tends to repeat. The hours from seven to ten, when I allow myself a drink, are the worst. I could take a sedative, but I don't… I would like to pray, but to whom – the God of Sunday school, a provincial petty king whose rituals and powers I don't really know? I fear cars, planes, ships, snakes, stray dogs, falling leaves, stepladders and the howl of wind in the chimney. Dr Hespeden, I'm afraid of the wind in the pipe! Before lunch I sleep, drunk, and usually wake up again content with everyone and loving everyone, though I don't get down to work. The climax of the day, its core – is swimming. Then – evening is already near – I'm drunk and at peace. I sleep and dream till five."
Here are a few more names whose biographies I found interesting in one way or another:
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804),
William James (1842–1910),
Nicholson Baker (b. 1957),
Georges Simenon (1903–1989),
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002).
I did not expand or give more examples — anyone who is interested can read the book for themselves. Nor did I try to pick people who would fit a single positive pattern where everyone followed a strict daily routine. On the contrary, some had a strict routine and others had none at all. Some were born into poor families, others into rich ones; some were heavy drinkers, others workaholics. The book describes hundreds of very different life stories of influential and famous people, so if you're interested, I recommend reading it.
As for my view on daily routine, I'm generally in favour of having one. Or rather, the way I see it, you don't need a daily routine as such; you need a plan: what you will do today, tomorrow, what you need to get done this week, this month, this year. If you need a daily schedule to get these things done — fine, live by it. If you can manage what you've set yourself without a fixed routine, that's not a crazy option either. But big goals always break down into everyday, small, often repeated tasks that have to be done over many days. It seems to me that such tasks are easier to do when you stick to a certain time — when you form micro-habits. So isn't that a daily routine, in a way?
It's important to remember that a routine can change over time or with circumstances. You need to be flexible and ready to adapt to life situations. For example, having children can significantly change the daily routine of many creative people, which is also mentioned in the book. From my own experience: on holiday in Bali I unexpectedly turned from a night owl into an early bird. On the whole I was quite comfortable with it, except that when darkness fell I began to feel sleepy and wanted to sleep. But within a week of returning home everything was back to normal and I was a night owl again.
