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Don’t design your day from scratch. Adopt a schedule that already works, then make it yours.
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Steve Jobs's Daily Routine
Skip the listicles and get the sourced day. Steve Jobs worked from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM when he returned to Apple in 1997, Walter Isaacson reports.
Alexander Graham Bell's Daily Routine
Try ending each day on a question. Alexander Graham Bell worked from 9:30 PM to 4:30 AM, set a problem in his mind, then slept until noon.
Paul Graham's Daily Routine
Get a maker's schedule inside a manager's day. Paul Graham did business until dinner, then programmed from dinner until about 3:00 AM.
Thomas Edison's Daily Routine
Keep learning after a full day's work. Thomas Edison was at his lab by 8:00 AM, home for tea at 6:00 PM, then studied until 11:00 PM.
Brian Chesky's Daily Routine
Keep your best hours for your best ideas. Airbnb's Brian Chesky starts slow, books nothing before 10:00 AM and saves 9:30 PM onward for creative work.
Nikola Tesla's Daily Routine
Build a long day around one fixed ritual. Nikola Tesla worked in his lab from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, dined at 8:00 PM sharp, then went back to work.
John Milton's Daily Routine
Do your ideas arrive before dawn and fade by lunch? John Milton's routine puts the thinking first, then gives the afternoon to walking and company.
Flannery O'Connor's Daily Routine
Low on energy? Flannery O'Connor wrote just three focused hours a day and finished two novels and 32 stories, a routine that respects your limits.
Maya Angelou's Daily Routine
Borrow Maya Angelou's routine of writing in a bare room where nothing else can happen, then coming home to reread the day's pages over a quiet dinner.
Le Corbusier's Daily Routine
Bring fresh ideas to your day job by keeping mornings for yourself. Le Corbusier painted alone until two, then walked into his architecture studio.
Victor Hugo's Daily Routine
Try the routine behind Les Misérables, with Victor Hugo's writing at dawn, a cold bath at eleven and an afternoon of hard exercise to clear his head.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Daily Routine
Busy days leaving only scraps of time? Mozart composed around a packed schedule of lessons and concerts. Borrow how he split his day, not his sleep.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Daily Routine
Get your most important work done in one long, unbroken morning, then walk it off. Beethoven composed until mid-afternoon and never worked after dark.
Sigmund Freud's Daily Routine
Learn to fit serious writing around a demanding job. Sigmund Freud saw patients all day, walked fast after lunch and wrote late into the night.
Vladimir Nabokov's Daily Routine
Settle into Vladimir Nabokov's unhurried routine of writing standing up, strolling by the lake and napping after lunch, with room for work all day.
Kingsley Amis's Daily Routine
Hate early starts? Kingsley Amis lingered over breakfast and the papers, but the writing began at the same hour each day. A routine for slow starters.
Thomas Mann's Daily Routine
Give your hardest work the freshest hours. Thomas Mann wrote behind a closed door from nine to noon and saved letters and reading for the afternoon.
Richard Strauss's Daily Routine
Ease back into work after illness or burnout with Richard Strauss's gentle routine of short sessions, long walks, good meals and ten hours of sleep.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Daily Routine
Become someone whose best ideas arrive on foot. Tchaikovsky composed morning and evening and walked for exactly two hours in between, in any weather.
Gustave Flaubert's Daily Routine
Keep your life orderly so your work can be bold. Gustave Flaubert's routine was as regular as a clock and gave ten long hours a day to the page.
Pablo Picasso's Daily Routine
Make the most of a night-owl body clock with Pablo Picasso's routine of slow mornings, a studio door shut at two and painting well past midnight.
William Styron's Daily Routine
Turn late nights into your most productive hours with William Styron's routine of sleeping until noon, then four focused hours of writing from four.
Honoré de Balzac's Daily Routine
Try Balzac's all-night writing routine when a deadline looms, sleeping at dusk and working through the silent hours while everyone else sleeps.
Franz Kafka's Daily Routine
Stuck in a day job with no time to create? Franz Kafka worked the office, slept through the evening and wrote his best stories after midnight.
Voltaire's Daily Routine
See what total absorption really looks like. Voltaire dictated from bed all morning and worked deep into the night, a routine to learn from, not copy.