Don’t plan your life from scratch
Routines that work, hour by hour, from famous people and the community. Copy one, make it yours, share your own.
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29 frameworks
Arthur C. Brooks's Daily Routine
Do your best work before lunch. Arthur C. Brooks's morning routine fits the gym, Mass and 4 hours of writing in before noon.
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Ali Abdaal's Daily Routine
Protect your mornings and share your meals. Ali Abdaal's daily routine puts 4 hours of deep work before a 2-hour lunch.
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Anthony Trollope's Daily Routine
Write a novel around a full-time job. Anthony Trollope wrote 47 of them before breakfast, at 250 words every 15 minutes.
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Barack Obama's Daily Routine
Keep a few quiet hours for your hardest thinking. Barack Obama's daily routine: family dinner at 6:30 PM, then 4 to 5 hours alone.
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Jane Austen's Daily Routine
For anyone making things in a busy shared home. Jane Austen wrote in the family sitting room, after making breakfast at 9:00 AM.
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Kazuo Ishiguro's Daily Routine
Finish a first draft by clearing a month. Kazuo Ishiguro wrote most of The Remains of the Day in a 4-week sprint called the Crash.
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Mahatma Gandhi's Daily Routine
For anyone whose day fills up before their own work starts. Mahatma Gandhi's writing routine began at 4:00 AM, with silence every Monday.
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Octavia E. Butler's Daily Routine
Set a daily minimum that doesn't depend on motivation. Octavia E. Butler's writing routine: at least 4 hours of writing before her day job.
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Simone de Beauvoir's Daily Routine
Work 7 hours a day and still see your friends. Simone de Beauvoir's writing routine: two shifts with a long social break between.
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Toni Morrison's Daily Routine
For parents with a full-time job and a book in them. Toni Morrison's writing routine began at 4:00 AM, before her children woke.
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Ursula K. Le Guin's Daily Routine
Write all morning and keep the afternoon. Ursula K. Le Guin's writing routine: from 7:15 AM, then reading, music and an early night.
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Winston Churchill's Daily Routine
Get two working days out of one, with a nap in the middle. Winston Churchill's daily routine: sleep from 3:00 PM, then work after dinner.
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Kurt Vonnegut's Daily Routine
Get your 4 hours of writing in before lunch, not after work. Kurt Vonnegut's writing routine in 1965 started at 5:30 AM.
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Cal Newport's Daily Routine
For anyone who ends the day busy but behind. Cal Newport plans every minute of his workday and stops at 5:30 PM.
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Paul Graham's Daily Routine
Group your meetings and give the making one long stretch. Paul Graham's 2009 essay on the maker's schedule came from a day split at dinner.
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Benjamin Franklin's Daily Routine
For people whose days drift, start with one question. Benjamin Franklin's schedule opens at 5:00 AM by asking what good he'll do.
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Charles Dickens's Daily Routine
Think the story over on foot. Charles Dickens's writing routine: 2,000 words by 2:00 PM, then a three-hour walk.
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Flannery O'Connor's Daily Routine
Make 3 focused hours a day enough. Flannery O'Connor's writing routine started at 9:00 AM and left the afternoon for rest and her peacocks.
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Franz Kafka's Daily Routine
For anyone writing around a full-time job. Franz Kafka's writing routine: a long sleep after work, then writing from 11:00 PM.
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Gustave Flaubert's Daily Routine
Keep life orderly so the work can be bold. Gustave Flaubert woke at 10:00 AM and wrote at a round table, afternoon and night.
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Haruki Murakami's Daily Routine
Finish the big project by repeating one day. Haruki Murakami's writing routine: up at 4:00 AM, the same day for 6 months to a year.
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Honoré de Balzac's Daily Routine
Write in the quiet while everyone else sleeps. Honoré de Balzac's writing routine began at 1:00 AM and produced some 90 novels, stories and essays.
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Kingsley Amis's Daily Routine
Write well without an early start. Kingsley Amis's writing routine: 2 sittings from 9:30 AM, with a pub lunch and a nap between them.
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Maya Angelou's Daily Routine
Write somewhere that isn't home. Maya Angelou's writing routine: a bare hotel room by 7:00 AM, with a dictionary, a Bible and a deck of cards.
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Thomas Mann's Daily Routine
For anyone whose best thinking comes before the inbox. Thomas Mann's writing routine: 3 hours behind a closed door from 9:00 AM.
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Victor Hugo's Daily Routine
Do your hardest thinking before lunch. Victor Hugo's writing routine ended at 11:00 AM with icy water poured over himself on the roof.
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Vladimir Nabokov's Daily Routine
Spread your writing across a long, unhurried day. Vladimir Nabokov's writing routine: 3 blocks, 2 walks and Scrabble in Cyrillic.
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Voltaire's Daily Routine
Get words down by talking, not typing. Voltaire's writing routine: dictating to a secretary from bed and not dressing until noon.
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William Styron's Daily Routine
For people whose minds wake late. William Styron's writing routine: 4 hours from 4:00 PM, until 200 or 300 words were done.
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