Flannery O'Connor's Daily Routine
Get real writing done in three focused hours a day. Flannery O'Connor wrote from 9:00 AM to noon, then gave the afternoon to rest and her peacocks.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
Flannery O'Connor wrote Wise Blood and the stories in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and her Complete Stories won the National Book Award in 1972. She did it on three hours of writing a day. Lupus kept her on her mother's Georgia farm, Andalusia, for her last 13 years, and she called her routine a condition of survival.
Mason Currey's Daily Rituals has her at prayers at 6:00 AM with a thermos of coffee, then at daily Mass in Milledgeville. From 9:00 AM to noon she wrote at a desk facing a blank wall. Afternoons went to rest, letters, visitors, painting and more than 40 peafowl, the birds a National Catholic Register visit to Andalusia still goes looking for.
This one suits anyone writing around low energy, a health condition or a short window of focus. You get three protected hours and a gentle rest of the day with no pressure to do more. The 9:00 PM bedtime and the two hours for Mass are estimates, and the day repeats all week.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 9 hr sleep per night
- 21 hr work per week
- 1 meal per day
- 77 hr play per week
Sleep
63 hours/week9 hr per night
- Every day9:00 PM → 6:00 AM· 9 hr
No naps.
Work
21 hours/week3 hr a day
- Writing9:00 AM → 12:00 PM· 3 hr · Every day
Eat
7 hours/week1 meal23:1 eating window1 hr eating
- Snack6:00 AM → 7:00 AM· 1 hr · Every day
Off
Play
77 hours/weekReflection 7:00 AMFriends 12:00 PM
- Every day7:00 AM → 9:00 AM· 2 hr
- Every day12:00 PM → 9:00 PM· 9 hr