Franz Kafka's Daily Routine
Make room for serious writing around a full-time job. Franz Kafka left the office at 2:30 PM, slept through the early evening and wrote from 11:00 PM.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
Franz Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle and is counted among the major figures of 20th-century literature. He wrote most of it around a full-time job at an insurance institute in Prague.
Mason Currey's Daily Rituals rebuilds the day from his 1912 letters to Felice Bauer: the office from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM, then lunch until 3:30 PM. He slept until 7:30 PM, exercised at the open window, walked and at 9:00 PM ate with his family. At 11:00 PM he began writing, and the chart keeps him at it until 6:00 AM. He refused Felice's plea for a more rational day, as Currey's blog recounts.
Adopt it if a day job owns your mornings and your real work has nowhere else to go. You get the office done by mid-afternoon, a long sleep to reset and the quiet hours after 11:00 PM for your own work. The 6:00 AM finish was his longest night, not his usual 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM, and the weekday shift repeats all week.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 4 hr sleep per night
- 91 hr work per week
- 2 meals per day
- 8 hr eating window
- 10.5 hr movement per week
Sleep
45.5 hours/week4 hr per night2 hr 30 min nap
- Every day3:30 PM → 7:30 PM· 4 hr
- Nap6:00 AM · 2 hr 30 min· Every day
Work
91 hours/week13 hr a day6 hr day job7 hr writing
- Day job8:30 AM → 2:30 PM· 6 hr · Every day
- Writing11:00 PM → 6:00 AM· 7 hr · Every day
Eat
17.5 hours/week2 meals16:8 eating window2 hr 30 min eating
- Lunch2:30 PM → 3:30 PM· 1 hr · Every day
- Dinner9:00 PM → 10:30 PM· 1 hr 30 min · Every day
Off
Move
10.5 hours/weekWalk 7:30 PM
- Walk7:30 PM → 9:00 PM· 1 hr 30 min · Every day