Franz Kafka's Daily Routine

Franz Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle while working full time at an insurance institute in Prague. His writing routine was a split night: a long afternoon sleep after work, then writing late into the evening.

Mason Currey rebuilds the day from Kafka's 1912 letters to Felice Bauer. He was on a single shift that ended early in the afternoon, after despairing of 12-hour days elsewhere. After lunch he slept until the evening, then exercised, walked and ate with his family. Writing began around 11:00 PM and ran, depending on strength, inclination and luck, into the small hours, and when Felice suggested a more rational day, he refused, as Currey's blog recounts.

It's for anyone with a full-time job and a project of their own that never seems to get a turn. It suits people who have real energy late in the day, once everything else is done.

You get a workday that ends early, a long sleep to reset and a block of hours that nobody else has a claim on. Copy the shape, not the hours: a nap after work and one late session before midnight carry the idea. The finish time is our estimate, since his nights ran an hour either side of it, and the weekday shift repeats all week.