Immanuel Kant's Daily Routine

Immanuel Kant wrote the Critique of Pure Reason and remains one of the central figures of modern philosophy. His daily routine was so regular that, from his forties, he was proud never to have been even half an hour late getting up. He gave his best hour to thinking before the working day began.

Mason Currey's Daily Routines blog, drawing on Manfred Kuehn's biography, has his servant Lampe wake him at 5:00 AM. Kant drank weak tea, smoked a single pipe, prepared his lectures and wrote until it was time to lecture, then lectured through the morning. Lunch out with wine and company was his one real meal and could stretch into mid-afternoon, then came his walk and a visit to his friend Joseph Green's house until evening. He was in bed at exactly 10:00 PM.

It's for people whose mornings belong to a job but who still want thinking time nobody can take. It suits anyone who does their best thinking early and wants one sociable meal to look forward to.

You get an hour of your own work before the day starts, a long lunch with people, a daily walk and an early, regular night. To try it today, set an alarm for 1 hour before your first obligation and use it for the one piece of thinking you keep putting off. The walk's length and the lunch start are our estimates, and Saturdays match the week.