John Milton's Daily Routine

John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, the epic of the Fall, and Areopagitica, a landmark defence of a free press. He was blind by the time he wrote the poem, so every line was made in his head and held there until someone wrote it down.

He rose at 4:00 AM to compose lying alone, then from 5:00 AM had the Bible read to him. At 7:00 AM his aide came to take dictation, and if the man was late Milton complained that he wanted to be milked. After reading back until lunch at noon, he walked his garden until 4:00 PM, then saw visitors until bed at 9:00 PM, as Podio's 2014 chart draws it from Mason Currey's Daily Rituals.

Try it if your ideas arrive before dawn and fade by lunch, or if you think better out loud than on paper. You get 5 hours of making before noon, a long daily walk and a whole evening of company. Rising at 4:00 AM all year, not 5:00 AM in winter, and the same day all week are our simplifications.