Nikola Tesla's Daily Routine
Build a long day around one fixed ritual. Nikola Tesla worked in his lab from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, dined at 8:00 PM sharp, then went back to work.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
Nikola Tesla invented the alternating-current system that still runs the world's power grids. His sleep schedule is famous for a myth, two hours a night, that the sources don't back up. What they do record is a day built around a dinner that never moved.
In 1896 New York, biographer John O'Neill has him in the lab before 9:00 AM and working until 6:00 PM. From 8:00 to 10:00 PM he dined at the Waldorf, with a stack of 18 napkins and the volume of every dish worked out before the first bite. Then he went back to the lab and worked through the night. A decade earlier, by his own account in My Inventions, his days had run from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
Take this one if your work comes in long stretches and needs a fixed point to hang the day on. You get two deep blocks with a dinner between them that marks the change. The 3:00 AM finish, the five hours of sleep and the evening walk are our estimates.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 5 hr sleep per night
- 101.5 hr work per week
- 2 meals per day
- 14 hr eating window
- 7 hr movement per week
Sleep
35 hours/week5 hr per night
- Every day3:00 AM → 8:00 AM· 5 hr
No naps.
Work
101.5 hours/week14 hr 30 min a day
- Research8:30 AM → 6:00 PM· 9 hr 30 min · Every day
- Research10:00 PM → 3:00 AM· 5 hr · Every day
Eat
14 hours/week2 meals10:14 eating window2 hr eating
- Breakfast8:00 AM → 8:30 AM· 30 min · Every day
- Dinner8:00 PM → 9:30 PM· 1 hr 30 min · Every day
Off
Move
7 hours/weekWalk 6:30 PM
- Walk6:30 PM → 7:30 PM· 1 hr · Every day