Queen Elizabeth II's Daily Routine
For anyone who wants a week that holds steady. Queen Elizabeth II's daily routine: a piper at 9:00 AM, the Prime Minister on Wednesdays.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years, from 1952 to 2022, longer than any other British monarch. Her daily routine was famously regular. The same fixed points came round each week for decades.
She rose around 8:30 AM, The Crown Chronicles reports, and a piper played for 15 minutes under her window at 9:00 AM. Mornings went to letters and the red boxes of state papers, with short audiences from 11:00 AM, then lunch, afternoon engagements and tea at 4:00 PM. On Wednesdays she saw the Prime Minister, a weekly audience still held in 2021, CBS News notes, and at weekends at Windsor she rode in the Great Park.
It suits anyone who wants a dependable week: work at fixed hours, the same small rituals and time outdoors with animals at the weekend. Nothing in it is clever, which is why it lasts.
You get a few fixed points to hang the day on, so the rest can flex around them. She did her boxes almost every day of the year, so the steadiness was the point, not the hours. Her bedtime, the length of each block and the weekend times are our estimates.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 9 hr 30 min sleep per night
- 30.5 hr work per week
- 4 meals per day
- 13 hr eating window
- 9 hr movement per week
- 13 hr play per week
Schedule
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