Richard Strauss's Daily Routine

Richard Strauss wrote the tone poems Don Juan and Also sprach Zarathustra and the opera Der Rosenkavalier. This daily routine comes from an 1892 letter from Egypt, written while he was recovering and orchestrating his first opera, Guntram. It's a convalescent's day, and the surprise is how much work fits inside a gentle one.

He bathed, ate 3 eggs with tea and home-made jam, and strolled by the Nile before orchestrating from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The afternoon held Schopenhauer or a game of cards, one more hour of composing, tea and a walk to watch the sunset. After dinner he chatted, smoked and went to bed at 10:00 PM, as Meaning Ring's notes on Mason Currey's Daily Rituals tell it. He said the urge to compose came as naturally as a cow gives milk.

It's for anyone coming back from illness, burnout or a long stretch of overwork who wants work to sit inside a gentle day, not on top of it. It also suits anyone who needs permission to work less.

You get 4 hours of composing in 2 sittings, 90 minutes of walking, company and a 10-hour night. Treat it as a season, not a lifetime: use it for a few weeks while you rebuild your stamina, then add hours. Treating a rest-cure day as a standing routine, repeated all week, is our simplification.