Thomas Mann's Daily Routine
Give your hardest work the freshest hours. Thomas Mann wrote behind a closed door from 9:00 AM to noon and kept the afternoon for reading and letters.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
Thomas Mann wrote Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. His hardest work got the same 3 morning hours every day, behind a shut study door.
Mason Currey's Daily Rituals has him up at 8:00 AM to bathe and breakfast with his wife. From 9:00 AM to noon he wrote, and unfinished work waited for tomorrow. After lunch he read on the sofa until 4:00 PM, napped for an hour and joined the family for tea at 5:00 PM. Letters and articles, work that could survive an interruption, came next, then a walk at 7:00 PM, dinner, guests and bed at midnight, as Meaning Ring's notes retell it.
Adopt it if your best thinking needs a fresh mind and your inbox can wait until late afternoon. You get a protected 3-hour morning, an afternoon of reading and rest, and evenings for other people. The 30-minute walk, the reading drawn as creative work and a day that repeats all week are our estimates.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 8 hr sleep per night
- 56 hr work per week
- 2 meals per day
- 6 hr eating window
- 3.5 hr movement per week
- 31.5 hr play per week
Sleep
63 hours/week8 hr per night1 hr nap
- Every day12:00 AM → 8:00 AM· 8 hr
- Nap4:00 PM · 1 hr· Every day
Work
56 hours/week8 hr a day6 hr 30 min writing1 hr 30 min email
- Writing9:00 AM → 12:00 PM· 3 hr · Every day
- Writing12:30 PM → 4:00 PM· 3 hr 30 min · Every day
- Email5:30 PM → 7:00 PM· 1 hr 30 min · Every day
Eat
7 hours/week2 meals18:6 eating window1 hr eating
- Lunch12:00 PM → 12:30 PM· 30 min · Every day
- Snack5:00 PM → 5:30 PM· 30 min · Every day
Off
Move
3.5 hours/weekWalk 7:00 PM
- Walk7:00 PM → 7:30 PM· 30 min · Every day
Play
31.5 hours/weekFamily 7:30 PM
- Every day7:30 PM → 12:00 AM· 4 hr 30 min