Vladimir Nabokov's Daily Routine

Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita and Pale Fire in English after a career in Russian, and was a serious butterfly scientist on the side. His writing routine was unhurried. He told the New York Times in 1968 that his alarm clock, in his Montreux winters, was an Alpine chough on the balcony.

The chart follows the account Mason Currey posted on his Daily Routines blog. He thought in bed, then shaved, had breakfast and a bath before writing at 10:00 AM, and walked by the lake with his wife. After lunch he wrote from 2:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Evenings brought dinner, Scrabble in a Cyrillic set, reading and a nightly fight with insomnia.

This suits writers who like their work spread over a long, unhurried day. It also suits anyone who thinks better with a walk or a hot bath in the middle.

You get three writing blocks, two walks and a slow evening with family and books. Break the work with a stroll and stop for dinner at a fixed hour. The morning is our estimate: the chart skips his early session at a standing lectern and his two-hour nap.