W.H. Auden's Daily Routine
Do your sharpest work early and stop on time. W.H. Auden started soon after 6:00 AM and kept a hard stop at 6:30 PM for friends and dinner.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
W.H. Auden, the English-born poet of Funeral Blues and September 1, 1939, won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Anxiety. He ran his day by the clock and believed his mind was sharpest from 7:00 AM to 11:30 AM.
Mason Currey, on his Daily Routines blog, calls it a life of military precision. Auden rose at 6:00 AM for coffee and the crossword, then worked from 6:30 AM to 11:30 AM and again after lunch until 6:30 PM. Strong vodka martinis followed on the dot, then dinner with wine and friends at 8:00 PM. It leaned on chemistry too: Benzedrine every morning for 20 years and Seconal to sleep at 10:00 PM.
Borrow the shape if you think best early and want a firm stop before the evening. You get a long morning block, a second one after lunch and 8 hours of sleep, without the pharmacy. The 6:30 PM end of the afternoon block is Podio's estimate, dinner is cut at 10:00 PM to fix a chart slip, and every day runs the same.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 8 hr sleep per night
- 80.5 hr work per week
- 4 meals per day
- 16 hr eating window
Sleep
56 hours/week8 hr per night
- Every day10:00 PM → 6:00 AM· 8 hr
No naps.
Work
80.5 hours/week11 hr 30 min a day
- Writing6:30 AM → 11:30 AM· 5 hr · Every day
- Writing12:00 PM → 6:30 PM· 6 hr 30 min · Every day
Eat
28 hours/week4 meals8:16 eating window4 hr eating
- Snack6:00 AM → 6:30 AM· 30 min · Every day
- Lunch11:30 AM → 12:00 PM· 30 min · Every day
- Snack6:30 PM → 8:00 PM· 1 hr 30 min · Every day
- Dinner8:00 PM → 9:30 PM· 1 hr 30 min · Every day
Off