W.H. Auden's Daily Routine
For early thinkers who want a hard stop. W.H. Auden's writing routine gave his sharpest morning hours to work and ended at 6:30 PM sharp.
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. His writing routine ran on military precision. He believed his mind was sharpest from 7:00 AM until late morning, and he rarely wasted those hours.
Mason Currey, on his Daily Routines blog, describes a day built around a firm edge. Auden rose early for coffee and the crossword, settled to work quickly and returned to it after lunch. Cocktail hour began at 6:30 PM sharp, with strong vodka martinis, then dinner with wine and friends. It leaned on chemistry too: Benzedrine every morning for 20 years, and Seconal to sleep.
It's for anyone who thinks best early and wants a firm stop before the evening begins. It suits people who let work leak into every hour and want one clean line between the desk and their friends.
You get a long morning block, a second one after lunch and an evening that is fully yours. Keep the shape and skip the pharmacy and the martinis: coffee, a crossword and a hard stop at 6:30 PM do most of the work. The afternoon stop and the bedtime are our estimates.
Who's it for
At a glance
- 8 hr sleep per night
- 80.5 hr work per week
- 3 meals per day
- 16 hr eating window
- 10.5 hr play per week
Schedule
Similar frameworks
Maya Angelou's Daily Routine
Write somewhere that isn't home. Maya Angelou's writing routine: a bare hotel room by 7:00 AM, with a dictionary, a Bible and a deck of cards.
John Milton's Daily Routine
For minds that compose best before dawn. Blind, John Milton built Paradise Lost in his head from 4:00 AM, then dictated it to an aide.
Kazuo Ishiguro's Daily Routine
Finish a first draft by clearing a month. Kazuo Ishiguro wrote most of The Remains of the Day in a 4-week sprint called the Crash.
Kurt Vonnegut's Daily Routine
Get your 4 hours of writing in before lunch, not after work. Kurt Vonnegut's writing routine in 1965 started at 5:30 AM.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Daily Routine
Finish your creative work before mid-afternoon. Ludwig van Beethoven's daily routine: 60 beans to every cup of coffee, then composing until 2:30 PM.
Anthony Trollope's Daily Routine
Write a novel around a full-time job. Anthony Trollope wrote 47 of them before breakfast, at 250 words every 15 minutes.
Mahatma Gandhi's Daily Routine
For anyone whose day fills up before their own work starts. Mahatma Gandhi's writing routine began at 4:00 AM, with silence every Monday.
Immanuel Kant's Daily Routine
Guard an hour of thinking before the workday starts. Immanuel Kant's daily routine: wake at 5:00 AM, think and write, then lecture all morning.