Winston Churchill's Daily Routine

Winston Churchill led Britain through the Second World War and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. He also painted more than 500 pictures. His secret was a long afternoon nap, which he credited with letting him work far into the night.

These times follow William Manchester's The Last Lion, as summarised by The Art of Manliness. He woke at 8:00 AM, bathed, read the papers in bed until 11:00 AM and dictated letters and speeches until lunch at 1:15 PM. After lunch he sat by the pond, slept from 3:00 to 5:00 PM, played cards with family and had a second bath at 7:00 PM; dinner at 8:30 PM ran long, and from 11:00 PM he dictated thousands of words until 2:00 AM or later. Hillsdale's Churchill Project adds the breakfast tray in bed; he also drank steadily through the day.

It suits night owls and writers who do their best work late and can protect an afternoon sleep. The nap is what makes the late nights work, so don't copy one without the other. Breakfast and the exact block lengths are our estimates.