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 daily routine rested on 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 read the papers in bed, dictated letters and speeches until lunch, then sat by the pond and slept from 3:00 PM, for 2 hours in Manchester's telling and exactly 1 hour in Hillsdale's Churchill Project. After dinner he dictated thousands of words from 11:00 PM until 2:00 AM or later.

It suits night owls and writers who do their best work late and can protect an afternoon sleep. The quiet hours come after everyone else has gone to bed.

You get two working days out of one: a morning for letters and decisions, then a fresh second day that starts after the nap. He also drank steadily through the day and went to bed at 2:00 AM or later, so copy the nap and the late quiet work, not the hours or the drinks. Breakfast, bedtime and block lengths are our estimates.