Epigraph

Who can unravel the essence, the stamp of the artistic temperament! Who can grasp the deep, instinctual fusion of discipline and dissipation on which it rests! —THOMAS MANN, Death in Venice

Original Text

Nearly every weekday morning for a year and a half, I got up at 5:30, brushed my teeth, made a cup of coffee, and sat down to write about how some of the greatest minds of the past four hundred years approached this exact same task—that is, how they made the time each day to do their best work, how they organized their schedules in order to be creative and productive. By writing about the admittedly mundane details of my subjects’ daily lives—when they slept and ate and worked and worried—I hoped to provide a novel angle on their personalities and careers, to sketch entertaining, small-bore portraits of the artist as a creature of habit.

“Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are,” the French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once wrote. I say, tell me what time you eat, and whether you take a nap afterward.

In that sense, this is a superficial book. It’s about the circumstances of creative activity, not the product; it deals with manufacturing rather than meaning. But it’s also, inevitably, personal. (John Cheever thought that you couldn’t even type a business letter without revealing something of your inner self—isn’t that the truth?) My underlying concerns in the book are issues that I struggle with in my own life: How do you do meaningful creative work while also earning a living? Is it better to devote yourself wholly to a project or to set aside a small portion of each day? And when there doesn’t seem to be enough time for all you hope to accomplish, must you give things up (sleep, income, a clean house), or can you learn to condense activities, to do more in less time, to “work smarter, not harder,” as my dad is always telling me? More broadly, are comfort and creativity incompatible, or is the opposite true: Is finding a basic level of daily comfort a prerequisite for sustained creative work?

I don’t pretend to answer these questions in the following pages—probably some of them can’t be answered, or can be resolved only individually, in shaky personal compromises—but I have tried to provide examples of how a variety of brilliant and successful people have confronted many of the same challenges. I wanted to show how grand creative visions translate to small daily increments; how one’s working habits influence the work itself, and vice versa.

It was a familiar predicament. I’m a classic “morning person,” capable of considerable focus in the early hours but pretty much useless after lunch.

That afternoon, to make myself feel better about this often inconvenient predilection (who wants to get up at 5:30 every day?), I started searching the Internet for information about other writers’ working schedules.

These were easy to find, and highly entertaining. It occurred to me that someone should collect these anecdotes in one place—hence the Daily Routines blog I launched that very afternoon (my magazine story got written in a last-minute panic the next morning) and, now, this book.

The blog was a casual affair; I merely posted descriptions of people’s routines as I ran across them in biographies, magazine profiles, newspaper obits, and the like.

For the book, I’ve pulled together a vastly expanded and better-researched collection, while also trying to maintain the brevity and diversity of voices that made the original appealing.

As much as possible, I’ve let my subjects speak for themselves, in quotes from letters, diaries, and interviews. In other cases, I have cobbled together a summary of their routines from secondary sources.

And when another writer has produced the perfect distillation of his subject’s routine, I have quoted it at length rather than try to recast it myself.

I should note here that this book would have been impossible without the research and writing of the hundreds of biographers, journalists, and scholars whose work I drew upon.

I have documented all of my sources in the Notes section, which I hope will also serve as a guide to further reading.

Compiling these entries, I kept in mind a passage from a 1941 essay by V. S. Pritchett.

Writing about Edward Gibbon, Pritchett takes note of the great English historian’s remarkable industry—even during his military service, Gibbon managed to find the time to continue his scholarly work, toting along Horace on the march and reading up on pagan and Christian theology in his tent.

“Sooner or later,” Pritchett writes, “the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing.”

What aspiring writer or artist has not felt this exact sentiment from time to time?

Looking at the achievements of past greats is alternately inspiring and utterly discouraging.

But Pritchett is also, of course, wrong. For every cheerfully industrious Gibbon who worked nonstop and seemed free of the self-doubt and crises of confidence that dog us mere mortals, there is a William James or a Franz Kafka, great minds who wasted time, waited vainly for inspiration to strike, experienced torturous blocks and dry spells, were racked by doubt and insecurity.

In reality, most of the people in this book are somewhere in the middle—committed to daily work but never entirely confident of their progress; always wary of the one-off day that undoes the streak.

All of them made the time to get their work done. But there is infinite variation in how they structured their lives to do so.

This book is about that variation. And I hope that readers will find it encouraging rather than depressing.

Writing it, I often thought of a line from a letter Kafka sent to his beloved Felice Bauer in 1912.

Frustrated by his cramped living situation and his deadening day job, he complained, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”

Poor Kafka! But then who among us can expect to live a pleasant, straightforward life?

For most of us, much of the time, it is a slog, and Kafka’s subtle maneuvers are not so much a last resort as an ideal.

Here’s to wriggling through.

Vocabulary Beyond 3500 Most Common Words / Idioms / Words with Uncommon Meanings

Although I have marked the vocabulary here, it is quite inconvenient to look them up while reading. I am used to reading these on a tablet before bed, so for mobile users I recommend Eudic[^eudic], which supports direct selection and lookup—quick and lightweight. On PC, I use Saladict[^saladict], which can display English definitions directly.

unravel [nrvl] - to untangle; to clarify

stamp [stmp] - a distinctive mark or trait (uncommon meaning of a common word; common meaning: “postage stamp; to step heavily”)

instinctual [nstktul] - instinctive, intuitive

dissipation [dspen] - indulgence, dissolute living (uncommon meaning; common meaning: “dispersal, dissipation of energy”; here meaning the opposite of self-discipline)

mundane [mnden] - ordinary, dull admittedly [dmtdli] - it must be admitted, by common consent

novel [nvl] - new and original (uncommon meaning of a common word; common meaning: “a fictional book”)

sketch [sket] - to outline briefly (uncommon meaning of a common word; common meaning: “a quick drawing”)

gastronome [strnm] - a connoisseur of good food; epicure

superficial [supfl] - shallow, on the surface

underlying [ndla] - fundamental, latent

condense [kndens] - to compress, to abridge (uncommon meaning of a common word; common meaning: “to change from gas to liquid”)

incompatible [nkmptbl] - unable to coexist, contradictory

prerequisite [prirekwzt] - a necessary condition, prerequisite

portraits [ptrts] - painted or drawn likenesses of a person

small-bore [sml b(r)] - unimportant, trivial

approach [prt] - to deal with, to tackle (uncommon meaning of a common word; common meaning: “to come near”)

manufacturing [mnjufktr] - the process of making, production (here showing how a shift in part of speech changes the nuance; common meaning: verb “to manufacture”)

individually [ndvduli] - separately, one by one

shaky [eki] - unstable, unreliable

compromise [kmprmaz] - a settlement of differences by mutual concession

confront [knfrnt] - to face, to deal with

translate [trnslet] - to transform, to convert (uncommon meaning; common meaning: “to render from one language to another”)

increment [krmnt] - a small increase, addition

vice versa [vas vs] - Latin phrase meaning “the other way around”

connote [knt] - to imply, to suggest beyond literal meaning

calibrated [klbretd] - carefully adjusted, precisely set

foster [fst(r)] - to promote, to cultivate

groove [ruv] - a settled routine, a habit (uncommon meaning; common meaning: “a long narrow channel”)

stave off [stev f] - to ward off, to hold at bay

tyranny [trni] - oppressive power, authoritarian control

chronic [krnk] - long-lasting, persistent

procrastinator [prkrstnet(r)] - someone who habitually delays or puts things off

inspired [nspad] - stimulated to creative action, having a flash of brilliance

bout [bat] - a short period of intense activity

compulsively [kmplsvli] - irresistibly, in an uncontrollable manner

tidying [tad] - putting in order, cleaning up

cubicle [kjubkl] - a small partitioned workspace

kitchenette [ktnet] - a small cooking area, mini-kitchen

predicament [prdkmnt] - a difficult, unpleasant, or embarrassing situation

predilection [pridlekn] - a strong liking, a preference

anecdote [nkdt] - a short amusing or interesting story

autopilot [tpalt] - automatic pilot; (figuratively) acting in a mechanical, unconscious state

buckling down - to start working seriously, to apply oneself fully (verb phrase)

profile [prfal] - a brief biographical sketch, an overview

obit [bt] - an obituary (informal)

brevity [brevti] - conciseness, briefness

cobble together - to assemble hastily or improvisationally

distillation [dstlen] - the process of extracting the essential meaning (often related to condensing something to its purest form)

recast [rikst] - to rewrite, to present in a different form

document [dkjumnt] - to record (verb; uncommon meaning, the common meaning is the noun “a written record”)

compile [kmpal] - to assemble, to put together from various sources

entry [entri] - an item in a collection or list

industry [ndstri] - diligence, hard work (uncommon meaning; common meaning: “a sector of the economy”)

tote [tt] - to carry

read up on - to study thoroughly, to research

pagan [pen] - relating to non-Christian or pre-Christian religions

theology [ili] - the study of the divine and religious belief

aspiring [spar] - ambitious, hoping to achieve something

alternately [ltntli] - by turns, in rotation

industrious [ndstris] - diligent, hardworking

nonstop [nnstp] - without stopping, continuously

dog [d] - to hound, to plague persistently (uncommon meaning of a common word; common meaning: the animal)

mortal [mtl] - a human being (as opposed to a god)

vainly [venli] - fruitlessly, in vain

torturous [ttrs] - agonizing, excruciating

dry spell [dra spel] - a period of creative drought, a barren stretch

rack [rk] - to torment, to cause extreme suffering

wary [weri] - cautious, watchful

undo [ndu] - to ruin, to reverse

streak [strik] - an unbroken series, a run

cramped [krmpt] - uncomfortably confined, cramped

deadening [dedn] - numbing, stupefyingly dull

wriggle [rl] - to twist and turn; to maneuver out of a tight spot

maneuver [mnuv(r)] - a strategic move; a deliberate action

slog [sl] - to work hard and steadily through something difficult

last resort [lst rzt] - the final option when all else has failed

Cultural Concepts Supplement

Thomas Mann was a renowned German writer. Born into a prominent family in Germany, his early experiences were rich and varied. His works blend realism, symbolism, and psychoanalysis, excelling at probing the inner worlds of his characters. Notable works include Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain. Initially influenced by nationalism, he later became a republican, and his works were banned in Germany due to their political leanings. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929 and remains a pivotal figure in 20th-century German literature, holding an eminent position in the literary world.

Death in Venice is Thomas Mann’s classic novella, telling the story of writer Aschenbach who, while vacationing in Venice, develops complex and intense feelings for a youth named Tadzio. Caught in the conflict between desire and reason, he persists in pursuing these feelings despite a cholera outbreak, ultimately leading to his death. The work profoundly explores themes of art, beauty, desire, morality, and life, depicting human struggle and complexity with delicate prose. It carries profound literary value and intellectual depth, stands as one of his representative works, and occupies an important place in world literary history.

Nespresso is a well-known coffee brand under Nestl, founded in Switzerland in 1986, renowned for its innovative capsule coffee system. It sells or licenses various coffee machines and a wide range of coffee capsule flavors, offering convenient operation and consistent quality (this is not an ad—before looking it up, I thought it was a type of coffee like latte or espresso).

Edward Gibbon (May 8, 1737, January 16, 1794) was a distinguished English historian, politician, and essayist. Born into a wealthy family in Putney, near London, he was plagued by illness from childhood and raised by his aunt. His magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published between 1776 and 1788, is celebrated for its elegant prose, rich historical sources, and incisive commentary. It is a profoundly influential historical work that established his lofty standing in historiography, and he is hailed as the father of English Enlightenment historiography.

V. S. Pritchett (December 16, 1900, March 20, 1997) was a celebrated English writer, literary critic, and screenwriter. Best known for his short stories, his works include The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories and others; his fiction often depicts middle-class life with a sharp, satirical style. He also authored memoirs such as A Cab at the Door and Midnight Oil, along with numerous literary biographies and essay collections. Pritchett wrote for The Christian Science Monitor and The New Statesman, later serving as literary editor of The New Statesman. He was knighted for his contributions to literature and received multiple awards including the Heinemann Award and the PEN Award.

Original author: Mason Currey, a Los Angeles–based writer

[^eudic]: Eudic (欧路) is a popular Chinese-English dictionary app known for its lightweight design and seamless in-app lookup, a favorite among Chinese students reading English texts on mobile.
[^saladict]: Saladict is a browser extension for desktop that provides instant pop-up dictionary definitions on hover, widely used by Chinese learners for reading English web content.