From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work:
- They’ve tried lots of schedules, tried working at all times of the day and stuck with what works.
- Sontag wrote a lot and was unstructured, but she had a lot of energy.
- Marie Curie got a job far away from her husband’s lab, which is where she worked on isolating radium. The 90 minute commute drained her and she stopped eating much.
- The point of a routine is to make good work not a choice. You do it on autopilot. And you do it often.
- You don’t have to, scratch that, you probably shouldn’t work nonstop! We don’t know exactly how motivation and producing your best work works, so just use history as your example!
- Most people are just like me: never sure they’ve actually done their best work or even good work. A feeling I’ve had in the past is also common: afraid of ending the streak and never being able to pick it back up again.
- Many cups of coffee was very common among people who worked even for only a few hours a day. (I need to research how coffee works, how much is healthy, etc.)
- They were also very big walkers. Not just for half an hour. Hours, everyday.
- Working in the morning is always preceded by very short routines. Typically, half an hour or less after they wake up, they start working hard.
- They stayed focused by remembering that if they squandered the time they allotted for work, they’d have to wait until tomorrow to continue.
- None of them got bored. The work was what made things fun, actually.
- Even when they stay up late drinking or partying, they wake up at their allotted time.
- They tend to not eat much. Coffee and then a big meal after work was usually all.
- It’s nice to make your work the hardest part of the day, and to finish it quickly. You can then relax fruitfully, and feel like your coasting downhill the rest of the day.