Routine #1: Barack Obama

6:45 AM: Works out, reads several newspapers, has breakfast with his
family.
8:50 AM: Begins work just before 9.
10:00 PM: Works well into many evenings, but always stops to have
dinner with his family each day.

Routine #2: Franz Kafka

8:30 AM – 2:30 PM: Worked his day job at the Workers’ Accident
Insurance Institute.
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM: Had lunch.
3:30 – 7:30 PM: Sleep.
7:30 PM – 11:00 PM: Time with family (and dinner).
11:00 PM – 2:00 AM: Writing.

Routine #3: David Karp

9:30 AM: Checks his email for the first time (never before, and never
at home).

Routine #4: Winston Churchill

7:30 AM: Wake up, stay in bed until 11:00 AM eating breakfast,
reading several newspapers, dictating to secretaries.
11:00 AM: Bathe, walk outside, settle into work with whiskey and
soda.
1:00PM – 3:00PM: Lunch and then work and card
playing/backgammon with his wife.
5:00PM: ½ hour nap.
5:30 PM: Another bath, and dinner (the highlight of his day, with
socializing, drinking and smoking for hours afterward.)
12:00 AM: An hour of reading before bed.

Routine #6: Anna Wintour

6:45 AM: Rises for an hour of tennis.
7:45 AM: Has her hair blown out.
9:00AM: Is in the office for the day’s work.

Routine #7: Benjamin Franklin

4:00 AM: Wake, wash, eat breakfast, think about what he wants to
accomplish for the day.
8:00AM – 12:00PM: Work.
12:00PM–1:00PM: Lunch while reading or looking over accounts.
5:00PM: Conclude work, finish the day with dinner, cleaning, music
and conversation, reflect on the day.
10:00PM: Bed.

Routine #8: Ernest Hemingway

Sunrise: begin writing, and do not stop until what he had to say was
said.
Afternoon: complete writing for the day, go over ideas in his head
and hold onto anticipation of starting again the next day.

Routine #9: Joan Didion

Morning: various work.
Hour before dinner: Time alone, to drink and go over what she’d
done during the day. Cannot be in the late afternoon, there has to be
separation between work and reflection.
Routine #10: Susan Sontag
8:00 AM: Wake up
Lunchtime: Lunch only with Roger (Straus). Can break ‘no going out
for lunch’ rule once every two weeks.
Afternoon/night: take and respond to phone calls (she told people not
to call in the morning, or she didn’t answer the phone).
Evening: reading, to escape from writing (but only in the evening).
Fridays: letter answering day.

Routine #11: Henry Miller

Mornings: If groggy, type notes and allocate as stimulus. If in “fine
fettle,” write.
Afternoons: Write to finish one section at a time, for good and all.
Evenings: See friends. Read in cafés. Explore unfamiliar sections – on
foot if wet, on bicycle if dry. Write, if in mood, but only on Minor
program. Paint if empty or tired. Make notes, charts, plans,
corrections.

Routine #12: Haruki Murakami

4:00 AM-10:00AM: Work.
12:00PM: Run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or both). Read, listen to
music.
9:00PM: Go to bed.