The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People

It’s been said on more than one occasion that creative people have brains that are just wired differently. The most famous of them–we’re talking Mozart, Beethoven, Picasso, Kant, Franklin, Murakami, etc.–still had routines, but they’re very different when compared against what we’d describe as a routine. A few years back, Mason Currey wrote a book about it called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work that analyzed 161 different daily rituals based on the materials available. That work was then turned into an interactive chart by Podio that allows you to visually explore the divisions between sleep, creative work, day job / admin, food / leisure / exercise that were employed by these famous creatives. Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Picasso’s Guernica. Hugo’s Les Misérables. It’s very likely that none of these famous works, and plenty of others from the other artists and inventors on the list, wouldn’t exist if their creators hadn’t done things a little differently. Even though these kind of practices aren’t something most of us can integrate into our daily lives, it’s fascinating to learn about.