Emma Goto
This book is a long list of different rituals and morning routines that people followed (mostly famous artists and writers). It mostly skews towards older or long-dead people - I think I would have liked a bit more of a range in time periods so we can take a look at how people manage their routines nowadays with the advent of technology like phones and laptops.
There are also some fun facts that pop up, like how Beethoven always counted his coffee beans (60 per cup) and just generally a lot of alcohol and drug consumption going on. But other than 1 - 2 pages per person, there isn't really anything else to the book. I suppose you are left to draw your own conclusions on what makes a good routine, or to try and find some commonalities between them.
There were also two types of routines in terms of discipline - some believed in writing or doing their art every day, no matter what, while others did it whenever they felt like it. Same goes for early birds or night owls. Quite a few would stop work by dinner and then enjoy the rest of the night with their families, some only did a max 3 hours per day, while others would get hooked on their craft and continue all night. Plenty would take long walks to help spark ideas or for the exercise (not so much running or weight lifting - although I suppose that's a more recent invention).
I found Hemingway's routine also interesting - to stop writing at a place where you know what's coming next, rather than just continuing on with that thread. I'd heard that advice before, but for programming (i.e. don't get into the flow and code all night until you get stuck on a bug - instead you should stop at a place where you know how to solve the next step). It's hard to stop, but makings it easier to get started again the next day.
One thing that did stand out for me was that these people generally only focused on one thing. They might spend some of their time replying to mail and doing admin tasks, but otherwise generally focused on the one thing, and had 1 - 2 sessions of it per day (broken up by a meal). Deep work / focus time is important, and I suppose you can't spread your time too thinly across too many interests, or you won't achieve success?
The author also stepped on a bit of a landmine with this book, as less than 20% of the people he featured were women.
Maybe if you consider the patriarchy, there would have been less successful and famous women 100 - 200 years ago to have sources to refer to for this book. So statistically speaking the percentage might be what you'd expect, but I can also get why reviewers of the book might be disappointed with that.
What stood out to me about this though is how it's taken for granted that these great men are propped up by their wives. One wife worked full-time to pay the bills (to give her husband time to create) and yet she still made him breakfast before she went. And there was another story around how a husband and wife decided to take it in turns in who would get to stay home and write, while the other worked to pay the bills. The wife ended up famous - and the author made the off-hand comment that this meant the husband never got his chance to write. Kind of ironic considering that probably happened to plenty of the hidden women in this story.
It seemed the author did take the criticism onboard and wrote a follow-up book specifically centred around women and their routines.
Originally posted at www.emgoto.com.
This book is a long list of different rituals and morning routines that people followed (mostly famous artists and writers). It mostly skews towards older or long-dead people - I think I would have liked a bit more of a range in time periods so we can take a look at how people manage their routines nowadays with the advent of technology like phones and laptops.
There are also some fun facts that pop up, like how Beethoven always counted his coffee beans (60 per cup) and just generally a lot of alcohol and drug consumption going on. But other than 1 - 2 pages per person, there isn't really anything else to the book. I suppose you are left to draw your own conclusions on what makes a good routine, or to try and find some commonalities between them.
There were also two types of routines in terms of discipline - some believed in writing or doing their art every day, no matter what, while others did it whenever they felt like it. Same goes for early birds or night owls. Quite a few would stop work by dinner and then enjoy the rest of the night with their families, some only did a max 3 hours per day, while others would get hooked on their craft and continue all night. Plenty would take long walks to help spark ideas or for the exercise (not so much running or weight lifting - although I suppose that's a more recent invention).
I found Hemingway's routine also interesting - to stop writing at a place where you know what's coming next, rather than just continuing on with that thread. I'd heard that advice before, but for programming (i.e. don't get into the flow and code all night until you get stuck on a bug - instead you should stop at a place where you know how to solve the next step). It's hard to stop, but makings it easier to get started again the next day.
One thing that did stand out for me was that these people generally only focused on one thing. They might spend some of their time replying to mail and doing admin tasks, but otherwise generally focused on the one thing, and had 1 - 2 sessions of it per day (broken up by a meal). Deep work / focus time is important, and I suppose you can't spread your time too thinly across too many interests, or you won't achieve success?
The author also stepped on a bit of a landmine with this book, as less than 20% of the people he featured were women.
Maybe if you consider the patriarchy, there would have been less successful and famous women 100 - 200 years ago to have sources to refer to for this book. So statistically speaking the percentage might be what you'd expect, but I can also get why reviewers of the book might be disappointed with that.
What stood out to me about this though is how it's taken for granted that these great men are propped up by their wives. One wife worked full-time to pay the bills (to give her husband time to create) and yet she still made him breakfast before she went. And there was another story around how a husband and wife decided to take it in turns in who would get to stay home and write, while the other worked to pay the bills. The wife ended up famous - and the author made the off-hand comment that this meant the husband never got his chance to write. Kind of ironic considering that probably happened to plenty of the hidden women in this story.
It seemed the author did take the criticism onboard and wrote a follow-up book specifically centred around women and their routines.
Originally posted at www.emgoto.com.
