Alas, there are but 24 hours in a day.
And when you have a seemingly insurmountable load of work, it can be a quite a challenge to even know where to start. But remember that history's most legendary figures -- from Beethoven to Beyonce -- had just as little (or just as much) time as you have.
Using the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey, RJ Andrews at Info We Trust designed some enlightening visualizations of how history's most creative and influential figures structured their days. Unfortunately, there is no common prescription for the perfect schedule, and each person had a very different set of rituals.
Based on the charts, we learn that some of history's icons had more eccentric habits than others. Consider Beethoven, who would painstakingly count out 60 coffee beans for his morning brew:
![beethoven]()
Think your mornings are stressful? French author Victor Hugo would be "awakened by daily gunshot," before taking an ice-cold, public bath on his roof. He'd also visit the barber every day:
![hugo]()
Honoré de Balzac, the French writer, was said to live his life as “orgies of work punctuated by orgies of relaxation and pleasure," according to one biographer. He also had an epic caffeine addiction, consuming as many as 50 cups of coffee per day. We recommend you don't follow his example:
![balzac]()
Check out the other creative routines below:
(Click here for a bigger image.)
![daily rituals]()
And when you have a seemingly insurmountable load of work, it can be a quite a challenge to even know where to start. But remember that history's most legendary figures -- from Beethoven to Beyonce -- had just as little (or just as much) time as you have.
Using the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey, RJ Andrews at Info We Trust designed some enlightening visualizations of how history's most creative and influential figures structured their days. Unfortunately, there is no common prescription for the perfect schedule, and each person had a very different set of rituals.
Based on the charts, we learn that some of history's icons had more eccentric habits than others. Consider Beethoven, who would painstakingly count out 60 coffee beans for his morning brew:
Think your mornings are stressful? French author Victor Hugo would be "awakened by daily gunshot," before taking an ice-cold, public bath on his roof. He'd also visit the barber every day:
Honoré de Balzac, the French writer, was said to live his life as “orgies of work punctuated by orgies of relaxation and pleasure," according to one biographer. He also had an epic caffeine addiction, consuming as many as 50 cups of coffee per day. We recommend you don't follow his example:
Check out the other creative routines below:
(Click here for a bigger image.)
