7 Things I Learned From Reading the Routines of 1,000 Famous Artists

I recently finished reading Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. Each chapter of the book was an account of a famous artist’s daily routine. In reading this quantity and wide variety of routines from such a range of artists, patterns started to form.

Identifying these patterns, and seeing what has worked for artists in the past can help us identify what we may want to incoroporate into our routines today, and may provide us with some sollace in knowing that we aren’t the only ones struggling with a particular thing. Below you’ll find the various trends I’ve identified amongst artists, and hopefully find a takeaway you can use in your everyday life.

They stuck to a system

These artists were professionals, and they took the work they did seriously. For a lot of them, this meant having a strict routine for their work each day. This structure kept them in a groove, helped them continue creating, and ensured they got their work done.

From the outside, I think people that aren’t creatives tend to think that artists only work when inspiration strikes. In reality, it’s often quite the opposite. More often than not, putting in the time and work is what is needed to get those bursts of inspiration. The systems these artists used is a demonstration of that.

“In order to squeeze the necessary writing time out of the day while still acting as the primary caregiver to her family. Mrs. Trollope sat down at her desk each day at 4:00 am and completed her writing in time to serve breakfast.” — Anthony Trollope

“Years earlier, a writing instructor had advised O’Connor to set aside a certain number of hours each day to write, and she had taken his adbive to heart; back in Georgia she came to believe, as she wrote to a friend, that ‘routine is a condition of survival’.” — Flannery O’Connor

“In other words, I am still and forever in the candy store. Of course, I’m not waiting on customers; I’m not taking money and making change; I’m not forced to be polite to everyone who comes in (in actual fact, I was never very good at that). I am, instead, doing things I very much want to do — but the schedule is there; the schedule that was ground into me; the schedule you would think I would have rebelled against once I had the chance.” — Isaac Asimov

“Mencken’s routine was simple: work for twelve or fourteen hours a day, every day, and in the late evening, enjoy a drink and conversation.” — H.L. Mencken

“‘I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine.’ This is Tolstoy in one of the relatively few diary entries he made during the mid-1860s, when he was deep into the writing of War and Peace.” — Leo Tolstoy

“Keeping to his beloved weekday ‘rut’ was so important to Andy that he veered from it only when he was forced to.” — Andy Warhol

“Pritchett was a serious imaginative artist…but first and foremost he was a professional writer, one who took intense pride in managing to support himself as that. ‘To do so, the British essayist and short-story writer maintained a routine of unfailing regularity.” — V.S. Pritchett

They limited how much they worked each day

Artists limited the amount of work they did for a variety of reasons. Some writers found that working more than three hours proved to be unproductive. Others, like Ernest Hemingway, limited their work in order to be yearning to get back to it the the next day.

More often than not, this limitation set to create boundaries that would add sustainability to the different artists’ careers and keep them going day in a day out.

“One can be very fertile without having to work too much,” Sartre once said. “Three hours in the morning, three hours in the evening. This is my only rule.” If that makes the French philosopher’s life sound relaxed, however, it’s misleading. Sartre lived in a creative frenzy for most of his life, alternating between his daily six hours of work and an intense social life filled with rich meals, heavy drinking, drugs, and tobacco.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

“I don’t hold myself to longer hours; if I did, I wouldn’t gain by it. The only reason I write is because it interests me more than any other activity I’ve ever found. I like riding, going to operas and concerts, travel in the west; but on the whole writing interests me more than anything else. If I made a chore of it, my enthusiasm would die.” — Willa Cather

“All those I think who have lived as literary men, — working daily as literary labourers, — will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.” — Anthony Trollope

“Two or three hours in the morning were enough for him, although he stressed the importance of keeping regular hours in order to cultivate a daily creative rhythm. “I know that to sustain these true moments of insight one has to be highly disciplined, lead a disciplined life,” — Henry Miller

“he started and stopped by the buzz of a timer, and he carefully plotted the number of hours he wrote and the words he produced on a graph.” — B.F. Skinner

“Barthelme spent mornings on the porch, sitting down at his manual Remington typewriter at 8:00 or 9:00 and working there until noon or 1:00, the sound of his typing carrying out into the quiet neighborhood streets.” — Donald Barthelme

They didn’t wait for inspiration to strike

Similar to sticking to a system, these artists did not wait for inspiration to get to work. As professionals, they sat down and got to it.

“Inspiration is for amateurs,” Close says. “The rest of us just show up and get to work.” — Joyce Carol Oates

“When I sit down to write I never brood. I have so many other things to do, with my children and teaching, that I can’t afford it. I brood, thinking of ideas, in the automobile when I’m driving to work or in the subway or when I’m mowing the lawn. By the time I get to the paper something’s there — I can produce.” : Toni Morrison

“Reich doesn’t believe in waiting for inspiration to strike, but he does believe that certain pieces are more inspired than others — and that, with continual work, you can look forward to hitting these patches of inspiration from time to time. “There are no rules,” he says. “One has to be open to the reality — and it’s a very wonderful reality — that the next piece is going to hold some surprises for you.” — Steve Reich

They had full time jobs

My favorite takeaway from this book was seeing how many artists had careers other than their creative endeavors. Some worked hard in the evenings while others woke up early.

This was important for me to hear, because it shows that if you’re passionate about your craft you can make the time to create and make progress.

“Cornell made his first shadow box in 1934, not long after securing a nine-to-five job in the home-furnishings division of a Manhattan textile studio. It was tedious and low-paying work, but Cornell stayed there for six years. He felt obligated to be the wage earner for his household — he lived with his mother and handicapped brother in a small house in Flushing, Queens — and he was still a relative unknown in the art world.” : Joseph Cornell

“I find that having a job is one of the best things in the world that could happen to me,” he once said. “It introduces discipline and regularity into one’s life. I am just as free as I want to be and of course I have nothing to worry about about money.” — Wallace Stevens

“Larkin worked as a librarian for almost his entire adult life, realizing early on that he would never be able to make a living from his writing alone. “I was brought up to think you had to have a job, and write in your spare time, like Trollope,” he said.” — Philip Larkin

“During the day he worked in the advertising departments of Time, Look, and, finally, McCall’s. Although Catch-22 skewers bureaucracies similar to the ones he worked for, Heller was not miserable at those jobs — he later called his Time colleagues the “most intelligent and well-informed people I worked with in my life,” — Joseph Heller

“Two days after his appointment there, he wrote to his mother, “I am now earning two pounds ten shillings a week for sitting in an office from 9:15 to 5 with an hour for lunch, and tea served in the office…. Perhaps it will surprise you to hear that I enjoy the work. It is not nearly so fatiguing as school teaching, and is more interesting.” He often used his lunch hour to discuss literary projects with friends and collaborators. In the evening he had time to work on his poetry, or to earn extra money from reviews and criticism.” — T.S. Eliot

They went on walks

Morning, midday, evening, it doesn’t matter. Many of these artists loved to go for walks and get the blood flowing. Often times these walks would take hours, which for many of us may be difficult to find the time to implement on a daily basis. Never the less, walking proved to help expand the minds of these artists, and assisted them in continuing their craft.

“Somewhere at sometime he had discovered that a man needs a two-hour walk for his health, and his observance of this rule was pedantic and superstitious, as though if he returned five minutes early he would fall ill, and unbelievable misfortunes of some sort would ensue.” — Pyotr Ilich Tchailovsky

“Tchaikovsky’s superstition may have been justified — his walks were essential to his creativity, and he often stopped to jot down ideas that he would later flesh out at the piano.” — Pyotr Ilich Tchailovsky

“Dickens left his desk for a vigorous three-hour walk through the countryside or the streets of London, continuing to think of his story and, as he described it, “searching for some pictures I wanted to build upon.”” — Charles Dickens

They had morning routines

Regardless of what it was, many artists kept to morning routines. Whether that was photographing filth and decay each morning or a morning workout. Starting their days the same way created structure for the rest of the hours to come.

““No, sorry to be boring,” he sighed…. “How does your day begin?” “Oh, I go out and photograph for a couple of hours,” he said. “What do you photograph?” “The rusty, derelict, overlooked, downtrodden parts of the city. Filth and decay mainly,” he said in a nothing-much-to-it tone of voice, as casually dismissive as the wave of a hand. “You do this every day, photograph filth and decay?” “Most days.” “And then you write?” “Yes.” “And you don’t think that’s unusual?” “Not for me.”” — William Gass

“Tharp is something of an expert on daily routines. The choreographer’s 2003 book, The Creative Habit, is all about the necessity of forming good, consistent work habits in order to function at a high creative level. Not surprisingly, her own routine is intense: I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 A.M., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.” — Twyla Tharp

“the ritual is one less thing for her to think about, as well as “a friendly reminder that I’m doing the right thing.”” — Twyla Tharp

They loved what they did

Most importantly, I think my biggest take away is the majority of these artists lived for their craft. Many sacrificed everything else in their lives in order to create. While many suffered from substance abuse or struggled to make ends meet, they lived for their art.

“A solid routine, he added, “saves you from giving up.”” — John Updike

I hope this article helps you in your ventures ahead! If you’re interested in reading the book for yourself, I’ve left a link below. Full disclosure, the links provided are affiliate links.

• The Book: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work