This infographic shows the daily routines of famous creative people.
So what stands out? (besides the fact that, bizarrely, creative people don't eat at 10 am)
- 85% of these geniusesperformed creative work between 5 am - 12 pm
- 73% between 9 am - 12 pm
Ok, this is hardly a scientific experiment and it's a very small sample, but for these brilliant people, the mornings are overwhelmingly the preferred time for creativity.
Yet what do many of us do between 5 am -12 pm?
We commute, read the news, spend an hour or two replying to emails, check social media, and often sit in dull recurring meetings.
What can we be doing instead to make the most of this potentially optimal time for creativity?
Here are 5 things to try:
1.) Spend the first 15 minutes of your day with just pen and paper and undistracted. Jot down your thoughts, ideas and drawings.
2.) Try to use your commute creatively. Write down ideas if you can, or type on your laptop or phone. Use a voice recorder if you are sitting in traffic.
3.) Give yourself 30 minutes for emails (time it), but save anything non-urgent for replying in the afternoon.
4.) Hold brainstorming team meetings first thing, with an agenda to generate new ideas and think of better ways of doing things.
5.) Meet with your "thought partner" in the morning - whether it's your coach, mentor or a colleague. Find someone you can think creatively with and solve problems together.
So this infographic is a bit of fun and Beethoven probably wouldn't fit well into a corporate environment today (gossiping with Dickens by the water cooler would have been cool though right?), but why not take a look at your current morning routine and see how you can change it to be a little more creative?
The original source of this infographic is from Podio and can be found here:
https://podio.com/site/creative-routines
They credit Mason Currey’s 2013 book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work