Most famous writers stick to a daily routine.

Stephen King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays. Truman Capote had to write lying down with a cigarette and coffee. Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita entirely on index cards.

Victor Hugo wrote in the nude to ensure he wouldn’t leave the house.

Why? Daily habits and routines have a trigger effect that induces the particular state of consciousness that is essential for creative work. So it got me thinking about the habits and routines of famous creatives (I totally wanted to do this whole blog post on writers but then realized that I’m the only writer at Fifty & Fifty and it may appear like I’m monopolizing our blog to cater to myself).

The Daily Routines Of Great Minds Can Be A Little Crazy

I did some digging around and found the daily routines of famous creatives throughout history. If anything, my research confirmed that creative people are fascinating. And super weird.

• Ludwig van Beethoven started each day with coffee that he prepared himself by carefully counting out exactly 60 beans per cup.
• German philosopher Immanuel Kant would only eat one meal a day—a four-hour lunch of meat and wine at a neighborhood pub, which he followed by an hour of walking.
• Winston Churchill woke up at 7:30 a.m. and remained in bed to eat breakfast, read all the national newspapers, and dictate to his secretaries. At 11 a.m. he would get out of bed to take a bath and walk around his garden with a weak whiskey and soda.
• Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky believed he had to take a walk of exactly two hours a day and that if he returned even a few minutes early, great misfortunes would befall him.
• British playwright Somerset Maugham had to face a blank wall before the words would come (any other view, he felt, was too distracting).
• Benjamin Franklin took daily “air baths,” which meant lounging around naked in the mornings.
• Artist Joan Miró took a five-minute nap after lunch every day.
• Ernest Hemingway famously wrote standing up wearing oversized loafers. He would write “every morning as soon after first light as possible.”
• Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister gets up every morning at 5 and enjoys a giant pot of coffee and a medium-sized cigar for breakfast.
• Architect Le Corbusier would spend five hours in the morning on “artistic contemplation” and then three hours in the afternoon putting employees to work on ideas he came up with that morning.

 The Daily Habits Of A Few Not-So-Famous Creatives

And since I work at a nonprofit marketing agency that is also a creative collective, I asked my comrades around the office if they have any daily quirks that help fuel their creativity.

• Graphic Designer Megan says “I do cartwheels when I’m stuck on ideas…it’s a thing.”
• Web Engineer Leah goes running every day; she literally leaves work in the middle of each day and runs for miles. She says, “If I’m stuck on a problem I go for a run and usually the solution comes to me somewhere along the way.”
• Braden, our Director of Operations, throws darts at the office dartboard as soon as he gets into the office and right before he leaves: “If I bullseye six darts, it’s going to be a good day.”
• Writer Krista Morgan (yours truly) has up to four cups of coffee before 11 a.m., and only uses black ink, never blue.
• Alex, our Senior Developer, makes a smoothie every morning, listens to podcasts on his way to work, and smokes his e-cigarette profusely.
• Project Manager Lindsey consumes unhealthy quantities of coffee and listens to NPR every day.
• Web Engineer Tracy says she never listens to music with lyrics while she works.

And so dear friends, I leave you with all those inspiring yet totally random oddities that make creatives creative.

Are your habits weirder? Tell me everything.

Interested in getting creative with us? Get in touch and we’ll talk about the marketing, branding and support services we offer nonprofit organizations and social brands.