Daily Rituals: How I Work
Getting things done with a highly structured routine.
Last week, I met with a colleague to discuss my daily writing process. He had noticed my very routine-based approach to writing and wanted to chat so we could bounce ideas off of each other.
I really love the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. In it, Currey examines the lives of hundreds of creatives throughout history, from artists to writers to composers to scientists. Through research from the creative’s own writing or what biographers have noted, each person featured has a few paragraphs dedicated to their daily rituals. Some were highly structured, like mine. Some would write only when they felt like it but still would have a ritual of “drinking four cups of coffee first” or “always using the same pencil.”
After my discussion with my colleague last week, I wondered what my own entry would look like in a book such as Daily Rituals. I think it would go something like this.
Anna Burgess Yang woke every morning, without an alarm, before 4:00 a.m. She would drink one cup of regular coffee with heavy cream. She would set the mood in her office with either incense or candles plus music and sit down to write.
The morning would begin by organizing her Google Calendar into blocks of time…
