interspersed with significant breaks

Oliver Burkeman reviews Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, which looks at the daily routines of famous creative people (benjamin franklin, georgia o’keefe, proust, etc.). the common patterns among them:

1. be a morning person (though in theory i am more into the proust model: “Marcel Proust, for one, rose sometime between 3pm and 6pm, immediately smoked opium powders to relieve his asthma, then rang for his coffee and croissant.”)
2. don’t give up the day job (<– not sure about this one)
3. take lots of walks
4. stick to a schedule
5. practice strategic substance abuse
6. learn to work anywhere

burkeman tries to adopt these rituals and two insights emerge:

One is how ill-suited the nine-to-five routine is to most desk-based jobs involving mental focus; it turns out I get far more done when I start earlier, end a little later, and don’t even pretend to do brain work for several hours in the middle.

Another technique I couldn’t manage without comes from the writer and consultant Tony Schwartz: use a timer to work in 90-minute “sprints”, interspersed with significant breaks.