10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds
DESCRIPTION
We hear a lot about how eccentric some of the most famous writers and artists were in their productivity routines. But many, if not most, of their productivity secrets were pretty down to earth and common sense. We sometimes forget that even those we regard as most talented and most productive, those that we almost idolize for their creativity, are human beings just like you and me. What makes them stand out, and what we often refuse to see because it’s less glamorous to acknowledge, is that they work hard and have an unwavering work ethic. So let’s take a look at some of the world’s greatest minds, and what productivity secrets helped them produce their best work.TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
![Page 2: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT THE ECCENTRIC ROUTINES OF THE MOST FAMOUS
WRITERS AND ARTISTS
![Page 3: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
FOR EXAMPLE, BEETHOVEN COUNTED EACH ONE OF THE 60 COFFEE BEANS
FOR HIS MORNING COFFEE
![Page 4: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
BALZAC DRANK AS MANY AS 50 CUPS OF BLACK COFFEE EVERY DAY
![Page 5: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
AND STRAVINSKY STOOD ON HIS HEAD WHENEVER HE FELT UNINSPIRED
![Page 6: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
BUT MOST OF THEIR PRODUCTIVITY SECRETS ARE COMMON SENSE…
![Page 7: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
… AND APPLICABLE IN YOUR EVERY DAY LIFE
![Page 8: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
1. BREAK DOWN YOUR TASKS LIKE ANTHONY TROLLOPE
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
![Page 9: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Anthony Trollope wrote 3000 words every day from 5:30 am, before heading to his day job
at the post office
He broke the 3000 words into chunks of 250 words each 15
minutes.
He meticulously counted every word as he wrote. He kept the routine up for 33 years, and
wrote 47 novels.
![Page 10: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
“When I have commenced a new book, I have always prepared a diary, divided into weeks, and carried it on for the period which I have allowed myself for the completion of the work. In this I have entered, day by day, the number of pages I have written, so that if at any time I have slipped
into idleness for a day or two, the record of that idleness has been there, staring me in the face, and demanding of me increased labour, so that
the deficiency might be supplied.”
Anthony Trollope – An Autobiography
![Page 11: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
2. DELVE IN MENIAL TASKS LIKE GEORGE BALANCHINE AND WOODY ALLEN
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
![Page 12: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
“When I’m ironing, that’s when I do most of my work.”
George Balanchine
![Page 13: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
“In the shower, with the hot water coming down, you’ve left the real world behind, and very frequently things open
up for you.”
Woody Allen
![Page 14: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
3. BE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT LIKE GEORGE GERSHWIN
![Page 15: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
George Gershwin worked at his piano all day long in his pajamas, bathrobe and slippers. He would start in late morning and went on until
midnight.
So much for that office dress code, hm?
![Page 16: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
4. TAKE TIME TO REFLECT ON YOUR DAY’S WORK LIKE JOAN DIDION
![Page 17: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
“I need an hour before dinner, with a drink, to go over what I’ve done that day. I can’t do it late in the afternoon because I’m too close to it. Also, the drink helps. It removes me from the pages. So I spend this
hour taking things out and putting other things in.” Joan Didion
![Page 18: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
5. STICK TO A RIGOROUS ROUTINE LIKE HARUKI MURAKAMI
![Page 19: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
“When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10 km or swim for 1500 m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm.
I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism.
I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”
Haruki Murakami
![Page 20: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
6. ADMIT WHEN SOMETHING DOESN’T WORK LIKE
MAYA ANGELOU AND ERNEST HEMINGWAY
![Page 21: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
“And more often than not, if I’ve done nine pages I may be able to save two and a half or three. That’s the cruelest time, you know, to
really admit that it doesn’t work.”Maya Angelou
![Page 22: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”
Ernest Hemingway
![Page 23: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
7. BE ACCOUNTABLE TO OTHERS LIKE ISAAC ASIMOV
![Page 24: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
“It is a point of pride with me that though I have an alarm
clock, I never set it, but get up at 6 am anyway. I am still
showing my father I am not a folyack.”
Isaac Asimov
As a boy, Isaac Asimov used to get up at 6 am to deliver
papers, then rushed to his dad’s candy store after school to help
out. If he was even a few minutes late, his father yelled at
him, calling him a folyack (Yiddish for slacker).
![Page 25: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
8. WORK LITTLE BY LITTLE LIKE ALICE MUNRO AND GERTRUDE STEIN
![Page 26: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Alice Munro learned to write little by little, during her children’s nap times,
in between feedings, and while dinner was cooking.
It took 20 years to put together her first short story collection, but in 2013 Munro received the Nobel
prize for literature.
![Page 27: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Gertrude Stein admitted she had never been able to write for more than half
an hour a day.
”If you write a half-hour a day, it makes a lot of writing year by year.”
![Page 28: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
9. FIND SOME PRIVACY LIKE IGOR STRAVINSKY
![Page 29: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Igor Stravinsky was never able to compose unless he was sure nobody could hear him.
At one point, he even went as far as to work on a piano kept in a lumber storage/chicken coop, where he composed some of his most famous
works.
![Page 30: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
www.sandglaz.comTwitter: @Sandglaz
10. STICK WITH IT, EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT LIKE TCHAIKOVSKY
![Page 31: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
“A few days ago I told you I was working every day without any real inspiration. Had I given way to my
disinclination, undoubtedly I should have drifted into a long period of idleness. But my patience and faith did not fail me, and today I felt that inexplicable glow
of inspiration of which I told you.”Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
![Page 32: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
is an online task manager that helps
teamsaround the world
collaborate &
get more done.
click logo to
find out more
![Page 33: 10 things you can learn from the work routines of the world's greatest minds](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062613/541020ae8d7f72aa0e8b45eb/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Connect with us: (click on your favourite social media site’s logo)
Did you like this presentation?
Read the original blog post:
The productivity secrets of the world’s greatest minds