My Week as Richard Strauss

I work from home. With that comes the requisite freedoms and challenges of self-directed work. I'm always thinking about how to schedule my day and ways that I can force myself to turn away from the cat video side of the internet for the sake of my productivity. This isn't always easy.

So, in my typical "all in" style, I decided to spend this week trying to live by the schedule of composer Richard Struass. If you haven't seen it before, you should absolutely check out this super interesting chart of how notable "creatives" purportedly spent their days. I chose Strauss mainly because his day seemed the most doable--and enjoyable. Tea every afternoon? Yes, please! As long as the time devoted to "work" is truly devoted to focused, productive work, this schedule really could work. And Strauss is easier to copy than some of the writers and artists who went to bed at 5am, got up at 2pm, probably took peyote, then worked frenetically until the early hours of the next day. Not really my speed.

How did it go? Surprisingly well! I'm not going to pretend that I even attempted to spend my evenings at home engaged in leisurely activities like Strauss--that was a total loss. Between play rehearsals, bar trivia, and choir practice, there was just no way that was going to happen. But the mornings were wonderful. I rolled out of bed at an hour that felt sinfully late, ate a leisurely breakfast, got some exercise and fresh air, worked in a focused and orderly manner for a few hours, ate a late (for me) lunch, and then spent the afternoon on pleasurable and useful activities. Who could complain? And my work output was remarkably higher than when my days are spent with eight unstructured hours in front of the computer.

For those following along at home:

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