Strange Work Habits

Where can I improve? That is always a question at the start of a year. So today I’ll focus on work habits.

First I’ll share my own ‘idiosyncracy’. I like to get up early in the AM and work in bed for a couple of hours before I get into the office. It is my most concentrated time of the day. This is the time when some of my most creative thinking is done. As a writer, I decided to look into work habits of authors to see if I could pick up any novel ideas for myself. Here are a few:

John Cheever. American writer John Cheever wore his only suit of clothing each morning as he rode the elevator down to a basement room where he worked. Upon arriving there, he would undress to his underwear, hang up his suit, and get to work. He would dress to go back upstairs for lunch and again at the end of his day when he would ride the elevator back home.

Stephen King. This famed writer keeps to a strict routine each day, starting the morning with a cup of tea or water and his vitamin. King sits down to work between 8:00 and 8:30 in the same seat with his papers arranged on his desk in the same way. He claims that starting off with such consistency provides a signal to his mind in preparation for his work.

John Grisham. When Grisham first began writing, he still had his day job as a lawyer. In order to do both, he stuck to a ritual of waking at 5:00 and shower, then head off to his office, just five minutes from home. He had to be sitting at his desk with a cup of coffee and a yellow legal pad by 5:30. He gave himself a goal of writing one page per day. Sometimes this page went as quickly as ten minutes while other days required one or two hours. After finishing his daily page of writing, Grisham would then turn his attention to his day job.

Gertrude Stein. This famous writer discovered inspiration in her car. Apparently she would sit in her parked car and write poetry on scraps of paper.

Conclusion? Each to his own!

Technorati Tags: John Cheever, John Grisham,Gertrude Stein, Charles Darwin, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, communications, public relations, Makovsky