I often think about and grapple with, and I know a number of my writer and artist friends do as well, if the way in which I work each day is the most effective and efficient given a very full life and work schedule. I was so intrigued when I discovered Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, a new book by Mason Currey. Born from his blog, Daily Routines, Daily Rituals is a compilation of how some 161 of the world’s most brilliant creators work or worked, or in some cases didn’t, on a daily basis. I must say, after reading these fascinating and quite diverse accounts (we’re talking Simone de Beauvoir, Igor Stravinsky, Haruki Murakami, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein…), I found myself inspired and reassured to carry on with my own daily ritual very much as it is, with a few more mind-clearing walks thrown in to the mix.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013)