The best daily rituals from the book Daily Rituals

I've read a cool book called Daily Rituals - How Artists Work by Mason Currey. The book has summarized in very short chapters what more than 100 artists were doing when they created art. Famous artists in the book include the authors Stephen King and Isaac Asimov, and the painters Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso. You can also find a jazz-player, an architect, and some lived in the 17th Century. Stephen King has written his own book on how to write books called On Writing, but most other artists haven't done it.

Here I've tried to summarize with short sentences the findings from the book. I've already read a few books on how to write when I wrote a biography on Elon Musk, so it was interesting to complete my knowledge.

1. Military discipline, drugs
2. Extreme chaos, an excess lifestyle
3. 2-3-month vacations, work above all
4. Non-sexual exploration of the penis until inspiration arrives, large quantities of coffee and tea, standing up 
5. Manic work, cigarettes, doughnuts, a bottle of vodka, pet snails
6. 3 hours of sleep at a time, use the social network
7. Out of 8 hours of hard work, it's only 10 minutes of actual creation, periods of isolation on a distant island, almost no drugs or alcohol, music
8. Live like a monk, only work before lunch, copy what you have written to find new ideas, a good chair
9. Only a few hours a day of work, but be busy the rest of the day with other tasks
10. Exactly 60 beans per cup of coffee, take breaks to walk outdoors (bring paper and pen if you find an idea), take long baths
11. Write - take a walk and find new ideas - write until evening
12. Work in bed until noon - then work until evening for a total of 18-20 hours a day
13. If you have a virtue - focus on it for a week - then it will become a habit, take a cold bath (sit in a cold room without any clothes for an hour)
14. Begin at 5.30 AM by reading what you wrote the day before, then eat breakfast, then go to your normal job. 3 hours of writing per day is enough - if you work more than that you will not be effective - and use this time effectively
15. Live like a normal person
16. Let the initial ideas come to you automatically - then isolate yourself for whole days and work hard to realize the ideas. It can take 6 weeks to finish 1 page
17. Write during the night because it's more quiet, take a short break when you are stuck. 2 pages can take 1 week, and 1 book can take 5 years
18. Work at night, drink alcohol constantly, and don't sleep much (and die at 36)
19. Wake up at 8 AM, isolate yourself from visitors, family and telephone and work until noon, then do something else
20. Work in a museum reading-room all day until it closes, then go home and continue working. It may take 20 years to finish 1 book
21. Focus on your work and let someone else do everything else (including putting toothpaste on your toothbrush), smoke 20 cigars per day, take a 3-month summer vacation
22. Isolate yourself in a primitive house without electricity or water and work for 2 hours per day - but only on holidays because you've kept your regular job
23. Art is a part-time activity - but give your neighbors opera tickets so they keep their dogs quiet
24. Wake up at 8 AM, have a bath and breakfast, work between 10 AM to 1 PM
25. Enjoy everything and never be bored - exotic birds in cages might help you
26. Exercise is important if you want to avoid depression, avoid commercial social events
27. Force yourself to drink coffee, write for 30 minutes per day, look at cows when you are not writing
28. Wake up by the first light of day - even if you have an hangover - then write (while standing up) until you are out of ideas
29. Write as much as you can. But if you discover that you can't write after noon, then don't write. 2-3 hours per day may be enough
30. Write in brief bursts of concentrated activity when you can write 8,000 words in one session, avoid alcohol
31. Adapt to various schedules as necessary, then you can write up to 10,000 word per day
32. Wake up early, write, tear up what you've written, repeat until you produce something good
33. Dedicate your life to your work, don't wait for inspiration to strike
34. If you feel like working during the night, then do it - if you feel like working during the day, then do it. Don't force it - it may take months before you can continue writing
35. It may be easy to write during the night - but make sure to read it because easy doesn't mean good results
36. Chain yourself to your desk
37. Wake up at 4 AM, write for 6 hours, physical strength is as important as psychological strength
38. Have a 9-5-job and write when you can
39. Write, write, write until you have produced one single page per day. The first draft is always difficult, but once you've figured it out, the rest is easy
40. 3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon, working more is counterproductive because you are producing garbage, keep your TV or radio on in the background
41. Write whenever you can and have something to write
42. Do it all by yourself, do it regularly to avoid writer's block, switch off in the evening, don't plan too much
43. Concentrate for a few hours and take a break when you've done something good
44. Work from different places and change your routines whenever you begin to work on a new piece of art. If you are a good writer in the morning, then you can simulate having 2 mornings by first waking up and write, and then go to bed and wake up again
45. Set the alarm clock a few times during the night when you are sleeping and work a little
46. Write 1,000 word before breakfast
47. Work for 13 hour per day, but take breaks
48. Write when everyone else is sleeping
49. Drink green tea and wash your feet in warm water. Write a pep talk with solutions to common problems you can read to yourself when you need it
50. Live like a machine with standardized routines
51. No habits and a life never really under control
52. Work until noon, prepare the next day's work in the evening
53. Have a regular job where you can work despite that you are tired because you've written all night
54. Work when your mind is at its best, drink alcohol to clear your head, 1 sentence can take 1 day, and 1 book can take 7 years
55. Withdraw from society, work at night, go out only when you need to gather facts, live on 2 croissants and 2 glasses of boiled milk a day 
56. Isolate yourself in a room, use your depression to find inspiration
57. 3 hours of work per day is enough
58. Walk 12 miles (19 km) a day, work in cafes - not restaurants if you love food
59. Go to bed late and wake up late, isolate yourself, surround yourself with your work and animals (including a monkey), drink water and milk, dedicate Sundays to social life
60. Work too much and sleep too little, use drugs, cigarettes, coffee, and alcohol to stay awake
61. Work in the evening
62. Do all the work in your head and write it down when it's finished
63. Have a normal job to get day-to-day stability and experience you can use in your writing
64. All you need is a typewriter and a desk
65. Work for 4 hours and before you begin you should know the first sentences, face your desk against a blank wall
66. Rent a studio and keep the location of the studio as a secret so no-one knows where you are
67. Work at night at the kitchen table
68. Struggle with writing all day, use sleeping pills to fall asleep, wake up, write until your children wakes up, repeat
69. Put on a suit as a normal worker, take the elevator to the basement of your apartment building, take off your suit and work in your boxers until lunch, put on your suit again and take a break the rest of the day
70. Experiment with self-medication that will make a doctor horrified
71. No matter what, write for 2 hours a day, 5 or 6 good sentences a day is enough
72. Have a normal job so you don't have to worry about money, find ideas while walking
73. Stop writing when you know what's going to come next - then it's easier to start the next day
74. Write for 2 hours a day
75. There is no rule so you don't have to follow a writing routine, always think about what you are going to write - while waiting for the elevator, swimming, etc
76. When you know the story, it's easy to write it down, you need to be obsessive when coming up with the story, try to change something when you are stuck - like changing room, take a shower, etc
77. Eat something with sugar in it or meditate to find new ideas
78. Write in hotel rooms - not at home, push yourself to the limits of your ability
79. Find new ideas while ironing
80. Work in the night and improve the work the next day, use your dreams to find solutions
81. Write for 4 hours during the day, go though what you've written in the evening, always work in your bed
82. Go to the park (even if it's raining) and write there for 4 hours, discuss with someone what you've written, then improve what you've written in your home
83. Work for 12-14 hours, have fun in the evening
84. Work all day, get drunk in the evening, almost never go out
85. You find the best ideas when you wake up, so use that time effectively, complete everything in your head before you write it down
86. Have a normal job and begin a new "day" of work at 10:30 PM where you write
87. Work for 12+ hours a day
88. Have a normal job, work for 2-3 hours in the evening, and you will have a book after 8 years
89. Have a normal job and your own office where you can close the door. Finish your scheduled "normal" work in 1 hour and work on your own project the rest of the day
90. Work from 10:30 AM to 5:00 AM, work in the dark
91. Isolate yourself, communicate only through phone, 1 meal a day is enough
92. Insomnia is good because you can work more
93. Continue to write while you can, otherwise stop writing and continue the next day
94. 3 hours and as many pages a day is enough
95. Writing is hell so 200-300 words a day is enough, alcohol might help to find new ideas
96. Writing is a nightmare because it's uneventful and never ends, live alone
97. Exercise, make a draft with a pencil and improve what you've written with a machine
98. Write in bed
99. Meditate while taking a morning walk, write notes in the morning and the complete text in the afternoon
100. Even an author can be blind
101. Idleness is essential to good mental work
102. 1 page a day is enough and you need to have inspiration, so don't force anything
103. Have rotten apples in your room to feel the urge to write
104. Work in the morning while smoking pipes
105. Sleep little, go to church, smoke and drink constantly
106. Your imagination is exciting enough, so you don't need coffee, drugs, or alcohol
107. Work a lot by drinking 50 cups of coffee a day - then relax a lot
108. 2 raw eggs for breakfast, isolate yourself in the morning, then have a cold bath, bring a notebook so you never forget any ideas
109. Install an extra door to decrease the noise around you
110. Divide up the work by taking breaks where you can take walks, sleep, read, etc
111. Live in a farm so you can relax with the animals and vegetables when you are not writing, live in an environment that resembles the environment you are writing about
112. Write only during the colder months
113. Writing is a routine, isolate yourself
114. Isolate yourself, read a book you can learn something from, take a 2-hour walk
115. Isolate yourself between breakfast and dinner, get feedback on your work in the evening, Sunday is no-work-time
116. 3-4 hours of sleep is enough
117. When you have inspiration, work nonstop
118. Chop wood for 1 hour a day, tape a piece of cardboard to you glasses if you can't concentrate because you are distracted by something in the room, never work in artificial light
119. Isolate yourself in a desert and begin the day by killing all the rattlesnakes you can find 
120. It's always difficult to find uninterrupted time
121. Picture the complete book before you begin writing it, use index card to organize the story
122. Pray and meditate in-front of what you are working on, sometimes this may take up the entire working-day, smoke
123. Maintain a rigid schedule - but don't work too much
124. Experiment with your body, sleep 40 minutes after each 6 hour period of work
125. Use drugs so you can work 19 hours a day, give away almost all your money, own only a suitcase with clothes, travel the world
126. Drink tea and carrot juice
127. Pack a lunchbox and hide somewhere for 4-5 hours, take vacation for months
128. Write in the morning, afternoon, and evening - but don't forget to take breaks
129. Order 6 martinis and drink them one after another, then wake up at 9 AM and work, set a goal for each day and stick to it, 6 pages a day, write only what you care about
130. Rent a office and write for 3-4 hours a day
131. Keep a simple routine
132. Find a hobby, like gardening, and divide your time equally between your hobby and your writing
133. You find the best ideas just as you wake up 
134. Work 2.5-3 hours a day
135. If you are using drugs, you can write day and night, sometimes 30 hours before you need to sleep. Don't leave your desk even if you are stuck
136. If you have a job and no time to write, then quit that job and find one where you have time to work and write
137. Live in a hotel room, use drugs, work for 24 hours in a pajamas
138. If you are drinking more alcohol than you are producing art, try to move to a smaller city where you will be less motivated to drink
139. If you don't want to write and work at the same time, then find a partner and one of you can write while the other work. After a year has passed, you can switch roles
140. Strong coffee, long walks when you are stuck
141. 4 hours of writing a day is enough, spend the rest of the day drinking alcohol, cleaning, and taking care of the cats
142. Make a schedule and stick to it 7 days a week, smoke constantly, read what you've written aloud to yourself, try not to rush - 0 sentences a day might happen
143. Write when the children sleep
144. A 4-hour sleep in the afternoon and a 4-hour sleep before waking up at 8 AM might be better than one 8-hour sleep
145. Wake up at 5 AM and work as long as you can, do this every day, including holidays
146. Write at a standing desk and keep to your schedule, but if you are really inspired, throw out the schedule and write for 36+ hours
147. The most important thing is to change routines, clear all distractions
148. Doodle to find new ideas
149. Photograph in the morning before you begin to write, be angry to work well
150. Keep a schedule when the work is going badly
151. Let the work take over your life, but make sure you have another life when you are not working on a project
152. You should form good, consistent work habits
153. Write every day, including holidays and your birthday, and don't quit before you've reached 2,000 words
154. Insomnia is good because it feels like you have a 28-hour day
155. Recruit a typist and dictate what you've come up with the night before
156. Weeks can pass when you don't get anything done, then you find an idea
157. Eat out only once a year, live on rice and chicken, isolate yourself in a dark room with earplugs, and it will take 4 years to complete a book
158. Have only music and work where your work - no email, phone, or food
159. You don't have to work every day - intense bursts of work that lasts for a few weeks might be enough
160. Work all the time, but only if you like it
161. You can always find a little bit of time to write 

So, in other words, there's not one daily ritual you should adapt. Maybe the last quote in the book summarizes everything:

"Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you."