Nietzsche:
With a Spartan rigour which never ceased to amaze his
landlord-grocer, Nietzsche would get up every morning when the faintly
dawning sky was still grey, and, after washing himself with cold water
from the pitcher and china basin in his bedroom and drinking some warm
milk, he would, when not felled by headaches and vomiting, work
uninterruptedly until eleven in the morning. He then went for a brisk,
two-hour walk through the nearby forest or along the edge of Lake
Silvaplana (to the north-east) or of Lake Sils (to the south-west),
stopping every now and then to jot down his latest thoughts in the
notebook he always carried with him. Returning for a late luncheon at
the Hôtel Alpenrose, Nietzsche, who detested promiscuity, avoided the
midday crush of the table d’hôte in the large dining-room and ate a more
or less ‘private’ lunch, usually consisting of a beefsteak and an
‘unbelievable’ quantity of fruit, which was, the hotel manager was
persuaded, the chief cause of his frequent stomach upsets. After
luncheon, usually dressed in a long and somewhat threadbare brown
jacket, and armed as usual with notebook, pencil, and a large grey-green
parasol to shade his eyes, he would stride off again on an even longer
walk, which sometimes took him up the Fextal as far as its majestic
glacier. Returning ‘home’ between four and five o’clock, he would
immediately get back to work, sustaining himself on biscuits, peasant
bread, honey (sent from Naumburg), fruit and pots of tea he brewed for
himself in the little upstairs ‘dining-room’ next to his bedroom, until,
worn out, he snuffed out the candle and went to bed around 11 p.m.
Marx:
His mode of living consisted of daily visits to the British Museum
reading-room, where he normally remained from nine in the morning until
it closed at seven; this was followed by long hours of work at night,
accompanied by ceaseless smoking, which from a luxury had become an
indispensable anodyne; this affected his health permanently and he
became liable to frequent attacks of a disease of the liver sometimes
accompanied by boils and an inflammation of the eyes, which interfered
with his work, exhausted and irritated him, and interrupted his never
certain means of livelihood. “I am plagued like Job, though not so
God-fearing,” he wrote in 1858.
Kant:
His daily schedule then looked something like this. He got up at 5:00
A.M. His servant Martin Lampe, who worked for him from at least 1762
until 1802, would wake him. The old soldier was under orders to be
persistent, so that Kant would not sleep longer. Kant was proud that he
never got up even half an hour late, even though he found it hard to get
up early. It appears that during his early years, he did sleep in at
times. After getting up, Kant would drink one or two cups of tea — weak
tea. With that, he smoked a pipe of tobacco. The time he needed for
smoking it “was devoted to meditation.” Apparently, Kant had formulated
the maxim for himself that he would smoke only one pipe, but it is
reported that the bowls of his pipes increased considerably in size as
the years went on. He then prepared his lectures and worked on his books
until 7:00. His lectures began at 7:00, and they would last until
11:00. With the lectures finished, he worked again on his writings until
lunch. Go out to lunch, take a walk, and spend the rest of the
afternoon with his friend Green. After going home, he would do some more
light work and read.
Source:
http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/the-daily-habits-of-highly-productive-philosophers.html
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