Kurt Vonnegut: “I get up at 7:30 and work four hours a day.”
One of the most consistent findings in REST is how many really prolific and creative people do their most important work in about four focused hours a day.
Work-life balance is about years, not days
[This is a repost of a piece I first published on Thrive Global.] When I was working on my book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You
“The writing stuff just has much faster reinforcement rates, and so it’s real addictive”
In REST I talk about how the most restorative forms of rest are active and skilled rather than passive or easy. This seems counterintuitive, but in fact people
“a routine was essential for the prose writing”
Poet Jacob Polley in The Guardian about his routine and the differences between writing prose and poetry:
“It might be that rest, more than work, is the ultimate source of big transformations, life-changing disruptions.”
Novelist and critic Nilanjana Roy has a nice essay about vacations and REST in the Financial Times. Normally I quote the parts that say really complimentary things about
Rest, creativity, and note-taking: Lewis Carroll’s nyctograph
One of the things I discovered when working on Rest was how commonly creative people keep a notebook handy, when going on walks, at their beside, or even by
“vacations meant rather a variation of mental employment than absolute rest of mind”
In Rest, I talk about several people who became noted literary figures, but had careers in other fields. JRR Tolkien, who wrote The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings,
“You will eat vegetable soup again today and like it; Mommy’s beginning chapter three:” Shirley Jackson and creative lives
The author and critic Ruth Franklin has a terrific article about Shirley Jackson in New York Magazine (it's a selection from her new book, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life,
“By exercising and exhausting myself, I can get to restful states much quicker:” On exercise and creativity
In the BBC Radio 4 show The Quest for Rest, poet SJ Fowler talks about the creative value of working out. We often don’t think of working out as a
Charles Darwin on reading page proofs
it's now less than three months before REST comes out. I received a draft of the book jacket yesterday, and it looks fabulous: it's a nice warm, soothing