What is the Optimal Creative Schedule or Routine?

How to optimize and maximize your creative power:

First of all, do creative work at home. Optimal to have hyper-fast WiFi at home. Optimal also to use a laptop and standing desk setup at home. My ghetto solution: put a plastic box on top of your kitchen counter, and put your laptop on top of it.

My ghetto working area at home

First do creative work at home, then go to the gym later.

My coffee cabinet

Start off the day at home with a strong cup of black coffee. Optimal to grind your own whole coffee beans (light roast), then using something like a Clever dripper to extract the coffee.

Sleep a lot.

I perform best when I’ve slept 10-12 hours. Prioritize your sleep above all.

I’ve discovered this basic idea:

Creative work is 90% physical. Thus to maximize your creative output, you must prioritize your physical strength, output, recovery, and power.

I say maximize your creative work at home, and when you’re exhausted or feeling “stir crazy” at home, THEN go to the gym to take a break.

My rationale is this:

If the priority of your life is to maximize your creative output, devote your morning (when you are the most vigorous and fresh) towards this aim.

Then when you need a break, engage in physical activity to recover, let your mind wander, and come up with new ideas.

Also, I think my physical strength is higher later in the afternoon or early evening. Thus if your goal is to achieve new PR (personal records) in your weight lifting, workout perhaps somewhere between 2pm-6pm.

Delay email, phone, texting, or outside communications as long as you can.

My secret of creativity productivity was (for a long time) not having a phone, not using email, and being difficult to reach.

Why? Taoist notions of needing pure emptiness in order to maximize my creative thinking, focus, concentration, and output.

Empty your mind

What is in short supply nowadays? The ability to think. It isn’t really our fault; we are simply being barraged and bombarded by media, social media, and all this noise which prevents our inner-signal from coming out. I need to let my mind go fallow (empty) for long periods of time before I get any original thoughts which I feel passionate enough to write about.

Why creative productivity?

To me, when I am in a creative flow, I feel godlike. There is no feeling more intoxicating than a solid, uninterrupted creative flow. In fact, what brings me the most anger and rage is when my creative flow gets interrupted.

I feel we are all geniuses. But what holds us back? External stimuli and distractions. Technology ain’t gonna help us focus and become more productive. Technology only works when it is “via negativa”— technology which BLOCKS distractions and outside noise. “Productivity” software and programs never work, unless they can BLOCK advertisements, social media, distracting websites, and even the internet itself (Freedom.To app).

What will remain?

I think about death a lot, and the shortness of life.

When we die, all which will be left is our creative works and children. I hope my future children will carry on my genes, and I hope the internet and my website/blog will carry on the information (photo, video, audio, text, image) into the future.

If you care deeply for your creative work, you will optimize your life to maximize your creative output, and the depth of your creative thinking.

Other pragmatic ideas

Intermittent fast throughout the day, and break your fast in the evening, and then eat a massive amount of meat. Eat lots of ground beef, ground pork, pork ribs, sirloin steak, pork shoulder roast, bone marrow, chicken, and other delicious fatty cuts of meat. Eat it with bitter greens and herbs like collard greens, kale, or fermented foods like kimchi or sauerkraut. Eat more food for dinner than you think you should.
Take cold showers in the morning, afternoon, and evening. A cold shower wakes me up and hypes me up almost as much as a triple shot of espresso.
Go on lots of walks to clear your mind, and never take the elevator when possible (take the stairs). All movement and walking is good for “ideation” (coming up with new ideas).
No sugar, alcohol, weed, or drugs: If your goal is to maximize your creative productivity and output, stay away from these substances. There is nothing morally or ethically wrong with these things, but I believe they generally sap away your creative energy. But of course this is just my opinion — if you feel sugar, alcohol, weed, drugs helps empower your creativity — go for it! Write your own rules, but know your own body.