Daily Rituals by Mason Currey – Upskillshare book summary

A wonderful book on Daily Rituals by Mason Curry covers most famous artists in the world. So this is subtitled how artists work and what we’re going to be going over is the rituals that daily routines of all these amazing artists. If you’re someone who struggles with routine struggles with creating things struggles with being able to be productive at work even this book is going to be perfect for you. First we’re going to talk about Mason Curry himself he’s written two books so this one was the first one daily rituals how artists work and he also wrote daily rituals women at work, he was an editor at metropolis and core 77 which I believe are two different magazines is writing as a period in the New York times and Wall Street Journal and slate. In the introduction the first quote he says in the book nearly every weekday morning for a year and a half I got up at 5:30 brush my teeth made a cup of coffee and sat down to write how some of the greatest minds of the past 400 years approached this exact same task. With this you’ll realize how much artists are really just creatures of habit and something that you wouldn’t necessarily think about in fact you might think the opposite but it’s simply not the truth. It’s something like tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are.

Daily rituals focus on real people’s routines that what’s the difference between a ritual and a routine the word con-notates ordinarily and even a lack of thought to follow routine is to be on autopilot but one daily routine is also a choice or a whole series of choices or habit in the whole series of habits. These daily rituals can be used as a finely calibrated mechanism for taking advantage of a range of limited resources for example time the most limited resource of all as well as willpower self-discipline and optimism solid routine fosters a well-worn group for one’s mental energies and helps to save off the stave off the tyranny of moods have ever woke up in the morning in just decided. I just don’t feel like doing it today that’s what routines are going to help you get through this was one of William James favourite subjects he thought that you wanted to put part of your day on autopilot part of your life on autopilot by forming good habits. He said that we can free our minds to advance to really interesting fields of action ironically James himself was a chronic procrastinator and could never stick to a regular schedule isn’t that interesting he thought that he needed the schedule but he couldn’t stick to it.

Different books including the slight edge including The compound effect and also including atomic habits by James clear which is one that we recommend that you go and check out. The stacking of multiple habits they are something that we create to allow us to go on autopilot. For a little while by allowing part of our lives to go on autopilot. It seems as though we’re able to free up our minds to think about more advanced things more complex things. Are you thinking about what you’re going to have for breakfast in the morning or are you think about your next book article or video that’s a very important distinction. Because the brain needs so much time to come up with creative ideas and if you’re constantly inundated with different things if you’re constantly inundated with little choices and decisions that you have to make there just isn’t that much free time or free willpower free energy in order for you to be able to come up with creative ideas that you’re going to need. If you’re going to be an artist this is something I’ve learned the hard way and I expect a lot of people in the book learn the hard way as well. But if I didn’t have a routine that I strictly adhere, the day tend to get away from me with little things clogging up my thinking including decisions on what I have for breakfast in the morning when I eat for lunch and what I’m going to do first thing in the morning what time I wake up and etc.

If you’ve ever been there before without a routine with it a creative routine dealing with your stuck in place you know how painful that is I’ve been there before as well and that’s why a lot of people reach out quite simply I help them set up routines for themselves that really is all that we need to do they’re already intelligent they’re already ambitious they already know more about whatever subject they could be asking me about that idea they’ve got the intelligence and ambition covered by having a routine for working is exactly is what will actually get things accomplished. Setting up these routines is very individual everyone has a different routine for example they have different personalities different times and type of work. No one can just give them my structure for the day and expect them to follow it because that’s not how it works but the one thing that’s constant is the process of building habits and stacking them that allows us to create a high quality routine

In 1992 Carl Young bought a parcel of land near the small village of bowling gin Switzerland and began construction on a simple two-story Stone House along the shore of the upper basin of lake Zurich continuing on he says over the next years he modified and expand the bowling tower as it became known adding a pair of smaller auxiliary towers in a Walden courtyard with a large outdoor fire pit even with those additions it remained. A primitive dwelling no floorboards or carpets covered the uneven Stone floor there was no electricity and no telephone he came from chopped wood cooking was done on the oil stove and the only artificial light came from oil lamps water had to be brought up from the lake and boiled and eventually a hand pump was installed If a man in the 16th century were to move into the house only the kerosene lamps in the matches would be new to him Young road otherwise he would know his way around without difficulty and I’m sure a lot of you were on here probably saying wow that sounds like a great place to live or a great place to be creative and I would have to agree with you throughout the 1930s young used the tower as a retreat from the city where he led a workaholics existence seeing patients for eight or nine hours a day and delivering frequent lectures and seminars. As a result nearly all Young’s writing was done on holidays and although he had many patients who relied on him young was not shy about taking time off I have realized that somebody who’s tired and needs a rest and goes on working all the same is a fool he said, This is a great point for just a word on relaxing young said that somebody who’s tired and needs a rest and goes on working all the same is a fool how many of us have fallen into this category before in our life the category of a fool

So it a very important think to ask our self, how can I routinize and ritualize my rest of the day by creating a u schedule rest into your day to day week to week month to month routine instead of just when I’m really tired I’ll take a rest that’s not an effective way of resting. This is one part of the routine, I think most people miss and it’s also one of the reasons. So many people have a hard time sticking to a routine they simply created routine that is impossible to follow over the Long haul without thinking about their need for rest so many people

The evolutionary biologists and writer Stephen j Gould told an interviewer in 1991 I work everyday at work weekends and I work nights some people looking at that from the inside might use the modern term workaholic or might see this as obsessive or destructive. It’s not necessarily how hard can I most people live their lives as how little work can I do so that I can relax all the time but there’s also the opposite side of it how hard can I work so I can work hard all the time and get what I want but what I’m offering here is how hard can I work so that when I rest I can really deeply rest and it’s kind of the dichotomy that’s there when you’re resting you should rest very deeply now think about work and when you are working you should work very deeply and not think about rest.

The love of work as discussed in Deep work by Cal Newport, if you want to learn more about deep work. But people who aren’t creatives often can’t comprehend how someone can enjoy work most people who have to go to regular job see work as a chore something just to get finished which when you don’t love your work it probably is a chore. That’s the secret of true productivity love what you’re doing easier said than done right something one of my mentors shared with me is the principle of prepare for what’s next and it’s a great way for you to start loving what you do on your day-to-day even if it sucks so here’s how you do it

Whenever you have something to do that’s boring tedious or otherwise not enjoyable find a way that doing this now can prepare you for what’s coming next whatever your next is maybe it’s something creative meaningful and important to you even the most boring thing you do can help you get through some of those tough times of being a creative. For example if you have a very boring project to do at work that’s going to take you an entire day well when you’re being creative there’s going to be entire days where you have to do things that are boring you’re going to have to edit something you’re going to have to do things that you don’t enjoy doing and that you’re not good at so you can find a way to say this is going to help us create something meaningful and important in our life.

Then find how you can learn from what you’re doing and how you can connect it to what’s coming next for you now. If you are not sure of what you are supposed to do, keep searching for it, expose your self to positive content, people, and situations and keeping your senses open to understand what give you more joy. Which can help you to decide what you want to do in next 5 years or 10 years span. Keep upgrading yourself by reading books and experimenting new things till the time you get obsessed by the thing that you want to achieve. Adding these rituals will work in your favor no matter what and you will surely figureout what will work for you want you can create and how can you contribute to the world better apart from not just being a job holder and earning for the family.

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