In his book ‘Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work’, Mason Currey documents daily rituals of some of the greatest artists, thinkers and scientists of our time from Darwin to Dickens to Picasso to Mozart and 160 others. Here is a gist of the 5 habits that were apparently common across all these stalwarts:

1. They all worked very hard and, frequently, for VERY long hours.
2. Regular, extended exercise – usually walking – was frequently an important part of their routines.
3. They were mostly early risers, with significant exceptions, and did their best work in the first several hours of the day. There were a few nightowls but not many.
4. They had a work routine that they adhered to almost fanatically.
5. Finally, implicitly, habits were key in their successes and productivity.