The Five-Hour Rule

I was reminded of an interview with Pico Iyer on the On-Being podcast a few years ago. In the interview he talked about his daily writing routine and that it was five hours of focused work.

How you choose your five-hour window is crucial. You want a "routine" part of a day which works well with our diurnal natures, so it has to be in the flow of things. If your focused period is 9-2, then stopping for lunch can break the momentum. Working from 2-7 can be odd because it is after lunch and overlapping with dinner and the headspace of "commuting" as a collective local experience, plus being the "evening" mindset.

The Beatles had very erratic work schedules and would sometimes begin recording at 7 in the evening and work until 11 or midnight. Of course they had to book the studio outside of normal studio business hours, but it was probably optimal because it wasn't interrupted by general routines. 

As a morning person, 8-1 is optimal, then 7-12.