From Darwin to Dickens, how history's biggest thinkers spent their days

Memorising the Bible and drinking 50 cups of coffee a day: From Darwin to Dickens, how history's biggest thinkers spent their days What makes a genius a genius? After a day of quiet contemplation, he would buckle down to work from late evening until the early hours of the morning This was Beethoven's routine for at least five years of his life. He spent nearly twice as long each day socialising Thomas Mann would write furiously for three hours every morning before taking it, relatively, easily for the rest of the time Freud, a renowned workaholic, would be writing or seeing patients for nearly 13 of his 18 waking hours Making his money through teaching, that activity took up his most of Kant's morning and the philosopher always found time for a four hour lunch By 7am, Maya Angelou was already in a hotel and ready to work. There was special time put aside in the morning however, for memorising the Bible Rising at 1am, Balzac would work, almost uninterrupted until 4pm, fuelled by 50 cups of black coffee Five hours of work for Dickens was followed by a three hour walk, which often gave him the inspiration for the following day A 12 hour working day for Auden was rewarded by an evening of relaxing with strong vodka martinis Darwin was not a man to stick at one thing for too long, chopping and changing between several activities throughout the day Tchaikovsky only spent four hours a day composing he still completed 11 operas and eight symphonies in his lifetime Five hours of deep contemplation for Le Corbusier would be followed by three and a half of his employees putting them into action