Misc
Visualized: The Daily Routines of Famous Creatives
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Visualized: The Daily Routines of Famous Creatives
What is the best daily routine to unlock creativity, or is there such a thing?
Many modern suggestions for optimizing creativity—like scheduling time for “deep work,” and building small, sustainable “atomic habits”—can be traced back to famous creatives in many different eras. And though they all found success, they employed different methods as well.
In this unique visualization, RJ Andrews from InfoWeTrust has charted how notable creatives in different fields spent their days. He picked 16 of the 161 “inspired minds” covered by Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, a book by writer and editor Mason Currey published in 2013.
How Much “Creativity Time” in Famous Daily Routines?
Dividing the day into 24 hours, Andrews denoted certain categories for daily activities like working creatively, sleeping, and other miscellaneous endeavors (meals, leisure, exercise, and social time).
For the creatives with a separate day job—Immanuel Kant and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—their ordinary labor is also counted in miscellaneous activities.
Below is a breakdown of the daily routine of all 16 people featured above:
Name | Occupation | Creative (hrs) | Sleep (hrs) | Miscellaneous (hrs) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Maya Angelou | Writer/Poet | 9 | 7.5 | 7.5 |
W.H. Auden | Poet | 11.5 | 7 | 5.5 |
Honoré de Balzac | Novelist | 13.5 | 8.5 | 2 |
L.V. Beethoven | Composer / Pianist | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Le Corbusier | Architect | 8.5 | 7 | 8.5 |
Charles Darwin | Naturalist / Biologist/ Geologist | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Charles Dickens | Writer | 5 | 7 | 12 |
Gustave Flaubert | Novelist | 10.5 | 7 | 6.5 |
Sigmund Freud | Psychologist | 12.5 | 6 | 5.5 |
Benjamin Franklin | Writer / Inventor / Scientist / Statesman | 8 | 7 | 9 |
Victor Hugo | Writer | 2 | 8 | 14 |
Immanuel Kant | Philosopher | 7 | 7 | 10 |
Thomas Mann | Novelist | 8 | 8 | 8 |
John Milton | Poet | 8 | 7 | 9 |
W.A. Mozart | Composer / Pianist | 8 | 5 | 11 |
P.I. Tchaikovsky | Composer | 4.5 | 8 | 11.5 |
The average and median amount of time spent on creative work for these individuals was just over 8 hours a day. At the extremes were two French novelists, Honoré de Balzac with 13.5 hours daily spent on creative work, and Victor Hugo with only 2 hours.
Interestingly, the allocation of creative work time was different in almost every daily routine. Maya Angelou’s routine resembles the modern work day, with the bulk of her writing between 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Others like Kant and Mozart had creativity blocks when time allowed, such as before and after their teaching jobs.
Then there are outliers like Honoré de Balzac and Sigmund Freud, who worked as much as they could. Balzac wrote from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with just an hour and a half nap break in between, fueled by up to 50 cups of coffee. Freud split up his creative work into three different blocks: analyzing patients in the morning, consulting in the afternoon, and reading and writing journals into the late evening.
But somewhere in their days, most of these brilliant minds made sure to get a good rest, with an average of 7.25 hours of sleep across the board.
Schedule Yourself to Create Success
Creativity may ebb and flow, but these great minds had one clear thing in common: scheduling time for creative work.
The perfect daily routine was usually what fit in with their lifestyle (and their bodies), not based on an arbitrary amount of work. For example, night owls with later chronotypes worked late, while socialites and politicians found time outside of their commitments.
They also found time to move and enjoy life. Half of the people in the dataset specified exercise in their accounts—either leisurely strolls or fast walks. Many also scheduled social time with partners, friends, or children, often paired with a meal.
Perhaps the greatest insight, however, is that the day-to-day routine doesn’t have to look extraordinary to be able to create extraordinary work.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
China
Ranked: The Cities with the Most Skyscrapers in 2023
We rank the world’s leading cities with the most skyscrapers, highlighting China’s remarkable dominance in building vertically.

Ranked: The Cities with the Most Skyscrapers in 2023
When it comes to soaring skylines and architectural marvels, no country has embraced the vertical revolution quite like China.
In this graphic, which uses data from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), we reveal the 25 cities with the most skyscrapers and supertall buildings globally.
Unsurprisingly, China’s cities dominate the list, solidifying the country’s reputation as a global powerhouse of tall buildings.
The 25 Top Cities by Skyscraper Count
Topping the charts is Hong Kong, with an impressive 657 skyscrapers, including six supertalls (buildings over 300 meters tall).
Rank | City | Country | Skyscrapers (>150m) | Supertalls (>300m) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Hong Kong | 🇨🇳 China | 657 | 6 |
2 | Shenzhen | 🇨🇳 China | 513 | 16 |
3 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | 421 | 16 |
4 | Dubai | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | 395 | 28 |
5 | Guangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | 254 | 11 |
6 | Shanghai | 🇨🇳 China | 250 | 5 |
7 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 211 | 5 |
8 | Chongqing | 🇨🇳 China | 205 | 5 |
9 | Tokyo | 🇯🇵 Japan | 200 | 0 |
10 | Wuhan | 🇨🇳 China | 183 | 5 |
11 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | 178 | 7 |
12 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 160 | 1 |
13 | Chengdu | 🇨🇳 China | 150 | 0 |
14 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 133 | 3 |
15 | Shenyang | 🇨🇳 China | 129 | 3 |
16 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 128 | 0 |
17 | Nanning | 🇨🇳 China | 122 | 6 |
18 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | 114 | 0 |
19 | Tianjin | 🇨🇳 China | 109 | 3 |
20 | Nanjing | 🇨🇳 China | 108 | 7 |
21 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | 106 | 0 |
22 | Busan | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 106 | 4 |
23 | Seoul | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 104 | 2 |
24 | Changsha | 🇨🇳 China | 97 | 5 |
25 | Melbourne | 🇦🇺 Australia | 94 | 1 |
Hong Kong, along with Shenzhen (#2), and Guangzhou (#5) are part of the burgeoning megacity known as the Pearl River Delta, which is home to over 1,500 skyscrapers. This is even more impressive when considering that Shenzhen was a small fishing village until the 1970s.
New York City secures the third position on the list, boasting an impressive tally of 421 skyscrapers. Although it may have relinquished its title to Chinese cities, the city’s skyline endures as a globally renowned symbol, prominently featuring the iconic Empire State Building. Notably, while the Empire State Building enjoys widespread familiarity, it no longer ranks among the world’s 50 tallest structures.
Rounding out the top five is Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which grabs the fourth position with 395 skyscrapers, a staggering 28 of which are supertalls. This desert oasis has become synonymous with grandiose architecture and record-breaking structures, exemplified by the Burj Khalifa, which is the world’s current tallest building at 828 meters (2,715 ft).
China’s Numbers in Context
Looking at this data from another perspective, China actually has more skyscrapers on this list than the rest of the world combined.
Country | Cities in Top 25 | Skyscrapers | Supertalls |
---|---|---|---|
🇨🇳 China | 12 | 2777 | 72 |
🌐 Rest of World | 13 | 2350 | 67 |
China’s rapid urbanization, economic growth, and ambitious construction projects have fueled this impressive feat. There’s no doubt that the country’s relentless pursuit of vertical development, coupled with its booming population and thriving cities, has positioned China as the unrivaled leader in the global skyscraper race.
The Future of the Global Skyline
As the world continues to reach new heights in architectural marvels, there are even more supertall skyscrapers in the pipeline that will reshape skylines across the globe.
From the soaring Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, poised to surpass the Burj Khalifa as the world’s tallest building, to the remarkable Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, which is set to claim the title of the world’s second-tallest structure when it opens in June 2023, these projects will captivate city dwellers for years to come.
Even as these new monumental buildings rise, China’s prominence in the world of skyscrapers—with three cities in the top five globally—is likely to remain unchallenged.
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