As a writer, he was gaspingly productive. While holding political
office, Churchill managed to publish seven books between 1898 and
the end of World War I alone. How did he do it? How did he manage
to pull so much out of himself? The simple answer: physical routine.
Each morning, Churchill got up around eight and took his first
bath, which he entered at 98 degrees and had cranked up to 104
while he sat (and occasionally somersaulted) in the water. Freshly
bathed, he would spend the next two hours reading. Then he
responded to his daily mail, mostly pertaining to his political duties.
Around noon he’d stop in to say hello to his wife for the first time—
believing all his life that the secret to a happy marriage was that
spouses should not see each other before noon. Then he tackled
whatever writing project he was working on—likely an article or a
speech or a book. By early afternoon he would be writing at a
fantastic clip and then abruptly stop for lunch (which he would
finally dress for). After lunch, he would go for a walk around
Chartwell, his estate in the English countryside, feeding his swans
and fish—to him the most important and enjoyable part of the day.
Then he would sit on the porch and take in the air, thinking and
musing. For inspiration and serenity he might recite poetry to
himself. At 3 p.m., it was time for a two-hour nap. After the nap, it
was family time and then a second bath before a late, seated and
formal dinner (after 8 p.m.). After dinner and drinks, one more
writing sprint before bed.
It was a routine he would stick to even on Christmas.
Churchill was a hard worker and a man of discipline—but like us,
he was not perfect. He often worked more than he should have,
usually because he spent more money than he needed to (and it
produced a fair bit of writing that would have better remained
unpublished). Churchill was impetuous, liked to gamble, and was
prone to overcommit. It wasn’t from the tireless execution of his
wartime duties that he was inspired to depict himself once, in a
drawing, as a pig carrying a twenty-thousand-pound weight. It was
his indulgences that produced that.
Nor was his life an endless series of triumphs. Churchill made
many mistakes, usually lapses of judgment that came from a mind
fried by stress. Thus, he emerged from World War I with a mixed
barry
(Barry)
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