If you want to improve at something, you can’t do better than studying the habits of people who’ve already done it well. Mason Currey’s book Daily Rituals aims to make this Daily Rituals - want to get a head, get good habitseasy with bite-sized chunks of a massive range of successful people and the little rituals that get them through the day.

Good rituals good habits

Why rituals? Because successful people have discovered that the more decisions you have to make, the lower the quality.

Rituals (otherwise known as habits) save you having to decide (to take some examples) when to get up, when to start work, what to wear, eat, drink – just about anything that can otherwise distract you from the important task of designing great buildings, discovering the theory of relativity or writing the great novel.

The majority are writers – I suppose because writers tend to be more likely to write about how they work. But there are many other great artists, as well as scientists and others across the ages.

Drink gallons of coffee?

The little vignettes are fascinating in its own right, but there’s also the possibility that if you do what your hero or heroine does you may achieve the same success – whether by drinking gallons of coffee, writing through the night or working in the bath. Or maybe not.

At the very least, I can guarantee you’ll find someone whose off-beat rituals give you an excuse to do precisely what you wanted to do all along. But (SPOILER ALERT) I’m afraid the majority simply get up early, work hard, eat sensibly and meet up with their friends from time to time. Who knew?

Get it here