#177: Mason Currey — Daily Rituals: Building a Creative Life With Routine, Discipline, and Procrastination

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Jan 18, 2026

Mason Currey, a writer and editor known for his insights into artists' routines, shares valuable lessons on focus and discipline. He discusses how his Daily Routines blog turned viral, leading to his acclaimed books. Mason emphasizes the importance of unique, flexible routines tailored to individuals and reveals his method of 'double mornings' for productivity. He highlights the significance of small, consistent progress—dubbed 'Worm Zooms'—and offers practical tips for creating a sustainable creative life while balancing the need for financial stability.

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ADVICE

Protect Your Best Hours

Seize your personal window of focus by protecting it daily, even if it means dramatic schedule changes.
Mason became an early riser (5:30am) to write before his day job and sustain his practice.

INSIGHT

Routines Are Personal Projects

Routines must be personal and flexible rather than prescriptive templates.
A writer's job is to discover what they want to make and how their practice supports that project.

ANECDOTE

Nicholson Baker's Double Morning

Nicholson Baker described a "double morning": work early, nap, then return to another productive morning.
Mason admired it but found coffee and waking patterns made it hard to replicate.

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Writer and editor Mason Currey on what artists’ routines can teach us about focus, discipline, procrastination, and building a sustainable creative life.

You'll learn:

What led Mason to writing, and the early pressures that shaped his relationship with the work.
Why he started Daily Routines as a side project, and what he was trying to solve with it.
The moment the blog went viral, and what changed when an audience arrived.
What it took to turn a quote-collecting blog into a book, including the research and structure behind it.
Why routines work best when they’re personal and flexible rather than prescriptive.
Ideas for protecting your best hours, including Nicholson Baker’s “double morning.”
The difference between physical routine and creative routine, and why both matter.
A realistic way to design an hour of writing, including what to do when “nothing happens.”
What Worm Zooms are, and why “small progress” can be a powerful creative philosophy.
The question underneath every routine: how artists make time for the work while paying the bills.

Resources and Links:

About Mason Currey

Mason Currey is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles and the author of the Daily Rituals books. In addition to compiling the Daily Rituals books, Currey was a design-magazine editor for ten years, working as the managing editor of Metropolis, the executive editor of Print, a senior editor at Core77, and the programming chair for the 2015 Core77 Conference. His freelance writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Slate, and he has delivered talks on the creative process to high school and college students, writers’ groups, and the partners of the design consultancy IDEO. Currey is currently writing a new nonfiction book and sending out a fortnightly newsletter on routines, rituals, and wriggling through a creative life.

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