It shouldn’t surprise you that Picasso said the following: “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”

It turns out that Pablo’s own routine, and path to success, was a real grind: get up from bed at 11am, spend the next four hours indulging in some food and leisure, followed by a 12-hour stint of work until about 3am.

His work-life balance may have been unique, but Picasso’s single-mindedness in setting aside strict hours for work, sleep etc. is shared by other great minds. The folk at the Fast Company and Podio have plotted the daily routines of 26 of history’s most creative people, and from Voltaire to Murakami there are two valuable lessons in there for us all.

Firstly, most of us need at least 12 hours away from work. Secondly, this 12 hours of downtime should consist mostly of sleep (naps help the mind solve creative problems), food and a little leisure. Few of the 26 creative minds held down a regular day job, although philosopher Immanuel Kant and psychologist Sigmund Freud are notable exceptions.

Another is writer Franz Kafka, who is the only genius out of the 26 to pursue a job unrelated to his creative field: Kafka was a bureaucrat at the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Famously, he was unhappy for it.

In the modern day, there is some glimmer of hope for the professional mind. With the push, in some sectors, toward flexible hours and work from home, is there also scope for people to pursue the routines that best suit them? As Picasso hinted, from there it’s a question of self-discipline.