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Deliberately inflexible: Thomas Mann
The alarm clock rings at 8 a.m., after the bath, breakfast is ready at 8:30 a.m., his work begins at 9 a.m. sharp, then he needs three hours of focus work without any disturbance.
There is tea every day at 5 p.m. and at the end of the day a walk between half past seven and eight.
Thomas Mann's (1875 - 1955) autonomous work routine in a deliberately inflexible daily routine earned him the 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature.
If you follow the family history of the Manns, one record chases the next anyway - everything mastered from home.
What does everyday life have to look like in order to provide the basis for such successful, meaningful work?
Rigid limits, a very strict division of the daily phases into asynchronous and synchronous work as well as absolutely noise-free concentration, Thomas Mann established - almost despotic - as two iron principles of his organization.
These were the foundations for his artistic work, to which everything simply had to be subordinated.
Instead of command and obedience, equal discussions with democratic decisions on the agreements in terms of core working time in the home office and joint family organization would be the order of the day for the Mann family.
In order to make his work environment aware of his limits, man would surely mark his calendar meticulously in colored blocks, switch off notifications when he is currently in his focus time, introduce scheduling software and communicate with others on core collaboration times.
And noise-canceling headphones would be his favorite accessory these days - at least from 9 to 12.
Binding correspondence: Goethe and Schiller
As different, diverse and individual as people are, so is their way of motivating and working. Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) claimed that he could not write without the smell of rotting apples in the drawer. Fortunately, the productivity duo Schiller and Goethe relied on distributed work even back then and did not have to share a writing room. Otherwise the two would have been more engaged in arguing than writing.
In addition to the completely different working hours - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a morning person, Schiller was a night owl - Schiller loved smoking, while Goethe is said to have remarked, according to the description of the poet Karl Ludwig von Knebel, that smoking makes you stupid: »It makes you incapable for thinking and writing. «Ergo was the only possibility to work together, spatial and temporal separation for individual maximum performance.
Today, Goethe would probably simply invite Schiller to take a look over the shoulder on a digital typescript, who could then give his feedback via the comment function.
In search of commitment in distance work, they chose the medium of letters at the time and set their deadlines for each other by post.
So they succeeded in the great drama in asynchronous cooperation - without any drama.
Work on the move: Ingeborg Bachmann
Who would have fit in well with Goethe-Schiller's correspondence? Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973)! Only her life data thwarted the bill - she was born almost 200 years after Goethe. The Nobel Prize winner would have been in the forefront of “Virtual First”, that is, daily work without a joint office stay. Always traveling - mostly because of love, especially with Max Frisch - Bachmann never stayed in the same place for long. Fixed office hours - unimaginable, no cigarette in hand while writing - especially! From studying in Innsbruck, through Graz, Vienna, Rome to Munich, Zurich and finally Rome again: Bachmann led a life on the move instead of in the same everyday life. And she succeeded in doing this without any loss of productivity. Because Ingeborg Bachmann's job was everywhere there,where work is done.
Transferred to the present day, this means: Regardless of whether it is a physical space or a digital environment - the workplace is what we set up ourselves as such.
The best thing about it?
Apartments come, apartments go, Bachmann's poems remain.
The poet on the move today would probably always be on the move with a notebook instead of pen and paper, in order to be able to record her thoughts and texts anywhere and anytime.
Questionnaire as an instrument: Max Frisch
Speaking of love and Max Frisch (1911-1991). The Swiss writer, who was not a travel fanatic like Bachmann, created a refuge for his literary work with a stable converted into a studio next to his house in the Ticino mountain town of Berzona, deliberately separated from the living and sleeping areas. There he also wrote the second of a total of three diaries of a special kind: Frisch established the diary as an art form through a consciously creative artistic implementation of the day's events.
In Frisch's "Diary 1966-1971" he uses the questionnaire format as an instrument. It remains to be seen who the questions are aimed at, but they do provide a starting point for the interactive survey tool of the new world of work. Frisch asks 25 questions on each of the major issues in life and asks readers to give short answers: »Keywords are enough«. He asks questions such as: "Are you convinced of your self-criticism?" "What are you grateful for?" "What are your daily actions, decisions, plans, deliberations, etc., if not based on an exact or vague hope?"
Frisch's questions would be spot on in the context of New Work, as would his way of reflecting on his own life and work in the mirror of the zeitgeist and the global political situation.
The reverse mentoring or reverse learning that he undertook when - as is so often the case - he discussed the nights with young, conscious people until the early hours of the morning would also fit into the new world of work.
Don't be afraid of repetition: Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (1906 - 1975) not only wrote and thought a lot in the home office she set up and organized herself, but also, if you take it seriously, wrote a philosophical treatise on human work in general with her work »Vita activa«. Cigarette handling remained the only permitted multitasking activity besides interviews, desk work or university lectures. For Arendt, action meant the »interaction between people« for the purpose of »uniqueness and plurality in the generation of ideas«. In this way, the philosopher earned a place at the very front in the concepts of New Work.
For them too (as for all of the poets and thinkers mentioned here), writing needs a regulated time and place framework. As a pioneer in the field of New Work, she would certainly have used her push function in a targeted manner, used separate numbers for business and private life and separated the work and living space. Because when she was done with work, she said, she was "done with it."
Because even Arendt could not miraculously multiply and sit in three offices at the same time. Today she would probably enjoy the advantages of co-working spaces and could adapt and design her workplace according to the needs of her current projects, whether as an author for the New York Times, as a professor at various American universities or as a scientific author . Without any worries, she could fall back on all the equipment on site or book meeting rooms as required and thus retain the upper hand in terms of flexibility and independent organization of her work.
With Hannah Arendt, times were irrelevant when it came to entries in her “Thinking Diary”.
As your constant companion, this keeps your thoughts on record - whether while walking, reading or at your desk.
Regarding routine work methods, she wrote in her journal in September 1950: “One should not be afraid of repetitions.
It can also be a repetition. "
Hannah Arendt says: don't be afraid of asynchronous, individual and organized work!
If you follow in the footsteps of Mann, Schiller, Goethe, Frisch, Bachmann and Arendt, you will recognize a pattern: Repeating your own work routine creates creativity, an individual space and the opportunity for more communication and collaboration in a »Virtual First« Working world.
