I tried Hayao Miyazaki's creative routine ☁️🖋️

Christy Anne Jones

10 Dec 202324:52

EducationalLearning

32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThe video details author Christina attempting the creative routine of acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki for a day. She wakes at 6am, takes a walk while getting coffee, and starts work at 9am. She makes breakfast, works on her writing project, has a late lunch per Miyazaki's routine, and does some Japanese radio calisthenics. She continues working, taking brief breaks for food and tea, until 9pm when Miyazaki would stop work. While finding the 12-hour, 6 day a week routine challenging, Christina provides thoughtful cultural context around Japanese workplace norms.

Takeaways

😊 Christy is trying out the creative routine of famous animator Hayao Miyazaki
🎥 Miyazaki is known for films like Spirited Away and founding the acclaimed Studio Ghibli
⏰ Miyazaki starts work early, exercises, has a late lunch, and works late into the evening
🍜 Miyazaki often eats cup noodles while working
📝 Christy tries to follow Miyazaki's routine while working on her own writing projects
🤔 Christy finds the 12-hour workday challenging but doable with the right work-life balance
🎨 Miyazaki's visual creative process differs from Christy's writing process
🌎 Understanding cultural context helps explain intense Japanese work ethics
😌 Christy reiterates not to overwork yourself or work 12-hour days regularly
👩‍💻 Overall, the routine provides Christy some inspiration but is tailored to Miyazaki's animation work

Q & A

What is the video about?
-The video is about Christine trying out the creative routine of famous Japanese animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki for a day.
What does Christine do for work?
-Christine is a writer. She recently finished an adult fantasy novel and has started working on a new novel.
What time does Christine wake up to try Miyazaki's routine?
-Christine wakes up at 6:00 AM to try out Miyazaki's routine.
What does Miyazaki's daily routine typically involve?
-Miyazaki typically rises at 6:00 AM for exercise and coffee, arrives at Studio Ghibli by 9:00 AM, postpones lunch until 3:00 PM, and leaves the studio at 9:00 PM after a 12-hour workday.
What does Christine have for breakfast?
-Christine makes a dish she calls 'egg toast', which contains eggs, mayonnaise and toast.
What does Christine do between breakfast and starting work?
-Christine goes for a long walk, gets coffee on the way, and is back at her desk ready to start work at 9:00 AM.
What does Christine have for lunch?
-Christine orders Japanese curry for lunch around 1:00 PM because she is too hungry to wait until 3:00 PM like Miyazaki.
What Japanese exercise does Christine try?
-Christine tries 'rajio taiso' which is Japanese radio calisthenics that she saw Miyazaki and his team doing in a documentary.
What is Christine's word count by the end of the 12-hour workday?
-By 9:00 PM at the end of her 12-hour workday, Christine has written 6,625 words.
What are Christine's thoughts on trying Miyazaki's routine?
-Christine feels the 12-hour workday is extreme. She says she got work done but would have been more effective with adequate rest rather than overwork.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducing the creative routine video series and today's subject: Hayao Miyazaki

The narrator introduces her ongoing series trying famous creative routines. Today she will loosely follow the routine of acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. She provides background on Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and explains differences between his work and hers.

05:01

😊 Thanking the sponsor Squarespace and starting the Miyazaki-inspired routine

The narrator thanks Squarespace for sponsoring the video. She starts her day inspired by Miyazaki's routine - making breakfast, going for a walk and coffee, and beginning work at 9am.

10:03

📝 Struggling to make progress while working on a new writing project

The narrator works on a new writing project but struggles to make much progress. She reflects that illustration work used a different part of her brain than writing.

15:03

😩 Feeling frustrated but taking a radio calisthenics break

The narrator feels frustrated with slow progress. She takes a break to do Japanese radio calisthenics, which Miyazaki and his team often did.

20:08

😌 Reflecting on attempting the 12-hour routine during a messy week

The narrator reflects on her experience with Miyazaki's long 12-hour routine. She's glad she only tried it for 1 day given everything else going on. She advises against overwork.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡writing routine

A writing routine refers to the consistent schedule, habits, or practices that a writer follows on a regular basis. In the video, Christie tries out the writing routines of famous authors to get inspiration and insight into their creative processes. For example, she has previously tried the routines of Stephen King and Octavia Butler. Trying out ha Miyazaki's routine, even though he is a filmmaker and not a writer, is intended to fuel her own writing creativity.

💡hayao miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a famous Japanese filmmaker, animator, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli. In the video, Christie is a big fan of Miyazaki's work and explores his creative routine including waking up early, going for long walks, working 12+ hour days, and more. She does this to gain insight into his process that may translate to her own writing.

💡studio ghibli

Studio Ghibli is the acclaimed Japanese animation studio that Miyazaki co-founded. It is famous for films like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and others. The studio's creative culture likely influences Miyazaki's intense routine. Christie references her love of the studio's works as inspiration for trying his routine.

💡12-hour workday

A key part of Miyazaki's routine is his extreme 12+ hour work days, which Christie tries to emulate. This involves working from 9am to 9pm each day. While not sustainable long-term, experiencing this intensive creative time helps Christie understand Miyazaki's headspace.

💡first draft

Christie acknowledges that she struggles with writing first drafts, when everything feels challenging and progress can be slow. Trying to write within Miyazaki's long work days puts this struggle into relief. Still, his routine offers perspective on pushing through the hard parts.

💡storyboarding

Storyboarding refers to the visual planning and layout of shots within a film. Miyazaki spends much of his 12-hour work days actively storyboarding and drawing. Christie notes that trying his routine during her fiction writing means she works quite differently.

💡productivity

A core part of any creative routine is its ability to foster productivity. However, Christie has mixed productivity while trying to write within Miyazaki's long hours - struggling to focus that intensely for so long. This shows her the value of rest.

💡work culture

Creative industries often demand intense work cultures involving long hours. Christie notes how in Japan specifically this expectation is amplified, providing context on why Miyazaki's routine is not unusual given the collectivist culture he works within.

💡overwork

Despite understanding the cultural drivers, Christie maintains that Miyazaki's 12-hour, 6-day routine qualifies as overwork in most contexts. She is mindful not to directly judge his choices, while still asserting that such overwork should be avoided in favor of rest.

💡inspiration

A key reason Christie tries these creative routines is to gain inspiration from the approaches of others, which can re-energize her own writing. While struggling at times to match Miyazaki's intensity, experiencing his focus does spark useful lessons and motivation.

Highlights

Miyazaki usually had all of part A and most of Part B in his head when the film was first announced

By the time Miyazaki started Part D he would begin having doubts about whether the five parts and the length assigned to the film would be enough to contain the story

A sense of impeding crisis would deep into the studio

I am here planting my flag in the sand that regardless of the original inspiration of the name the Studio's name is jibli not gibli

I usually postpone the lunch break because when you eat lunch you get sleepy and tired

There's a little detail that his wife made him promise to leave by 900 p.m. at the earliest as if that's an early time to leave if you start work at 9:00 a.m.

If I were to to try and guess, if he were more of a traditional Japanese breakfast T shaku, kind of guy then it would be like the type of meal that had fish and a little bit of rice and maybe some n and Mesa soup

There's so many clips of him eating cup noodles like at his desk or making them for the team

I remember seeing it in the documentary a kingdom of dreams and Madness and that's Miyazaki and the staff at Studio jibli doing radio calisthenics

I want you to know that I felt silly for that entire thing

I told you guys like two years ago that I wanted to make a video essay on Studio jibli because I love them Ian jibli and H Miyazaki specifically really fascinating

When we look at the behavior of someone from a very different culture to us we need to factor in our own cultural biases and also ethnocentrism

In Japan it's not uncommon to work very very long hours to stay back late to leave when your boss leaves

If we look at like other creative Industries in Japan and just Japan work culture specifically there is a lot of people working very very long hours

I got a lot of writing work done yesterday I got a lot of creative work done but I would be a lot more effective this morning and today if I didn't work for 12 hours yesterday

Transcripts

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