Like many writers, Scott Adams has a pretty strict routine that he follows when getting down to work. He describes it in a Business Insider article, and no surprise, it’s lot like other creative routines. As he explains:

Creativity is not something you can summon on command. The best you can do is set an attractive trap and wait. My mornings are the trap.

I wait for the ideas to arrive at their leisure, like a hunter in a duck blind. And in order for the trap to work, I exercise tight control over my physical environment.

This is not unlike Stephen King’s description of his routine, or Raymond Chandler’s insistence that a writer spend four hours a day at their desk.