I've been on a bit of an interactive binge recently since I know how popular these are in the classroom. Today, the focus is on life skills that we all could improve upon: time management. This interactive pulls back the curtain to analyze the daily routines of the most creative artists, composers and writers (e.g., Beethoven, Picasso, Maya Angelou). This interactive has an added dimension too as jobs of the future that require creativity will be "safer" from the threat of automation (machine learning, artificial intelligence, robots). 

This shows the variation in when a subset (there are 26 in total) of these artists did their creative work:

A few notes:

• The i button next to their names provide biographical information
• There are six categories of activities measured; by clicking on checkbox at top of interactive you can focus on just one of them: sleep, creative work, day job/admin, food/leisure, exercise, other

A few ideas on how you might use this with your students:

• Have them compare and contrast how two of the artists manage their time  
• Pick one activity, for example, like sleep and have them analyze the chart for trends among the artists (e.g. most artists are early risers)
• Have them create their own time management log using the same format to block out their typical 24 hour school day
• Have them answer series of questions:
  • When do most artists doing their creative work? When are you at your "most creative?"
  • What are the sleep habits of these artists? Any generalities that you can make?
  • Did most of these artists exercise? Did they tend to be long or short workouts?
  • How many had to balance a day job with their artistic pursuits? 

Three ideas that came from our FinLit Fanatics (a growing community of 500 passionate personal finance educators): 

From Billy Mills who brought a math twist to it:

Maybe do a Venn diagram compare and contrast with student's typical day. Incorporate math by calculating what percent of day is used for activities of the people of student's choice.

From Kathi Carson Reed who came up with an idea comparing historical figures with contemporary creatives:

Would be interesting to compare to contemporary creative individuals or entrepreneurs via research. The time of day piece is very significant, early risers vs night owls. Interspersing leisure time is often vital to creativity. Not sure the source of data for the interactive, but I’ve seen articles from time to time covering how folks order their schedules in modern time.

From Steve Penley who finds a place for it in his career and education unit:

I think that this would fit in pretty well in the career & education unit. I stress the "5 P's": Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. This Interactive, along with some of the quotes can be used to stress that no matter the student's field of study and career; they will need to organize and develop time management skills. Seeing the examples of how some of the most creative people from history organized their lives shows the variety of approaches to planning their days in order to achieve balance and their life goals.

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About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.