A routine for bad days
What a pre-performance routine is for, and why it must be small enough to survive.
Athletes have pre-performance routines because performing well is unreliable and routines are not. The same logic applies to a Tuesday you’d rather skip.
What a routine is actually doing
It isn’t magic and it isn’t superstition. It’s a short, fixed sequence that reliably precedes the work, so that over time doing the sequence begins to produce the state instead of waiting for the state to arrive.
The mechanism is dull association. That’s all. But dull associations are exactly what you want on a bad day, because they don’t require you to feel anything in particular.
The design rules
Short. Two to four minutes. Anything longer becomes another thing to avoid.
Physical. Something with your hands or your body, not only a thought. Making a specific drink, clearing the desk in a specific order, three slow breaths, opening the same file first.
Identical every time. The value is entirely in the repetition. Varying it destroys the association you’re building.
Possible on your worst day. If it requires a tidy kitchen, good weather, or a particular mood, it will fail exactly when you need it.
The design rules, as a checklist
| Rule | Passes | Fails |
|---|---|---|
| Short | Two to four minutes | A twenty-minute morning routine |
| Physical | Filling a glass, clearing the desk | ”Set an intention” |
| Identical every time | The same four steps, same order | Whatever feels right today |
| Possible on your worst day | Works ill, works in a hotel | Needs a tidy kitchen and good light |
An example
Fill the same glass with water. Close every tab. Open the document and read yesterday’s next-action sentence. Set a timer. Begin.
Ninety seconds, no equipment, works when ill, works in a hotel, works when you don’t want to.
The bad-day version of the work
Alongside the routine, decide in advance what a minimum session looks like. Not your normal block - the smallest thing that still counts. Twenty minutes on one task. One paragraph. One function.
Having this defined ahead of time removes the negotiation. On a bad day you don’t ask whether to work, you do the minimum version, and roughly half the time you keep going past it because starting was the hard part.
What not to build in
Caffeine as the trigger - it stops being a trigger and becomes a requirement. Music with lyrics, if the work involves language. And anything you’d be embarrassed to do in an open-plan office, because eventually you’ll be in one.
On a bad day you don’t decide whether to work. You do the minimum version, and about half the time you keep going.
Does the routine stop working once I notice it is just association?
No. Knowing how a habit works has never stopped one from working - if it did, nobody would be able to fall asleep in their own bed.
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