Notes on a Process 2

One of the things you get taught early on when learning to play Golf is about the value of a pre-shot routine.

A commitment to doing the same thing, in the same order each and every time you’re making a shot.

The best players I’ve ever played with do this religously. There is no deviation. Even after a mistake or a disturbance, the process remains the same.

Less competent players (like myself) are prone to wavering. A mistake leads to things speeding up. To hitting the next ball in anger. Mistakes compound quickly.

Similarly, when feeling uncomfortable or unsettled by background noises, lesser players continue regardless, when they should be taking a breath and resetting.

In certain areas of our life, we come to think of routine as something bad. As a restriction, imposing unwanted rules and structure around us.

But in many areas. It’s a huge benefit. When you arrive at a set of actions and sequence them in a specific way, routine and process create space for us to do our best work.

In the last twelve months, when I’ve written the stuff I’m most proud of, there has been a super-tight set of actions and they have been sequenced in a specific way. Notes prepped in a certain way, a draft constructed in a certain way, posts written at a certain time in a specific place. A rhythm to the way in which they’ve been published. And then there are the things I’m a bit more ambivelant about. The stuff which has felt necessary to write, but not that important in the grand scheme of things. They’ve been produced with less structure, less routine…

So, in writing, as in Golf (and perhaps, if PG Wodehouse is to be believed, in life too) build a routine, trust the process and stick to it at all costs. The work will be better for it.