What Cold Start Routines Would Help You Get Your Work Engine Going?

How to build a reliable path back to your best work

You know that sinking feeling when you sit down to do important work after a break, and everything feels... off? Maybe you’re staring at a blank page or your usual workflow feels clunky and awkward. It’s like trying to start a car that’s been sitting in freezing weather. Everything’s harder than it should be.

This happens to all of us. Life projects consume us — holidays, illness, or other priorities pull us away from our core (economic) work. When we return, instead of jumping back in, we find ourselves stuck. For writers, the words refuse to flow. For salespeople, conversations feel forced. For leaders, decision-making feels muddy.

Head trash starts accumulating: “If I was a real writer, this would be easier.” “Maybe I really don’t have much to say.” “Maybe I need to take another course to get motivated.”

None of those are likely to be true. The real truth is that you’re rusty and your engine’s cold. Like cars before fuel injection, it’s not that your engine doesn’t work, it’s just harder to start the engine when it’s cold.

While writers often know this pain intimately, the cold start challenge appears in just about any professional skill that requires practice, focus, and working memory. Salespeople, coders, painters, teachers, coaches, architects, analysts, and students all experience it. (I’ll use “rusty” and “cold” interchangeably from here.)

This was a topic we fell into during January’s Monthly Momentum Call and I mentioned my writing cold start routine as an example. Some attendees asked me to write more about both, so here you go.

My Coffeeshop Writing Cold Start Routine

The following is printed out and stays in my yellow writing folder. They are the exact steps I needed to do to get into a good writing groove, with writing at the coffeeshop as the default.

1. Order cappuccino.

2. Choose a desk and get the FreeWrite Traveler, Remarkable, writing folder, and writing steno pad out while coffee is being made.

3. Empty pockets and put contents of pockets in the bag so they don’t disturb me.

4. Review Momentum Planner (in Remarkable) and writing log while waiting for cappuccino to come out.

5. Once you have coffee, immediately (re)pair Airpods with Apple Watch or iPod. Default to Coheed and Cambria or Apple Focus playlist for writing.

6. Skip this step if you already know what you’re called to write about. If book day, review book outline in yellow folder, reread last draft to see what breadcrumbs you left for yourself. If blogging day, start writing whatever you’ve been thinking about, return to an unfinished draft, or review yellow folder for seeds.

7. Outline or bullet out whatever you decided to write in step 6 or before you left the house.

8. Write for a focus block or until you’re knocked out of flow.

9. Check in with TEA available.

   1. If not enough for another focus block, do post-writing processing.

      1. For book writing, leave breadcrumbs in the document and fill out writing log.

      2. For blog drafting, fill out writing log, then do 1 or 2 below

         1. If the piece is complete enough, finish final editing or send it to Steve when you’re home.

         2. If the piece is not complete, leave breadcrumbs at the end of the piece to make it easy to pick up next time.

   2. If TEA is available for another focus block, repeat step 7.

10. Pack up and walk home.

Each step in the list has a job and most of them are designed to support my focus on drafting. You’ll notice that the first seven steps are just getting set up to write and the 9th step is setting myself up for writing the next time.

In a future post, I’ll share more about writing logs and project folders, but I’m trying to keep this one focused on cold start routines.

Cold Start Routines Are About Defaults, Not Constraints

I’m sure quite a few people are noping the hell out of a 10-step list for their creative or important work. To them, it’s going to feel too rigid and formulaic or contain a lot of stuff they shouldn’t have to tell themselves.

The thing is, if I’m rusty, the more choices I have, the easier it is for me to spend a bunch of time meta-working, clicking, and figuring out what I should do. I want more of my time, energy, and attention to be focused on the work, not figuring out how to do it.

When it comes to writing, I’ve already figured out exactly what I need to do to get warmed up and in a groove. I don’t need to do that figuring all over again.

Moreover, this routine has carved such deep neurological grooves that being in any coffeeshop with a cappuccino triggers my writing mindset. At that point, it’s not about forcing myself to write — it’s about following what my whole self already wants to do. This whole-self default is powerful enough to overcome my head trash and digital distractions.

That said, it’s not a straightjacket. If I want to do something different, I can. If I need to do something different, I can.

But this cold start routine works for me every time. After two or three days of doing the cold start routine, I don’t need to think about it. It just happens, which means writing just happens.

Lastly, I know that if writing isn’t happening, it’s not about my skill or creativity. It’s about Competing Priorities from the Air Sandwich. And if that’s the case, I probably need to write about those competing priorities to figure out how to get aligned on writing.

What Cold Start Routines Would Serve You Well?

While not as structured nor written down, I have another cold start routine for sales. I’m typically good about staying on top of sales, but being away for 3-4 weeks or heads-down in a writing project is enough for me to need to walk through sales opportunities and start following up with some opportunities that have gone cold.

I’ve learned from working with clients that most of us need 2-3 cold start routines tied to our high-value activities. The more important but non-urgent the activity, the more essential a cold start routine becomes — precisely because these activities are most vulnerable to Competing Priorities.

For instance, if you’re an owner or entrepreneur, a cold start routine for a creative activity (like writing is for me) and a sales/growth activity would probably be supportive. If you’re a leader in a larger organization, you might be served well to have a prioritization cold start routine, as well as one that helps you do a higher-level review of how and what your teammates are doing.

Ready to create your own cold start routines? Here’s how to begin:

1. Identify 2-3 high-value activities where you tend to get rusty. Hint: choose the activities that make you most uncomfortable when you’ve been away from them for a while.

2. Pick one activity to start with, ideally the one that would most support your success right now.

3. Document your ideal warm-up sequence, including where you’ll do the work, what tools and resources you need, and the specific steps that help you ease into flow.

Remember: the goal isn’t to create constraints, but to build a reliable path back to your best work, especially when you’re feeling cold.

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My book, Start Finishing, and its companion workbook, The Start Finishing Field Guide, are full of tips and tools like these to support you in starting and finishing more of your best work. Pick up a copy from your favorite retailer, or from our PF Shop.