You move the starting line backwards.

That means simply sitting at the keyboard for an hour if the goal is to write. Changing into your gym clothes and stepping out the door if it’s to run. Or just opening your textbook if it’s to study.

Don’t look too far ahead, don’t aim for the results. Good things rarely pay off immediately, anyway.

You’ll find the momentum from these starting tasks to be rather compelling in getting you to complete your tasks.

I’ve been reading Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey and it’s been a blast seeing how other creatives approach their craft.

That’s how I learned about Twyla Tharp, and this was how she described her routine.

“I begin each day of my life with a ritual. I wake up at 5:30 A.M., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours.

“The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.

“It’s a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualises it—makes it repeatable, easy to do. It reduces the chance that I would skip it or do it differently. It is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about.”

Here’s how I’ve been approaching my own routines:

• I sit with the blank page first thing every morning, regardless of whether or not I have anything to write
• I do 10 push-ups or squats without planning to work out
• I wake up at six in the morning, walk downstairs, and make myself a cup of coffee, even if I plan to get more sleep

I don’t tell myself I need to write my best work. I don’t aim for any new physical records. I don’t even plan to get up early.

But by putting one foot across the starting line daily, I end up writing a thousand words, working out for an hour, getting a headstart to my day.

There’s also one hidden benefit: the pride of keeping your promises to self, no matter how small. And I guess that’s as good a finishing line as any.