The benefits of a pre-court routine

A career at The Bar means a lifetime of preparing for court. It makes sense to create a winning routine to follow every time.

Freeing up your thinking time

It’s well-documented that many sporting legends repeat the same routine before every performance. It helps them get ‘in the zone’.

A pre-court routine will free up your thinking time to concentrate on what matters in the hours ahead. Here are some ideas to consider.

Learning from sporting legends

In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear explains the pre-race routine Michael Phelps followed for each competitive swim.

It involved the same type of food, relaxation technique, number of warm-up lengths, music playlist and starting block routine. He didn’t deviate from it for decades.  

Roger Federer, Lewis Hamilton, Paula Radcliffe Rafa Nadal, David Beckham, and many, many others follow a routine which helps them focus before a major event.

They all say that the content of the routine matters less than the application of it, every single time, which creates the opportunity for focus.

Choose a routine that energises you

I once knew a barrister whose pre-court routine started at 4am.   He was so scared of being under-prepared that by 10am on the day of a big trial he had worked his socks off for six hours and was completely exhausted.

The trouble was that the 4am start was his pre-court routine and had been for decades. The very idea of changing it was a non-starter for him.

If you are creating a pre-court routine, pick one that will energise you, rather than drain you.

Choose a combination of sleep, healthy brain food, some outdoor exercise, breathing exercises, plenty of water, an upbeat music track, and your lucky socks / charm / shoelace.

It’s all in the preparation

The key to a stunning performance in court is, of course, a great deal of preparation.

Sometimes you will have months to prepare; at others, you’ll be lucky to carve out an hour, or less.

Regardless of how much you have been able to prepare, a pre-court routine will help you focus and calm your nerves. 

How to access systems support

At Jurilogical we love systems that automate the trivial and free up time to focus on the barristering.  The Business of Barristering programme gives you all the systems you need to have a great day in court.

By Heidi Smith
Creator of Jurilogical.com