Justin Prescribes

Short term verses long term planning

June 11, 2026

I had a fancy habit tracker that synced across my computer and my phone.

It had little emojis to represent each habit and a smart piece of code that showed me my progress with across the month.

It didn’t stick.

This week, I stuck half a refill page to the wall and listed my habits for the week. Beside each one was a space for each day of the week. As I did each habit I could colour in the square marking it done.

The refill page is nearly completely full- meaning I’ve done a week of near perfect habits.

I don’t think the secret is lower tech. I think it’s time horizon.

The first incarnation of my habit tracker I tried to create the ‘master document’, the be-all-and-end-all of habit lists. “These are the ones I’ll do for the WHOLE YEAR!”

The refill version is just this week.

The takeaway, I think is to shorten our time horizons. What are you doing just this week? And how can you track it?

Yes, we have to know what it’s in service of, the big goal.

But what makes it actually work is when we can simply do whats right in front of us.

Quality Time

February 24, 2026

Quality time is time spent on good things.

Quality time could be 5 minutes.

Quality time is also turning ordinary time into durations that feel more productive. I find that an hour of uninterrupted work can feel hellishly unproductive. But if, in the middle of the hour, I go for a 5 minute walk or have a stretch break, the time (which is now shorter) feels much better,

We can transform the feeling of time with what we surround it with.

How do you turn ordinary time into extraordinary time?

The action

February 9, 2026

People talk about the importance of the journey as opposed to the destination.

As actors we’re encouraged not to play a result but to play action instead. What comes as a result of that is not our business.

It’s a hard one to grapple. But I think there is a lot of peace we can all gain by attaching ourselves to and falling in love with the action and not the result.

Fall in love with providing outstanding educational opportunities for your students.

Fall in love with creating amazing value for your clients.

Fall in love with being the most alive and attentive parent.

The action is the thing we can control. The result is not… so it’s not worth the heartache.

Fall in love with the action. Then you may get some pleasant surprises along the way.

Get to

February 8, 2026

One of the simplest shifts in language has massively changed my life.

I found myself saying things like “I have to do the show tonight” or “I have to go to that meeting”.

Shows and meetings are part of the life I’ve designed for myself- so “have to” doesn’t ring as true for me.

“Have to” is against your will. It’s reluctant. It’s “Okay, fine I’ll do that”

None of these belong in the life I want. And the good news is, we can use language te remind ourselves each moment that we have a choice.

Switch your “have to” to a “get to”.

“I get to do the show tonight”

“I get to go to that meeting”

Look at all you get to do. How lucky are we?

Fundamentals

February 3, 2026

Isn’t it interesting how we can forget the fundamentals so easily?

A walk in the middle of the day will probably improve your mood. So will some exercise.

Completing a massive task in many small chunks (not all at once) is a lot less taxing.

Getting enough sleep will make the joys of life crisper.

Yeah, those fundamentals. Move, eat well and sleep enough- and keep reminding yourself to do it!

Associated

January 26, 2026

Do you know the feeling of being unbelievably motivated to do something?

Its the feeling of inspiration when you first decide to do something. You’re there at the finish line when a friend comletes a marathon. You’re in the audience at an award show. You attend a concert and imagine yourself up there performing.

There’s that feeling- “YES! I will do that too”

It’s a powerful feeling. You’re completely associated to the feeling of the goal.

And at that time it isn’t just a goal, it’s a visceral sensation. A pull that can be unstoppable- no one could change your mind at that time.

The further we get from that moment, the more we get disassociated with that powerful feeling.

The trick, then, is to somehow stay connected to that feeling.

It’s like a plug. The vacuum works perfectly when it’s plugged into the power source. The moment it’s unplugged… it stops. The further from the socket it gets the more useless it becomes.

The vacuum needs the plug. We need to re-associate constantly with that initial experience.

Find your way of doing this and don’t stop for anybody.

Catch them

January 22, 2026

So many things happen to you and around you on a daily basis.

If you wanted to you could find tiny moments that you love.

Little instances of joy.

Micro snaps of magic.

They are there but only if you look. And it’s easy not to look. I’m enjoying journaling as a way of catching them before they’re forgotten forever.

You don’t have to journal- but I’m inviting you to create some way of catching these as well.

Games

January 10, 2026

Why playing games is good for families.

-There’s a shared low stakes goal.

-Everyone is focussing on the same thing.

-Different combinations of people have to deal with the difficulty of losing (and winning)

There’s a reason actors use games in a rehearsal process. They’re building connection, emotion and love.

Might be time to get a pack of cards out.

I think everyone should warm up their voice

January 1, 2026

At drama school, the idea of warming up the voice and body was very normal. Before that, I think I’d only heard of warming up in the context of sports.

There is a bit of a belief sometimes that if someone is warming up they aren’t good enough to just do the thing.

It would be great if we didn’t believe that.

Actors warm up to free and flex their voice because they are about to use it.

The reason I think we should all have voice warm ups is because we all use our voices to do things in the world. Sure it’s not in the context of a performance, but we still use it.

Your voice warm up doesn’t need to be fancy. Here’s a really easy way to warm your voice up:

Step 1: Choose your favourite song

Step 2: Do a lip trill along with your song. Follow the melody as precisely as you can.

There you go- you’ve warmed your voice up!

Print it out

December 29, 2025

In a world of screens and never ending interfaces we are faced with an infinity of blank pages if we need it.

Your writing is at the top of the google doc, and below it is a sea of white pages deeper than that trench who’s name I can’t spell (Marinara? Mayo-nana? Sriracha?)

The ‘never ending blank’ offers us endless new beginnings which is awesome.

And it also offers us… endless new beginnings which is awful.

I feel I’ve just hacked the system. To edit a short video script to day, I did away with my computer entirely. I printed the draft out.

Printed.

Yes on real life paper I can write on with a pen or pencil and that the beetroot from my lunch can stain- yeah that kind of paper.

It was glorious. Suddenly I was an artist again. A worker. My thoughts had real weight in the world. My scribbled notes reflected the messy and quick thoughts in my head.

There comes a point where we need to get out of the interface of a screen and just hold the blimmin’ thing in our hands.

When in doubt, print it out.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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