I used to have an exhausting writing routine, but it was a way to force myself to write. I did it to shed the fear of sucking. I would read an hour of a screenwriting book. The book didn't matter since I read and reread books all the time. I just wanted a POV from a writing teacher to live by for that writing session. After that our I would take a fifteen-minute break. Hour two consisted of typing a script I loved. I mean word for word of a produced script like In Burges (I've typed that movie out three times). I looked at this exercise as practicing the way a master would practice. If it were basketball, I'd practice the jumper like Kobe; if it were soccer, I'd practice my bend like Beckham, chess; Bobby Fischer. You get the picture. In my mind, I'm writing and pacing the way a master paces himself, using description, abbreviations, inflections, montages, music, etc. just like him/her/them a grandmaster.
It was super exhausting, but when that second hour and my second break was up, I was committed to writing five to ten pages with what I had accumulated. I now felt I had a little or a lot of "something" I didn't have before; another writer's perspective. I could interpret what I soaked up for my material when it came to structuring and style. It's eye-opening to see two, three, four writers covey the same shot, thought, idea in their own voice/style but still use the SAME structure. I read a lot, and I still rewrite scripts and pretend to be Edgar Wright, Christopher Nolan, Charlie Kaufman, Martin McDonagh, Stanley Kubrick, and so many others. But I no longer need it as my warm up. Now, I can sit there and hammer through ideas because I've shot the same jumper, kicked the same penalty kick, made the same chess move, or sang the same note to that song I've been belting in my car a few hundred times or more.
We should all avoid cliches, but there's one constant and profound truth that exists because it's painfully obvious and true. Practice makes perfect, or least makes a first draft that's total shit, that you can eventually make into your ideal version.
KEEP WRITING!