“Practice” is the turning wheels of productivity, and it’s “play” and “process” that make up “practice”. That is Play + Process = Practice. But “play” is only half the equation. If play is the free flowing spirit, then process is the opposite, stiff, rigid and structured older brother. Process is cold and indifferent, it doesn’t care how you’re “feeling”, ignores your motivation level, dismisses how well or poorly you did yesterday.
There’s the day-to-day level of process, “punching in”, if you’re a writer, waking up at a consistent time to write, putting in the hours or words before getting lunch.
There’s the mechanical level of the process, doing the mechanical action properly. Maybe it’s learning to type, honing proper grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, organizing your files, or using the appropriate program. Or in the case of sprinting, making sure the mechanics of your motion or properly aligned and firing properly.
There’s the systematic level of the process, how to structure what you’re doing, the layout and or organization of the action. For writing it could be on the portion of what you are working on across the longer project. Maybe you’re in development, outlining, pre-writing, writing, or rewriting – and there’s a process for each of those. For sprinting or any kind of workout it’s the routine of different moves you script for yourself to go through that day.
This is “process”, the underlying structure to be used in combination with “play”, the sandbox to play in.