Before the Journey · Principle 3 of Six

FAMILIARISE

Build enough familiarity with the route to understand where you are going.

The Basic Idea

Familiarisation is a brief review of the journey so that its shape is already in mind before it begins: the general direction, the main roads, the towns passed and the few junctions where a mistake would be expensive.

It is not memorising the route. It is knowing enough to recognise where you are.

Why It Matters

A driver who knows the shape of a journey hears each instruction in context. “Take the next exit” means something when you already know the road it leads to.

The same driver can carry on when the screen freezes, the signal drops or the battery fails, because the journey was never held only inside the device.

In Practice

  • Zoom out and take in the whole route, then zoom in on the two or three junctions that matter.
  • Note the main roads and the towns you expect to pass, so you can tell whether you are still on course.
  • Look at the final mile in detail — the approach, the turn and the arrival.
  • Where the arrival is unfamiliar or awkward, look at it on satellite imagery or Street View before you set off.
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