A short warm-up is one of the best habits you can build. It loosens the hands, wakes up your ears, and tells your brain that practice has begun.
Begin with gentle scales
Play a few octaves of a favourite scale slowly and evenly. Evenness matters more than speed — you are waking the hand up, not racing it.
Add one technical exercise
Pick a single exercise (Hanon, Czerny, or a simple five-finger pattern) and play it once at a relaxed tempo. One is enough; the goal is blood flow and attention, not endurance.
Listen before you play
Before a single note, hold your hands over the keys and take a breath. Two seconds of calm focus will do more for your playing than any finger drill.
Do not skip it
The sessions you feel least ready for are exactly the ones where a warm-up pays off most. Make it the ritual that starts every practice.