Mine is mostly the run of the mill usual, though I change throw ins, corners and goal kick decisions to say it's the AR expectation to give the decision if it's within a rough 15 yard circle around them as the move along the line, but to wait and see, take their time, look at how teams set up to give them clues before making the decision. Most of the time, decisions aren't close so using some thinking time doesn't affect anything.I had a card with a few bullets point on yo make sure I went through the pre-match in the correct order.
As you say, many pre-matches are the same and it results in some AR's switching off. Ultimately you have to find what is right for you and what will work.
My main thing that was different from many others was throw-ins. I didn't break it up into thirds or halves. It was eye to eye contact right the way along, with the expectation I would lead on most (of course there are times AR would be e.g ball under their nose)
The trick is to give your AR responsibilities, but then also take some of those away.
The risk of mixing it up is you might miss something, better to stick with a routine. I always used the pitch to cover things in a sequence. Start at the goal line for GK / corner and ball over line for goal, into the area for penalties, middle of the pitch for free kicks and mass con, and the touchline for throw-ins and offsides. Just helped me to remember everything without needing to resort to cue cards.
The other thing about doing a pregame like what's mentioned here is that it becomes part of your own pregame routine. Just like players go through the same warmup to get their minds in the right place before a game, we should also do that. I treat my pregame like I do my own warmup. I go through the same things so I can get my mind in the right place and I'm ready to take the game on.This. ^ ^ ^
Treat your pre-match as you would any work-based "safety brief" cos that's effectively what it is. Like any safety brief it has to cover certain basic points which are based on the risk assessment you've done on previous games ...