There is an old Buddhist saying that goes, “One teaches best what one needs most to learn.” The idea behind it is that if you get your act together enough to teach others something you struggle with, you will drive home the learning authentically ’cause you truly understand the issue, and you’ll step up your own game in the process.  Really resonates with me, and now I’m going to bust it out on you. I’ve been hesitant to give advice in areas I  struggle with, but here goes…

One of the keys to productivity for a Manic is planning in advance. We’re so in the moment we often underestimate the time it takes us to do things, and quite frankly we can get pretty scattered. That’s why people like me have trouble being on time,  finding our keys, and running out of gas…

So when my racing coach was helping me train for my first marathon, he stressed the importance of prepping the night before a big race. After killing me with stories of races where he showed up missing a shoe or his running shorts and other ridiculous fails, this Manic Impressive coach taught me how to get everything ready the night before. The day of you’re too busy doing to effectively plan and track the packing of your gear or your pre-race food and hydration. His   advice on this has stuck with me for years –

“Get everything ready the night before.”

So most of the time (yeah, I’m not totally there yet) I get my gear/clothing/water/food/ backpack/briefcase packed and ready before I go to sleep. That includes gathering everything I’m wearing, packing everything I’m not, prepping my breakfast and loading the coffee maker, so all I have to do in the morning is shower, shave,  dress, eat, brush and go.

This one idea has help me improve my on-time performance dramatically. It has also preventing me from catastrophic failures like showing up at the starting line with only one shoe, to work without my cell phone, or to class without my slide deck and clicker. This simple Life Hack has made a huge difference for me, and will for you too once you nail it. Give it a shot!