Tonight I’m teaching a class at my local library.  It’s the second in a series given by the Clutter Clearing Companion (that’s me!).

The first was last month.  The topic was paring down your stock of books.  The timing was perfect as the library was having a book sale two weeks later.  We had about a dozen attendees and, based on what they told me after the class and what they wrote in their evaluations, they learned a lot.

Tonight’s topic is clothing.  Specifically, I’m focusing on closets.  I will confess that prior to 7AM this morning I was not prepared.  I woke up and knew that I had two things to accomplish before 8AM: my morning walk and preparing for my class.  In the past, I would have scrapped the walk in favor of doing class preparations.  But I know how much better my days are when I start them with a walk, so I took off – and accomplished both tasks, in less time!

How did I do this?  As I was walking, I started teaching the class in my head – literally going through everything I would say.  I should explain that “not being prepared” for my class was not really true.  I had all the ideas in my head, I just hadn’t put them down on paper yet.  But I find that if I talk through it first I get 1) a dry run done and 2) it’s easier to put my outline on paper.

So upon my return from my walk, I had a good portion of my talk outlined in my head.  So I opened up my computer and in 10 minutes had my outline down.  Then, I wrote this blog post.  And it’s not even 8AM yet!

Here’s the thing:  I put myself first this morning.  I knew how important my walk was, and I didn’t let other things I needed to get done stop me from doing it.  And in putting myself first, I inadvertently got my other tasks accomplished!  Oh how I love life’s lessons in action:)