A simple GMing prep timesaver: Whenever you have a moment — and not necessarily while you’re doing all of your other prep work — take a couple of minutes and get the small stuff out of the way.

That small stuff is micro-prep: stock your RPG to-go box, sharpen your pencils, set aside the books you’ll need, photocopy your monsters, bookmark commonly-referenced rules, make sure your Tact-Tiles are wiped off — in short, all of the myriad little tasks that you don’t want to leave until the last minute.

The nice thing about micro-prep is that you can do it at any time, and in fits and starts. Even if you only have a minute or two, chances are you can knock out one of these smaller tasks.