For a tournament?

I've been spending ridiculous amounts of time lately preparing for an upcoming tourney. It made me think about my overall methods of preparation. Below is my general routine. I'm curious to hear yours:

1. Decide on general categories of tackle. This would be categories like swimbait, flipping, finesse, cranking. For some tournaments I narrow down to one or two categories. Other times I will bring a little in each category.

2. Pick out rods in each category and check the line tests on each reel to match the lake. Respool any rods that have old line. I line all the rods up along the wall with the lines threaded up but no lures tied on.

3. Go through each category of tackle. For a small tourney, or a lake I know well, this might not take very long. For a big tourney or a new lake, this may take hours. For example, I recently went through every crankbait, jerkbait, topwater, swimbait, and bag of plastic worms that I own. It can be hard to remember everything that is in your box, and I find that doing this regularly keeps me sharp in regards to what I have available.

During this step, I'll separate in to 3 basic categories in regards to whether I want to bring the tackle for the tournament. The categories are:

1) Yes's
2) Maybe's
3) No's

For a big tournament I check the hooks on each bait that goes in to the yes pile and replace any bad hooks. I pay special attention to any baits that will be my likely 2nd choice if I retie.

4. I'll tie up my rods with the baits I plan to use on tournament day. This well help my thought process in regards to the maybe's. During this process I will:

1) Check the drag on each reel
2) Pull 50' of line off each reel that has previously used line and run it through my fingers to check it
3) Use a line conditioner on all my fluorocarbon setups and on the guides of any rods that are dirty or have crusty junk on the guides
4) Check every hookpoint on every lure tied on for gameday

The process of tying up may also spur me to go back to the no category and grab something I forgot about or that suddenly seems good.

5. Now I go back through all the maybe tackle and sort it again in to yes's and no's. Typically, I leave most of it at home. I always ask the question, "will I really use this in the tournament?" That's an important question.

6. The last thing I do is check all my accessories, making sure I have everything. That might be things like scale, measuring board, pliers, license, hook files, headlamp, sunglasses, food, jackets, hats, etc. Nothing sucks more than showing up on the morning of a tournament and realizing you forgot some important accessory.

I try to have everything ready for the tournament 3 days in advance. That gives me time to think clearly about what is important - the actual fishing - which brings me to

7. Mental preparation. I'm big on mental preparation. I spend a lot of time rehearsing in my mind what will happen the day of the tournament, how I will adjust, and what I will look for. I like to focus on positive outcomes, thinking about specific areas and how I'll get a good fish off that area. This probably sounds corny, but there's power in positive thinking and rehearsal. One example that comes to mind is:

Imagine your partner has a big fish on and his reel falls off his rod. What do you do? Grab for the line or the reel? What if you net a fish and a hole rips in the net and the fish falls through? What do you? Try to lip it, net it again or? These sound far fetched but both of these things happened to us last year. If you've thought about an outcome ahead of time, your reaction might be a split second faster. If you haven't seen the video on bassmaster.com of Iaconelli diving in after his line while keeping a hand on the boat and landing the fish - watch it - and think about it. His reactions were instant.

Fun stuff to think about :) Curious to hear how you guys do it.