Work Clean by Dan Charnas

normal daily work threshold. Begun as a 1-day-per-week exercise, finding your Meeze Point can ease you out of the overplanning habit. Fridays are good days to reserve for this experiment because they are often the day wherein we feel the least pressure to over-plan. To begin:
    1.Select a maximum of three Actions to complete for this day. An Action can be as large as something that takes 5 hours or as small as 5 minutes. We want a nice balance of large to small actions, like a normal day.
    2.Place those Actions on your calendar at the appropriate times.
    3.Do not plan or schedule any other tasks for the day. You may do extra, unplanned tasks, of course, as long as you honor your schedule.
    4.Honor your schedule. Show up for your appointments and tasks. If a real crisis arises and you can’t honor your schedule, it may be best to do this exercise another day.
    5.At the end of the day, log how many of your three tasks you accomplished.
    6.If you completed all three, then the next week, on your designated day, select and schedule
four
Actions. If you didn’t complete all three, stay at three next week.
    7.Continue each week until you arrive at a number of Actions where you become unable to cross all the items off the list for 3 weeks in a row. For example, if you sometimes can get through a nine-item list, but can’t
ever
get through a 10-item list, then your Meeze Point is 9.
    8.Once you arrive at your Meeze Point, you can then begin to bring other days into this regimen, using your Meeze Point as a guide for your maximum number of Actions to schedule for your days.
    From this practice, I know my Meeze Point is 10.
KITCHEN PRACTICE: MAKE A TIMELINE
    The home kitchen is a great place to practice the principles of mise-en-place before you apply them to your work life. The next time you make an ambitious recipe in the kitchen, make a timeline similar to the one they do at the CIA. This is how you do it.
    1.In the first column, write down all the ingredients listed. Determine what you don’t have on hand and circle those items.
    2.In the second column, transcribe the circled items into a shopping list.
    3.In the third column, write the steps to the recipe.
    4.In the fourth column, the actual timeline, write the start times for each of those steps.
    5.In the fifth column, write the list of tools (pots, pans, spatulas, etc.) that you’ll need for all those steps, and also the tools you’ll need for service (plates, silverware, napkins, glasses).
    6.As an extra step, you can make a diagram of what item goes on which burner, for example, or where you’ll be setting up your cutting board.
    You’ll begin to notice that there’s a world of things that many recipes don’t tell you: What to buy. What tasks to do while other tasks are in progress. What tools to use. How to coordinate your cooking with your service.
    Being honest with time is another difference between theprofessional and amateur cook, but practicing that honesty in the kitchen can engender honesty in the planning you do at your desk or computer.
HABITS: BEHAVIORS TO REPEAT
CREATE A DAILY MEEZE
    For chefs, a commitment to a daily practice of planning comes with their jobs. For us, the commitment to planning will have to come from within. The most important way to work clean is to keep dedicated, structured planning time. If you were to take only one recommendation from this book, creating a Daily Meeze is the paramount habit.
    What is a Daily Meeze? It is a personal mise-en-place for your workday, a time to (a) clean your physical and virtual spaces, (b) clear your mind, and (c) plot your day.
    How much time does it take? 30 minutes.
    When should I do it? In kitchens since the time of the tenzo, tomorrow begins today. Many chefs begin tomorrow’s planning in the evening, at the end of their current workday. Some like to do their planning in the morning because new and important considerations often appear at the start of a workday. It