Work Clean by Dan Charnas Page A

all depends on the kind of chef
you
are.
    The Daily Meeze is so central to the practice of working clean that we’ve dedicated an entire section to showing you how to do it. See
A Day of Working Clean
.
SCHEDULE YOUR ACTIONS
    An Action is
anything
you plan to do during the day. Any task (“Pick up butter,” “Call Jeff,” “Sketch designs for new campaign”) is an Action. An appointment (“Staff meeting,” “Conference call,” “Lunch with Sam”) is also an Action. There is no differencebetween a task and an appointment when it comes to thinking about scheduling because they both need your time and your presence. This difference has long been maintained by the two different tools we use for each: the “to-do” list and the calendar.
    But for the chef, as it should be for us, it is a false difference. The “to-do” list without appointments lures us into packing lots of tasks onto it without thinking about when they will actually get done; and a calendar with only appointments on it misleads us into thinking we have an open schedule when in fact we don’t. This separation creates an unhelpful tension between our mental and spiritual goals (which usually end up on our list) and our physical presence (which is usually determined by our schedule).
    The main reason we order and schedule Actions—tasks and appointments alike—is that we want to give ourselves the best shot at getting them done.
    â€œA to-do list is useful as a collection tool,” writes author Peter Bregman. “Our calendars, on the other hand, make the perfect tool to guide our daily accomplishments. Because our calendars are finite; there are only a certain number of hours in a day.”
    We schedule our Actions to help us make decisions about them—and as a device to force our hand. The calendar compels us to be honest about time. A list, too, can be a serviceable device for ordering your day—as long as your appointments are on it! This is the way that chefs think about time. We should, too.
PLAN “PLATE FIRST”
    Plan complex, multistep projects as chefs do: with the end in mind. Just as some chefs begin a dish by drawing a plate, for your own projects, first envision the moment of delivery, then plan backward from it. What resources will you need to make it look, read, feel, or sound perfect? What time will you need? Have you accounted for possible delays, holidays, disruptions? Have you given yourself time to inspect and correct? What other things will you have to give up in order to deliver?
GET THERE EARLY
    Where is “there”? Everywhere. How early? Fifteen minutes. Why? The dividends are serenity and opportunity. Entering a space calmly, under your own control, and without apology retains your power and dignity. So many of us hustle and stumble our way into a room after an agreed-upon time. When we do that, we forfeit a chunk of our energy before we even sit down.
    Arriving early often unlocks opportunity. An old friend of mine recently had this epiphany. He had always been a “late person” until recently when he made a commitment to arrive at a weekly class before the designated start time. “I realized that there were all these other people showing up early, too,” he said. He liked “early people.” He made connections, he made friends.
    Getting there early applies especially to the appointments you make with yourself because those are the appointments you are least likely to keep—having no one to answer to but yourself. Prepare early, make sure to disentangle yourself from whatever it is you happen to be doing beforehand, and you will ensure that you’ll show up for yourself. Some of the most successful chefs and executives I know share this ethos and practice.
    Entering a space calmly, under your own control, and without apology retains your power and dignity.
A chef’s reprise: Riding the range
    In 1999