BROADCASTS.com

b'The kitchen of a busy restaurant\\xa0can be a chaotic, frenetic environment. But the best chefs create a kind of personal eye in this storm, from which they can efficiently craft meal after meal without ever moving their feet. The system they use to do this is called\\xa0mise-en-place\\xa0-- a French word that means "to put in place," and\\xa0signifies an entire lifestyle of readiness and engagement.\\n\\nMy guest today spent years interviewing\\xa0over a hundred chefs and other culinary professionals about the mise-en-place\\xa0philosophy\\xa0and then translated it into a system that can be used outside the kitchen in a book called\\xa0Everything in Its Place: The Power of Mise-En-Place to Organize Your Life, Work, and Mind. His name is Dan Charnas and we begin our conversation with how Dan, a writer, realized that mise-en-place was something that could be used by everyone, and the system\'s three general principles and ten tools. We then unpack some of those tools,\\xa0both in how they\'re used by cooks in the kitchen, and how they can be applied by regular folks at home and the office. We begin with the importance of squaring your checklists\\xa0with your calendar and the one organizing process Dan most recommends: something called the 30-minute "meeze." We then discuss how to arrange\\xa0your physical\\xa0working space for greater efficiency\\xa0and the importance\\xa0of working clean. From there, Dan explains what he thinks Stephen\\xa0Covey\'s famous idea of putting first things first doesn\'t take into consideration, and why it\'s important to understand the difference between\\xa0what Dan calls "process time" and "immersive time." At the end of our conversation, we discuss\\xa0the\\xa0tension between perfection and delivery, the way the "call and call back" communication system used in kitchens creates teamwork and respect, and the fact that the success of any organizational system rests on daily commitment.\\n\\nGet the show notes at aom.is/workclean.'