Work Clean

As someone who loves to cook, Work Clean's premise of learning about organization from famous chefs appealed to me right away. It combines stories from world-renown restaurants with advice about productivity and operational cleanliness that draw on the best practices and philosophies from the kitchen. Here are a few of the points that stood out to me and how I've begun to implement them in my daily work and life.

Planning Ahead

The concept of "mise-en-place", French for "putting in place", is central to a chef's daily routine. Getting the equipment and ingredients you need ready before you need them makes everything run smoothly when it's time to cook. The same goes for the tech professional.

Work Clean advises that your calendar should be scheduled in advance as much as possible, including not just appointments but tasks as well. A normal task list is a great way to organize and prioritize items but these all take time and should be scheduled as well. Allow for time in between tasks and appointments for things like context-switching, travel and preparation time, and interruptions.

Charnas recommends having a 30 minute "Daily Meeze" during which you tidy your physical spaces (e.g. desk, office) and virtual spaces (e.g. computer desktop, email inboxes, task lists) as well as schedule any tasks for the upcoming day. I'm a bit of a night owl so I tend to do this at 10pm when I'm generally done with everything else for the day and am ready to wind down. The reset allows me to fully relax and know that I'm prepared for the following day.

Reducing Friction

Chefs know how important it is to have just about everything they need within reach so that they are not wasting motion and precious time running around. The same should apply to your desk as well as your computer.

To clean your workspace, start by removing everything from the surface and drawers and place them elsewhere. Wipe everything down and then start bringing items back one at a time, starting with the most important things first and putting them within immediate reach. Try to be judicious with what you actually need near you and what can be stored until needed, but don't go super minimalist either unless that's your style.

Think about some of the tasks that you often procrastinate on because of one little factor. If it's a physical task that requires something that lives in an inaccessible space, bring that out into the open. If it's a digital task that you do once a month and have trouble remembering the steps for, write a checklist and place it in a Notion document. Or better yet, automate it with a script or service.

Tidy First

The best chefs are constantly cleaning as they go, taking any spare moment to wipe down a cutting board or bring something to the dishwasher. During breaks between projects and appointments, tech workers should take some time to clean their physical and digital workspaces.

When you have a break between video meetings or knocking out tickets, stand up and stretch or get some water, and then clean your desk. Put away any papers or notebooks that will not be needed for the next segment of your day, wipe down surfaces if you want, align items at a right angle. Close any applications or browser tabs that are no longer needed. Get yourself back to a zero state before starting your next task.

Unblocking

Generally the first thing a chef does after receiving an order is to place their pans on the heat because they know it takes time for it to come up to temperature. By taking this first step, it unblocks them later when all their ingredients are ready to start cooking. The same principle applies to tech work as many actions, especially collaborative ones, require unblocking.

Schedule "process" time in the morning to respond to emails, Slack messages, meeting requests, and anything else that can unblock someone else to continue their work while you go off to do yours. Completing a few small tasks during this time can also unblock your mind to focus on more immersive tasks, but don't procrastinate on the bigger things by "snacking" on easy little chores. Stick to your schedule.

The present has incalculably more value than the future. An action taken now has immeasurably more impact than a step taken later because the reactions to that action have more time to perpetuate. Furthermore, because our mind state has a psychological pressure and opens up m ore time. Starting is, in effect, a shortcut.

Finishing

No matter what else happens, a chef must put something on a plate and serve it to their customer. If they spend too much time trying to attain perfection, ingredients will go stale and meals will go cold or overcook. In tech we rarely face those physical limitations, but bosses and stakeholders usually want to see something shipped.

Without delivery, there's no feedback, severing the improvement loop that creates excellence. Excellence is quality delivered.

The Agile style of shipping, obtaining feedback, and iteration; have largely become the standard in the software engineering world. And for good reason as an unshipped product has no usefulness to anyone and doesn't allow for any of the feedback that leads to improvement. We have to be realistic with the time we have, and not get bogged down in perfectionism that stems from fear.

Conclusion

Work Clean is a creative twist on the productivity book, one that anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant or attempted a difficult meal at home can appreciate. Some of the insights aren't exactly new but are presented in a well-written and unique way, while others have steeped in my brain and become a part of my daily routine. Plan your time, clean as you go, unblock others, and finish what you start.

Excellence is quality delivered.