As most teachers will tell you, there is a lot of prep work involved in the job. When you are your own teacher, you have to do the prep work. This involves ensuring that everything is in it’s right place, otherwise known as mise en place.
One of the things I remember the most about working for Rob Kim (my guest on episode 2 of the podcast) is his van. A contractor’s van is basically a toolbox on wheels. It contains all tools and materials needed for a home-renovation job. Rob’s van was meticulously organized. Shelves along the sides housed the smaller tools, which were organized using repurposed paint cans and other recycled containers. Even the paint brushes were organized into different uses (some were for oil paints, older ones were for dusting). The order that things were placed in the truck mattered: Drop sheets were always closest to the door because they were the first thing to come out and the last thing to go in the van.
When you worked for Rob, you learned that there was a specific process for every task, no matter how minor. There was a certain way to set up, clean up, arrange your tools, sand, paint, etc. Even folding drop sheets was a kind of art in itself – a task best done by two people coming together with each of the long ends of the drop sheet. As a youth this all struck me as fussy, tedious, and unnecessary. Over time, I started to understand how important it is to perfect your processes.
“Mise en place” is a French culinary term that roughly translates as “put in place”. Monica Sarkar (my guest for episode 7) introduced me to this term. It’s the first thing you learn at culinary school, where students have to bring their own sets of small to medium sized bowls. It describes the process of chopping all your fresh ingredients, which are then placed separately into each of the bowls (there are other uses for the bowls as well). The bowls are important to ensuring that everything in its right place before the job is even begun. This is the essence of mise en place.
Mise en place extends even beyond the physical. In Episode 5, Spencer Kelly compared the good coders set up their computers to the way carpenters will lay out their tools while working. Everything is in its right place. Such fussiness ensures that the work flows as smoothly as possible. It makes it so that you don’t have to think as much about the next step, and the one after that, and so on.
I’m still learning about this important ingredient in perfecting a skill. On the programming episode, Spencer issued me a challenge: to clear out old emails from my inbox. Why? Clutter is the enemy of good mise en place. Imagine yourself reaching for a bowl of freshly chopped onions and knocking over a bottle of soy sauce, or stepping off a ladder into a tray of fresh paint (I may or may not have done one or both of those things). Removing distraction also helps. I am much more productive at my job when my phone is charging. If it’s nearby, I’ll reach for it whenever I come upon a difficult problem that needs considerable focus to solve.
Another reason why mise en place is so effective is that it encourages you to visualize the process of completing something from start to finish. In my interview with Rob, he told me that “to do a job well, I have to be able to see the entire job from start to finish." Visualizing, step-by-step, from start to finish enables you to shape your environment in a way that works for you, rather than against you. This is what mise en place is all about. You have to know all the ingredients that are going to go into the dish beforehand, otherwise you might forget a key ingredient (guilty), or burn your food while you frantically chop a jalapeño (also guilty!). You use the little bowls so that you don’t spill diced garlic all over your kitchen floor (yep, I’ve done that too). Mise en place makes the process so easy that, as Monica says, you can drink wine and chat with your guests while you’re cooking!
In order to harness this secret ingredient in learning a skill, think about the environment in which you work: how can you shape it to make the process as smooth as possible? What distractions or obstacles are getting in your way? What prep work is involved? What are the different steps involved and how could you improve these? What could you do to clear your head so that you can focus?
On that note, we have an upcoming episode about mindfulness. I’m hoping to learn how to declutter my mind, find stillness, and improve my focus. Stay tuned for more details and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or suggestions.