Day 9 — What Is Your Life’s Mise En Place?
Mise en place means ‘setting in place’ in French. If you watch a cooking show or any of those Tasty videos, it’s when they have everything cut up and/or portioned into little bowls. While it might seem like something that only tv cooks and chefs use, it’s one of the first skills one learns in the kitchen. For a long time, I thought it was just a way of dirtying more dishes I had to clean later. Using this strategy in your life can conserve brain power when used for everyday things and it can also get you in the right headspace to tackle a specific goal.
Everyday
The classic example of everyday mise en place is keys. A hook or bowl by the door serves as a home for them, so that you don’t have to employ a bloodhound to find them when it’s time to leave.
Another example of this is sorting medicine by what’s wrong rather than keeping it haphazardly in the medicine chest or closet.
Not only does this help me when I’m sick or injured, it also helps when I’m putting things away. If I get over the counter medication to treat an illness, it has a home when I’ve stopped taking it for that illness rather than rattling around in a drawer in the bathroom. In addition to medication, I keep an ace wrap, cold pack, icy hot, and anything else that would be of use if I hurt myself in the “Ouch! I hurt myself” box while the “coughing, aching, stuffy nose” box has a thermometer, vapor rub, and cough drops. Also, note these aren’t fancy containers. They’re just old shoe boxes that I put full-stick sticky notes on.
Specific goal
Specific goal mise en place would be putting out or sleeping in exercise clothes in preparation for a morning workout. Meal prep for the week would be another example albeit one that could be both everyday and specific depending on your goals. If your goal is to write more, mise en place for this might be a notebook and nice pen or a specific app and special keyboard you like to use as well as a clear desk area.
Just like with mise en place for a recipe, mise en place for life might seem like you’re just making more work for yourself. However, what you’ll likely find is reduced friction between you and the activities that help you reach your goal. I should warn that there is a caveat. Mise en place shouldn’t be a blocker. Don’t use it as an excuse NOT to do something.
Example: I didn’t lay my clothes out so I’m not going to go running.
While getting into the routine of having things set in place is ideal, it should never be a deterrent from the activity. If the goal is to write 5,000 words and your desk is a mess, find another place to write or shove everything onto the floor for now. Remember, writing is the important thing, do that first. Cleaning the desk can wait.
Find one activity that supports your goal or habit change and think through what mise en place you could set up to reduce the friction to achieving that activity. I’d love to hear about it or if you’ve been following this series and you have a victory (or defeat) you want to share, leave a comment or tweet me @weberswords on Twitter.
