Work Clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work, and mind

This was a re-read for me and it was just as good this time around as it was the first time and that is VERY good. While I've never had the insane notion to become a chef or restaurateur I've long been fascinated with that industry because it is truly unlike any other. I also love food and eating out and cooking (though I am not very good at it) so books like this are almost always on my TBR.My personal preferences aside, this is an excellent book. Sometimes a peek into a world unlike your own helps you look at your world with fresh eyes and that is what this book does.The practical application pieces of this book are the cherry on top of the story sundae Charnas serves the reader. He is an excellent writer and this book shows off his talent. It is absorbing and turns a book about applying kitchen work to other jobs and your personal life into a real page turner.

I was a little skeptical of the whole "How working like chefs can you make you more productive and effective" type-approach, but by a few chapters in I realised I had to finish the whole thing in one go and takes notes.Here's the deal:If you're frustrated with the lack of progress you're making towards goals in your life, but you think you've tried it all using the GTD workflow, habit apps, or "time blocking", then I urge you to give this book a try. I've been frustrated with all of those methods.GTD workflow and apps had me ticking off lots of little tasks but not making any real progress with my big goals. Habit apps are great, but predictable and daily habits like exercising or drinking water don't contribute to big and unpredictable goals related to business and your career. "Scripting your day" or "time blocking" CAN be great if you've already competent and clear on what you should be doing and how long it takes and have minimal distractions; however that's not a complete and holistic system in and of itself. Every time I've tried scripting my day it was a failure either because the time blocks were too specific, too vague, or to ill-prepared in advance.This book helps you reconcile all of these different problems. "Working clean" isn't just a productivity system. It's a philosophy and approach to being effective that includes rules, sequencing, habits, and systems that bring clarity and flow to your work. It stops me from running around in a blind panic ticking off menial tasks OR following an unrealistic schedule. Both of these behaviors always made me feel miserable at the end of the day when I realised I had made no real progress on anything of big importance.I strongly recommend you give the book a try if you've had similar challenges in your work.

Really did a good job of breaking down the thought processes and practices of miesen place to other work aspects of life

This book was mentioned on LinkedIn by social media managers who said it changed how they work for the better. As a social media manager myself who also really loves home cooking as a hobby, I knew I had to see what the hype was all about. I love this book, it’s a fun and exciting read that gives an inside look into the culinary world and how the Culinary Institute of America prepares its students for success and how those same principles and lessons can be applied to other types of work. It has changed the way I approach my workload and communication at work, as well as how I cook for myself at home. I’ve adapted this chef mindset and awareness. This is a really interesting read. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning how to make their work more efficient and streamlined and for anyone who is curious about how culinary school works/what students learn/how chefs think and organize themselves in the kitchen for max efficiency.

It is fun to read about the kitchens and the chefs. The lessons for life seem banal, outdated, or for only the least intellectual of careers. The mis en place metaphor is stretched too far. The preachy tone is annoying. I found it annoying that he called meat protein. The real point is to be organized with a system that works for you, not necessarily his. Also book is very male biased. Don't buy it. There are better books about kitchens.

As an artist who's often all over the place, and a fan of books like "Do The Work!" by Stephen Pressfield and "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, yet, those books never quite broke through the barrier many creative people feel, of having too many ideas, being unsure of what direction to take, or the ever looming internal editor that tries to reconcile profit motive with pure inspiration. This book levels all those concerns with one concept: a clean workstation.The concept of mise en place is well known within the culinary world, but still the best kept secret outside of the kitchen. It's not just a process of arranging your kitchen, it's a way of life. Imagine being able to reduce all your clutter (mental and physical) to the bare minimum with one technique. Imagine being able to find, within yourself, everything you're good at, and maximize the potential until you're the best in the world at that stuff. This is the book and the technique which can do that. Mise En Place is a way of organizing all your thoughts, items, schedule, meetings, to-do, into one extremely focused system. You think about it once, you do it every day slightly better than yesterday, and soon you have a Michelin-star operation going, whether you're in the Private Equity space or a painter or a car detailer. I owe my life to this book in a very real sense. It brought out my potential like nothing else has. If I could give it 1 million stars that wouldn't be enough. This author deserves the Nobel prize for bringing what was once a very occulted kitchen-only process into the mainstream.