In our society we’ve come to see speed and urgency as antithetical to quality. For the chef, the deadline is integral to quality. Without delivery, there’s no feedback, severing the improvement loop that creates excellence. Excellence is quality delivered.

Mise-en-place is not about focus, but rather the process of negotiating focus and chaos.

“hands-off” time process time, because the tasks and projects therein are dependent on and linked to external processes.

Chefs don’t only use both sides of their bodies, they use both sides of their motions.

Committing to presence means that we cultivate an ability to be deliberate. When you decide to do something, get it done.

Commit to coaching yourself, to being coached, and to coaching others. Evaluate yourself.

Value #2: Commit to a process that makes you better.

Slowing down to speed up gives us power over procrastination.

Overconfidence leads us to believe that we don’t have to estimate the time it takes to complete a project, nor deliberately set aside the time for that work. Overconfidence is why we don’t start a project until it’s too late and also why we get that “finish line syndrome” mentioned earlier—for example, writing an e-mail but leaving the last few sen