Mis En Place
Getting Your Systems Ready Before Your Workday Starts
Getting Your Systems Ready Before Your Workday Starts
If you love to watch cooking shows on cable TV as much as I do, you have surely noticed how the chefs have all of the ingredients for a recipe already divided up in those cute little glass bowls. As they prepare the recipe, they transfer each item into the blender or pot one at a time: each ingredient already carefully measured and planned in advance.
That process — having everything planned and ready before the recipe prep starts — is called “mis en place” (a French word pronounced mi zā plas). The term translates to: “everything in its place.” In restaurants and in homes where cooking is as much art as science, mis en place refers to organizing and arranging the ingredients before the cooking starts; everything is ready and at the chef’s fingertips to save time and effort during the actual cooking process.
As a business consultant who (before I retired) had many irons in the fire (pun intended), I realized that it was imperative that I had all of my systems in place before I started my workday. That way, I didn’t waste time looking for things or getting things ready while I was working with a client or completing a project.
Mis en place is a productivity system for kitchens and for businesses. As a solopreneur who did just about everything myself (although I did have wonderful contractor assistants for different parts of my businesses), it was imperative that I knew what I was going to do and what apps I was going to use before my workday started. Otherwise, I would have to spend precious hours at the beginning of the workday getting things together.
My Mis En Place Systems
As a writer, editor, and business consultant, the majority of my work was on my computer, so I made sure that most of my apps were integrated, saving me time with information input and access. Additionally, keeping my work area organized was important so that I could reach things I needed (like my stapler and paper files) within reach without necessitating me getting up and walking somewhere else.
My #1 app was Cloze, a CRM (customer relationship manager) system that keeps all of my actions and appointments (from my Google Calendar) with prospects, clients, deals, and projects in one place. Cloze automatically brings in files for a contact from Dropbox or Google Drive, and the app even automatically logs my phone calls and text messages to and from my clients. With Cloze, I have one place to see everything that I’ve done today and that I will need to do the next day.
After I’ve closed a deal in Cloze, the project moves over to my business Trello account. With Trello, I can work on projects by myself, or work with my team, and everything is integrated with my Google Calendar. In addition to what is in Cloze, I can look at my Google Calendar first thing in the morning, and all of my appointments and all of my Trello project tasks are there. If a task on a Trello card needs to be rearranged or rescheduled, I can easily do it in Trello and it will show up on my GCal.
Lastly, I keep my editorial calendar and manage my social media through CoSchedule, the app I use to organize all of my marketing tasks and activities in one place. Again, any tasks for social media management that I have in CoSchedule are added to my GCal, and can also easily be changed and rearranged with drag and drop.
There are several other apps that I used to manage everything in my businesses, and you can read what I’ve written about many of them at my Medium publication here.
Cloze, Trello, and CoSchedule are the three top apps that I use to get prepared for every workday and as my productivity mis en place.
How do you structure your workday? Do you use a type of mis en place? Let us know in the comments.
Work with Me: Customized Business Coaching and Consulting
Through Your Business Your Brand Creatively, I work specifically on “Branding and Marketing for the Rest of Us.”
Sign Up and Keep Up with our programs, books, and courses on our email list here.
I invite you to join the #1 Facebook Group for Creative and Solo Professionals, YB2C Premium. Get ideas for branding and marketing your small business and network with other entrepreneurs and solopreneurs like yourself.