Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to use the French cooking technique of meson
Speaker 1: plas to be more efficient at all things. It is
Speaker 1: good to be prepared, and by setting the stage before
Speaker 1: you undertake projects, you will feel less stressed as you
Speaker 1: get more done. So. In the questions after our recent
Speaker 1: speech of mine, an audience member asked about the concept
Speaker 1: of meson plas and whether it applied to productivity and
Speaker 1: time management. Now, I did not know that I was
Speaker 1: going to be quizzed about French and cooking, but I
Speaker 1: love this concept and I think it's a good one.
Speaker 1: On plas means to set in place or gather and
Speaker 1: fancy French restaurants, chefs pull together all their ingredients and
Speaker 1: equipment and organize them before they begin cooking. Now, as
Speaker 1: someone who has had to drive to the grocery store
Speaker 1: in the middle of cooking dinner, I'll admit that I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily follow this in my kitchen, but it is
Speaker 1: a good mindset for anything that requires a lot of
Speaker 1: moving parts. For instance, let's say that you are generally
Speaker 1: responsible for getting three kids out the door in the morning.
Speaker 1: You could be running around all over the place finding
Speaker 1: shoes and backpacks and coats. But what if the children's shoes, coats,
Speaker 1: and backpacks are always gathered in the mudroom or foyer
Speaker 1: or whatever space is right by the door where you exit.
Speaker 1: You will be able to grab your things and leave
Speaker 1: in a far more calm fashion. Let's say you have
Speaker 1: a big meeting coming up. You could walk in and
Speaker 1: realize that you haven't read everything, or that a key
Speaker 1: person didn't get a key document. You might waste time
Speaker 1: and not accomplish what you meant to. But if you
Speaker 1: have copies of any important documents and summaries to hand
Speaker 1: to people if they haven't read something, and you have
Speaker 1: gathered any extra information you might need for the meeting
Speaker 1: before it starts, you'll be more prepared. You won't be
Speaker 1: doing the metaphorical equivalent of running to the store because
Speaker 1: you realize you're out of eggs. I'd recommend doing something
Speaker 1: similar for a trip that requires a lot of special equipment.
Speaker 1: As we discussed on a recent episode. I'm not a
Speaker 1: huge fan of packing too far before packing like email,
Speaker 1: expands to fill the available space. But if you're say, skiing,
Speaker 1: best to lay out the entire outfit, including mittens and goggles,
Speaker 1: so you know you've got it all. You're running a marathon,
Speaker 1: best to lay things out so you know you have
Speaker 1: your socks and sunglasses now. It might not be a
Speaker 1: disaster if you don't. My husband and I once went
Speaker 1: to Walmart in a town where we were racing to
Speaker 1: get running pants, but best to avoid it if possible.
Speaker 1: In most cases, we are going to be smart enough
Speaker 1: to figure something out if we're not prepared. But generally
Speaker 1: it's better to be prepared, So measure out your ingredients
Speaker 1: and lay them out that way. When you start cooking,
Speaker 1: it's all smooth sailing from there. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.