Mise en place: A useful system for avoiding burnout
As an autistic and ADHD person, I’m constantly looking for ways to manage my energy and get through my day peacefully, but most “productivity hacks” make me anxious or are so simplistic they’re not terribly helpful (“Set a timer! Make a list!"). Having the pathological demand avoidance profile of autism also means that I’m prone to quickly flipping into fight or flight mode at the thought of the most basic tasks - even as basic as needing to go to the bathroom - so the just the thought of tasks on a list can be enough to raise my heart rate and get me feeling trapped. Add to that a dash of ADHD-related struggles starting tasks, and an average day can quickly turn me into an overloaded, paralyzed mess.
Given all of this, you might be wondering how in the heck I’m able to work or be an entrepreneur, and I will fully admit that it is NOT easy! I know that to be able to enjoy my life a bit and have some energy that I need to very carefully manage how my nervous system responds. I've spent the last year or so trying out and practicing with a few different techniques that I have found to be helpful, and one technique that seems to both satisfy my deep autistic need for order and also helps me ease my way into transitions is a concept from the French culinary tradition called mise en place.
I first learned about mise en place as a potentially helpful concept for neurodivergent folks from Marta Rose over at Divergent Design, who reviewed Dan Charnas’ book Work Clean: the life-changing power of mise en place to organize your life, work, and mind. I reserved the book at my library and was able to read it online right away (thanks, public libraries!), and although the book was more focused on neurotypical norms for productivity, I saw right away how the concepts might be adapted to suit my needs.
Mise en place means "putting in place," and refers to the practice of preparing all the ingredients and tools necessary for cooking before beginning to cook. This practice ensures that the cook has everything they need at hand and can focus solely on cooking, without the distractions of searching for ingredients or tools. While this term is used mainly in culinary contexts, the principle behind mise en place can be applied to all areas of life.
In essence, mise en place is a strategy for organization, planning, and preparation. By taking the time to prepare everything necessary for a task or activity in advance, we can reduce nervous system activation and minimize the likelihood of burnout. This is especially true for those of us who may struggle with task avoidance and subsequent overload. While the book focuses more on the organization and planning aspects of the system, I’ve found that the experience of going through the preparatory motions helps me get to almost a meditative state where I can ease into tasks and demands with far less stress.
The principles of mise en place, as outlined by Charnas, are extremely pragmatic:
1. Planning is prime
Start by adding only 3 tasks to your daily list, so as not to overwhelm yourself and to get a feel for how much you can reasonably accomplish while still feeling relaxed and in control. You may need to dial this back to only 1 or 2 things on days where your energy is low or you’re not feeling well, and that’s okay! Just try to be as realistic as you can with how much time you need to spend without feeling stressed.
2. Arranging spaces, perfecting movements
Pay attention to your body and how you’re using your energy to get tasks done, and try to arrange your environment for the minimum amount of wasted effort in both movement and memory for where things are kept.
This one is huge for me as an ADHDer: I have arranged my bathroom, for example, to have each thing I use to get ready in the morning visible and easily accessible so items are easy to get out AND put away. The autistic part of me really notices and loves process, so it’s been a fun game to figure out how can I do something I hate (like showering and getting ready for the day), in the minimum amount of steps with the minimum amount of effort. I’ve found that living in smaller spaces actually helps with this too, because I have less opportunity to squirrel things away and only keep around what I really need.
3. Cleaning as you go
I originally thought about this very literally, like putting my stuff away after I use it, which is certainly made easier by having a specific place for each of my things and keeping less stuff around overall. But there’s also the calming aspect of creating a routine where I pause once an hour to do something called “knolling:”
Scan the environment, and identify anything not actively being used. I also use this pause to look away from my computer, stretch, change positions, and get a drink of water.
Pick up and put away (physically or digitally, like closing tabs or applications I’m not using on my computer) anything not in use.
Group all “like” objects - I usually like to have 2 or 3 different beverages going at any given time, so there are always lots of half-empty cups around. This is also a really satisfying little break, since I love grouping and sorting.
Align all objects to the surface they’re on - during work I’ll square up my notebook, phone charger, keyboard, anything on my desk, and use this time to adjust my sitting position to make sure I’m comfortable. I often don’t sense I’m uncomfortable until it’s too late, so I use this time to do a quick scan of my body and see if I need to change positions, grab a snack, get a drink, or use the bathroom.
4. Making first moves
This one is super important for me as a leader of my business - I focus on doing things first that require other people to complete the task or that they are dependent on me taking an action. This also has home life implications, since while my husband does all the grocery shopping and cooking (thank goodness), he depends on me to tell him if I have a new safe food hyperfixation and would like him to pick something new up at the store. If he comes to me and says, “I’m going to the store, can you make your list,” that can get my demand avoidance very activated, but if I just write my stuff on a post it in the morning and leave it on the counter, I’m fine and he has what he needs.
5. Finishing actions
Try to group tasks that are similar and get them done together, like tagging emails and coming back to ones that require follow up in a block of time, and try to finish one action before jumping into the next. For example, I make TikTok videos regularly talking about my experiences, and the tasks of recording and posting feel really demanding and difficult for me. I’ll usually record a couple of videos in the morning and then in the afternoon I do all of our social media posting for the day at one time, since I’m also usually posting to Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook. Grouping tasks to finish has been hugely helpful for anything that requires consistency and is frequent and time-consuming.
6. Slowing down to speed up
I’ve always said this to project teams and people I work with when we are talking about developing new products, in the sense that most companies will skip over deeply understanding the problem to get straight to talking about a solution. But over the last six months or so, I’ve taken this to an extreme in my own life and used this principle as a way to help manage my nervous system activation, especially when my ADHD traits can make me inclined to hop from thing to thing. Corporate life made this even worse, since so many bosses and collaborators don’t prioritize their time well and don’t allow for thoughtful work in their expectations of execution and timing.
When I feel myself getting stressed and rushed, I’ll pretend I’m playing the statue game and physically hold really still until I’ve identified what I want my next move to be. Then I’ll do that, freeze again, and do the next step, until I feel like my thoughts are back in a place where I’m calm and under my own control, vs. an artificial sense of hurry. This has had a huge impact on my level of reactivity and activation, and it has helped me come out of burnout in a way that feels more sustainable. Taking the time to physically “hold” at each step reminds me that I am under my own control, I have choices, and that I want to respond instead of react.
7. Open eyes and ears
This one is about making sure to be both internally and externally aware, and is probably what I struggle with most as an autistic person. I’m hypersensitive to sounds, smells, lights, tastes and other types of traditional (5 senses) sensory input, and part of my unmasking as an autistic person is trying to not suppress those sensations, but to find ways to experience them in a manageable way. For example, when I worked in an office that had loud fluorescent lighting, I wouldn’t hear someone saying my name a couple of feet away because I was working so hard to suppress sensory input and my brain was blocking hearing, too. Now that I wear glasses with a rose tint to soften unpleasant lighting, I don’t have to work as hard to suppress that input and can actually hear better!
Conversely, I’m very unaware of my body and will not realize I’m hungry, thirsty, or need to use the bathroom until it’s an emergency, so I’ve been working on noticing other senses too: balance, the position of my body, temperature, hunger, etc. When I focus on this kind of noticing, I’m able to do things like take off my sweatshirt before I get too hot, since I realized overheating makes me feel like I’m having a bad day but I don’t know why. Slowing down first, and then noticing my body has helped me in so many ways.
8. Call and call back
I love this one, because I started my career as a combat medic in the military and when the stakes are high, clear and concise communication is everything. I love being around people who say exactly what they’re going to do and just give me an opportunity to confirm or clarify, because then I can ask follow up questions or simply say “Correct,” and move on with my day. I’ve been working with Hopper’s Head of Research and Design for quite a few years at 2 other companies, and he is a master of delivering concise updates with an opportunity to clarify, but also doesn’t read anything into it if I just say “Got it” and move on. It’s such a relief!
9. Inspect and correct
Most good outcomes come from a process that builds in time for reflection and learning, whether you call it inspect and correct, test and learn, or even a sprint retrospective in Agile software development. Making time daily to review what worked and what didn’t makes coaching myself to stay out of burnout the sum of lots of small adjustments I make over time, versus the huge lifestyle changes I’d need if I got to burnout and needed to recover.
10. Total utilization
This concept is one that I feel like disabled and chronically ill folks know all too well - our energy is a finite resource and needs to be managed as carefully as money, time, and other resources that capitalism seems to value more. The previous nine principles are all about energy management for me - if I minimize investments in things that are uncomfortable and unimportant, I have some energy to invest in things that might be uncomfortable and important (anything related to health, bathing, traveling for work, doing my taxes, listening to my spouse when they’re upset, the list goes on). A lot of the work of life falls into the uncomfortable and important bucket for neurodivergent folks, and if we aren’t actively managing our energy in a way that works for us when we can, it’s harder to have anything left for dealing with a world that isn’t built for us.
The concept of mise en place can be a powerful tool for neurodivergent adults looking to avoid burnout. By practicing organization, planning, and preparation in a way that works for our nervous systems, we can reduce decision fatigue, minimize sensory overload, conserve energy, and hopefully create a life that leaves us energy to enjoy ourselves. This can ultimately lead to greater success, less stress, and a more fulfilling life.
