Something I learned from working in the kitchen for the past few years is that the better you plan ahead of time, the better things will be when you actually have to do the required work.
This applies to everything in the kitchen.
The obvious things such as potatoes, fish, carrots and so on have to always be prepared in advance. No one will allow you to go peel potatoes in the middle of service because you didn't prepare enough of them in advance. The same applies for everything else.
But this is even more important when it comes to the small things that are required then, in the middle of the service, for the preparation / decoration of food.
If certain dishes come with vegetables, preparing portions and storing them in a fridge nearby could save you several minutes when that particular dish needs to be prepared.
If you need to fry potatoes, heat croquettes, or prepare side dishes, knowing how to work in such a way that will guarantee that everything will be ready when the chef finishes cooking for food is extremely important, and that requires a lot of planning and a lot of knowledge about both the food itself and the way the chef works.
I can keep going, but you get the point.
This type of planning can help you in any other area in your life as well.
Preparing for dark days ahead of time by saving money, investing and not putting all your eggs in one basket is important. So is learning the right skill so that you can be competent when you need it, both personally and professionally. Whenever you need to get something done that involves documents, knowing exactly what you need ahead of time and having all the documents prepared for when you need them can save you tons of times.
There's a lot of areas in life where this matters. You can't really plan ahead for everything, of course. Life is full of unexpected little things. But it really helps to try to always be as prepared as you can.
