The shelf cleared for cooling is part of the work of making.

Making something includes the arrangements that surround it. Clearing the shelf, wiping the board, deciding where the finished thing will sit are not preliminaries to the work but portions of it, even though the recipe never lists them. Skipping them turns a good afternoon into a scramble at the end.

Before you start anything this week, spend the first five minutes preparing the place rather than the task. Decide where the result will go while that is still easy to decide. The whole job tends to go more calmly when the space has been made in advance.