Your grandpa’s chisel only works sharp. Sharpening is slow, and it’s the part that makes the fast part possible.

Tools that need maintenance will not pretend for you. A dull edge turns a clean cut into an argument with the wood, and no amount of force substitutes for the ten minutes you did not spend on a stone. The slow work and the fast work are the same work, separated in time.

Find the thing in your week that only functions when it is kept up: a bike, a pair of boots, your sleep, the notes you take in class. Give it fifteen minutes before you need it rather than after it has failed. Count that as part of the job.