A good apron lets someone work without protecting their image every minute.

Freedom to work often comes from being willing to get marked. An apron takes the worry about your clothes out of the task, so you can lean in, reach across and stop pricing every splash, and the work is better for it. The same holds well beyond kitchens, wherever protecting an appearance competes with doing the job. Good work usually requires not being on display.

Work out what your apron is: old clothes, a private draft, a room where nobody watches, a first attempt nobody sees. Give yourself that before you start rather than halfway through. Effort spent guarding an image is effort not spent on the thing.