Clear some time in your schedule. You can’t be rushed. It doesn’t work if you’re rushed.
Grab your whetstone(s) and gather your good (or crummy) knives. Take a seat with a straight-backed chair at a table. Maybe a little music. Silence is also good. Is it nice out? Maybe set up outside.
Lay the knives out before you and then position the stones procedurally. Course to fine. Procedure matters. System matters.
Start with the knife in the worst shape. The one with the visible notches and dings on the cutting edge. This one will take the longest because it requires rough sharpening with a course stone to remove lots of metal. Patience required. You’re creating a new edge. You’ll want that edge somewhere between 15 and 22 degrees, depending on the style and metal. Your sushi knife? Closer to 15. Your do-everything kitchen knife? Closer to 22.
Once the notches are gone, start the fine sharpening process with your medium grit stone. This is where you establish the secondary bevel and make the edge even and sharp. Use your eyes. Does it look even? Scrape various points of the edge orthogonally (never parallel) on your fingernail. Is it sharp at all points down the blade?
When you’re satisfied, get the fine grit stone for the honing/polishing process. This stone evens out the imperceptible irregularities on the edge itself. You’re also removing the near-microscopic bits from the edge that impede the blade as it slices through the material.
Now you have something. When you started, your knives weren’t sharp. Now they are.
You applied skill and effort. Physical and mental. You applied procedure and thought about the system. Maybe modifed it along the way as you discovered what worked best. You focused on the task at hand. How much time passed? You probably don’t know. You shouldn’t care.
There’s something very human about pouring yourself into a task like this. It’s partially about being able to use sharp knives. It’s partially about making them sharp yourself. And it’s partially about the physical and mental activity of getting lost in the work.
You should sharpen your knives.
P.S. By the way, you can apply the above to servicing your lawn equipment, organizing your craft room or garage, cleaning your cookware, planting your garden, or giving your computer an enema.
