In the relative calm of the cockpit, we'd run through the Evacuation Checklist, turn off the batteries and then leave ourselves.
Caution: One persons personal opinion only!
I understand that the Boeing (737, anyway) evacuation requires the checklist to be read first (not last) while the people down the back sweat it out wondering what is going on up front. By the time the checklist is actuated one item at a time and things are getting real smokey down the back if it is a fire, then up to a minute or more will have passed. The original idea for sixty years plus was the pilots must know the evacuation sequence off by heart and can rip through it fast in order to give the passengers a better chance of getting out before smoke/fire gets them first.
But the powers that be decided pilots are not to be relied upon to remember a typical 8 items anymore and now they are told what to do by a checklist. Shows you how bad the education system is in schools nowadays when you can't remember 8 simple actions.
Too bad if the smoke in the cockpit is too thick to read a checklist and the crew are forced to rely on their memory.
Interesting thing is that most pilots may only get one practice evacuation in the simulator once a year and yet will practice a dozen or more engine failures during take off in a year. This suggests that the Evacuation is given a much lower priority in training than engine failures?