1. Refactoring does not change functionality. The observable behavior should be the same before and after.
2. Refactoring should be done one step at a time. Each step should be as small as possible and obviously correct.
3. When changing code, at any given time you should be working on a functional change or refactoring - never both at once. Ideally these should be split into separate commits as well.
I think beyond the principles something like extracting a chunk of code into a separate function is not a task that needs a proper name. It's just something that comes naturally once you get into a mindset of always making things better, or as we say where I work: "suck less." It's getting into this mindset that takes the most work. If every time I deploy code it sucks less, or even just on average, that's good enough.
Refactoring is compound interest for maintainability. Once people buy into this everything starts getting better.
I also believe that you should never ask permission to refactor - just do it. A gardener who's task is to mow the lawn shouldn't ask permission before pulling a weed just because it's outside the narrow scope of the task at hand. Likewise a programmer should not ask permission before refactoring code (excluding large, time consuming refactors).