Just post college, I worked at a Mexican restaurant for a few years, and I had a great boss named Ulises.
One of the things that made him a great boss was that he didn’t ever let things slide, but he also wasn’t a jerk about it. He ran a tight ship, and held everyone to certain standards.
I remember one day, it’s pre-dinner rush, and I’m hanging out at the server station chit-chatting with someone, and he comes over and points out a few things I could be doing.
As a fairly new server, I’m a little annoyed. Sure, the ice could be topped off, but it also isn’t that low yet. The things he’s pointing out don’t seem dire.
The thing about restaurant service is, it’s set up very similarly to the military in many ways.
You have a strict hierarchy, protocols, standards to adhere to, and you keep all your equipment and supplies ready to go at all times, because you never know when you’re going to get hit.
The stakes are much lower, yes, but the mindset is the same:
You must always be prepared for battle.
Be prepared for anything…even a siege of pandas!
Anyone who’s worked in a busy restaurant knows this feeling.
Any spare moment you have is a time to reset your environment, to restock, to take that bathroom break that you never officially get, to clean the prep table, to polish glassware, etc, because at any minute, you could run out of anything. You could be swarmed by hockey parents who have 40 minutes before their kids next game, and you have to somehow feed them and their children and get their checks to them with their kids food on it, even though everyone’s kids are at another table across the room, and no one is paying attention to you.
Working in restaurants taught me many important lessons, and this is one:
Any time you have even a little bit of time, always take that time to reset.
This week wasn’t my busiest week of recent memory, and yet I struggled this week. And I have busier weeks coming up here leading up to Thanksgiving. My part time job wants us to take on more hours, even though I’d prefer not to, and I am obliging because the part time job is a point of stability.
While I had my best voiceover month EVER last month, I know how feast and famine this industry can be, so I’m not entirely ready to jump ship from the life boat juuuuust yet. Close, but not quite.
So, when I reached the end of my week, feeling totally spent, all I wanted to do was NOTHING.
But my training kicked in, and guess what I did instead?
I reset.
I allowed myself to take the day off from intensive auditioning on Friday and only auditioned for a few things. I attended my accountability group.
And then I looked around me.
Now, my house never gets THAT dirty, but the stovetop was gross, the dishes needed to be done, the laundry I’d washed last weekend still needed to be put away, the carpets needed vacuuming, my duvet cover needed to go back on, and there was juuuust enough clutter on surfaces that it was causing me mental distress to acknowledge it.
So, I went to town. Took out the trash and recycling, went and got gas and checked my tire pressure, opted for a healthy dinner instead of frozen pizza, and did everything else on that list.
THEN I took the evening off to watch a comfort movie and eat popcorn on the couch, feeling entirely ready for the next wave of stuff.
There will always be more to do. There will always be another project coming in, another round of auditions hitting your inbox, more marketing, and on, and on…so when you have a few minutes to breathe, don’t spend them ALL on seeking comfort and escape.
First, reset.
Because the thing about these types of tasks is—these are the types of things that can usually be accomplished in 5-15 minutes tops if you re-set frequently. The longer you wait to do them, the more energy you expend on them—five minutes of self-shaming here, ten minutes of self-flagellation there…
Every time you see the giant pile of dishes in the sink, move the clean laundry from the bed to the chair and back, or realize you’ve forgotten to make your dentist appointment for three weeks running, you’re wasting precious emotional energy that could be used towards other things.
Learn to not wait. Take action. Do the task. Get it off your plate. Move on.
Build maintenance resets into your life:
Clean up your kitchen before you go to bed at night.
Set weekly appointments with yourself for administrative tasks like bookkeeping.
Make a rule that clothes MUST be put away the same day you do laundry, no matter what.
Take ten minutes each day to declutter and return items in your home to where they belong.
Take inventory of your kitchen, and do meal prep before your week starts so that you’re not relying on takeout or microwave meals out of desperation.
Build mental re-sets into your day—it’s up to you when works best to do them, but I like to look at the next day before I go to sleep and figure out what are the most important tasks to get done, so that when I get up, I already have an agenda for the day to help keep me focused.
Do you procrastinate and avoid the reset?
How might more frequent resets help you be more focused?
What small things can you do today to reset your environment and make you more ready to take on whatever this week’s got for you?
Start with something small, and let me know how it goes! I’d love to hear about it!
Ciao, friends! Have a great week!