I’ve been swamped with design work this year. That has required me to utilize many of the skills I acquired being a waitress for six months after graduating early from high school. For the first three months, I sucked at my waitressing job. The night supervisor Wanda used to get really annoyed with me. I couldn’t seem to wait on more than one table without falling apart, without feeling tremendous pressure. Then she gave me some advice that catapulted me to “best waitress” category: be friendly, listen, constantly circulate through my station of tables, update them on their orders, and never go into the kitchen empty-handed.

When I gave Wanda my notice a month before I left for college she said, “I had decided to fire you! But then you found your waitressing groove.” And groove it was. I sometimes had four gigantic parties of ten sit down within ten minutes of each other, all wanting coffee refill after refill. But I kept them all happy!

I’ve adapted Wanda’s advice to keep myself moving forward with all my design projects. I organize my clients like they’re all seated at imaginary tables. Instead of only focusing on one client and ignoring the others until the first one is done “eating,” I keep moving through the tables making sure everyone has what they ordered, starting with drinks, appetizers, main course, desserts, check. (And I’ve added follow up.) (more…)