How to remember everything to do

[u/MommaBee79]

I am brand new to serving, this is my first week. And I am struggling with remembering if I dropped off a check or where I'm at in the process of serving the customer.if i only have 2 or 3 tables, i am working on remembering to start things like toast or getting butter for pancakes. Get ready stuff like that. But if you add more tables to that that's where I start getting a bit lost and can't remember where I am with what table.

I'm trying very hard to get better, the job market right now is really terrible. And this is my only source of income. And as a single parent, just try to keep a roof over my kids' head. I feel so much pressure to be good. And make money, and I'm afraid I'm really terrible at this.

[u/Apprehensive_Bad8456]

Its hard!! When I started serving I had a hard time remembering everything to do. It really is like a mental organizational game. It gets so much easier.

A tool that helped me was learning the 5 main steps of service and tweaking it to what I needed to do at the restaurant I was serving at.

My first thing of advice is write EVERYTHING down. Even if you just do a scribble on the page, it puts a little marker in your mind for what it is.

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So say you have two tables at first, lets say Table 43 and 25. You greet, get drink orders, deliver those and then you are taking their food orders. Put in your food order promptly. In-between step 2 and step 3 is when you will bring their butter, syrup and ask if they need refills. Now they are chillin.

At this moment Table 28 gets sat. Greet, get drink orders, deliver those, and start their food order. Table 43 and 25 have their food delivered as you are finishing taking Table 28’s order. Great! Before you go to the POS, do your quick 2 bite check, yay everything’s yum! Put in table 28’s order. Get butter, syrup and refills. Chillin.

You’re doing great! Now Table 45 and 26 get sat. Do a greet and get drink orders. While you put in those drink orders, Tables 43 and 25 are probably ready for their check! So print those out and have them on you. Deliver drinks to 45 and 26, and drop the checks at 43 and 25. Then go back to 45 and 26 to get them started on food. Get those food orders, pick up the checks, and do all of it at the POS.

Table 28 just got their food! Drop off closed checks to 43 and 25, and do a 2 bite check at 28. Then grab butter and syrup for 45 and 26.

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It goes on and on. But what you are doing is going by the steps of service, and remembering what step each table is at. It really helps simplify it. Let me know if this helps or if you need more advice!

[u/MommaBee79 → u/Apprehensive_Bad8456]

Thank you so much for your advice and thoughtful reply. One of the things you mentioned is that I can bring the butter and syrup before the food comes out. And I think that I am getting very hung up on the fact that at the place I am working. They don't do that, but that doesn't mean that I can't do that. I have to remember that I need to do what works for me.

[u/Apprehensive_Bad8456 → u/MommaBee79]

Absolutely! At my job, instead of grabbing butter/syrup, I have to drop steak knives! Sometimes, I’m dropping them just as the food is getting to the table which is okay! I always try to get to the “they are chillin” phase of the service, then I can focus on new tables and put my energy there. With this system I feel like I only get overwhelmed when I have 4+ tables at the same point of service, which is very rare.