Time Tips: Saving Time with Restaurants

While most people waste every second they spend in a restaurant because they use that time to buy poison rather than food, let's assume you are not one of those people.

More restaurants are actually including food fit for humans on their menus, these days. In fact, such restaurants are becoming the rule rather than the exception. And you can request sauces and dressings be "on the side," which is a polite way of requesting that those things come in a separate dish so you can have the server remove them untouched later.

I developed some time-saving restaurant techniques while working for an engineering sweatshop about 15 years ago and trying to eat lunch within the tight time limits they allowed. Here are my tips:

Go early. You are probably already aware of this one, but do you do it? I eat lunch at 11:30, so I never have to wait on the crowd. The other option is to go late. The "go late" option doesn't work for dinner, because so many people do go late. So, an early dinner is a time-saver but a late dinner usually is not.
Make a precise reservation. You'll have to use the 12-hour clock when you make your reservation (I wish we'd all go to the far less confusing 24-hour clock). But don't make a reservation for 5:30. Make it for 5:27. Now, when you arrive at 5:25, you won't have to wait. Those schmucks who reserved at 5:30 will be waiting until 5:40 before they are seated.
Chat only after everyone has ordered. When your server appears and tries to get you to buy "appetizers," alcohol, and other high-margin junk that destroys your health, you can say. "We'll skip all of that. We're ready to order now." If your server has to keep coming back to see if you are ready to order, you are going to have a late-running meal.
Order simple. Simpler food is better food, and it's also less time-consuming to prepare. Many people think salads take a long time to make. Typically, these are served from a large pre-made batch. Ditto for soup. So, preparation time is minimal. This tip isn't a major one. But things like baked fish, for example, do take longer to prepare than something grilled.
Ask for your check when your order arrives. The only reason not to do this is if you plan to order desert. But if you are ordering desert, you are already committed to spending time on dealing with the fallout of poor dietary decisions. Let's assume, instead, you care about your body. There is no reason to wait until you are done to pay. Let the server handle that whole payment thing while you are eating. Then, you can leave without having to sit around glancing at your watch while you are waiting on the check.
Tip generously. This is especially important if you plan to go back there. You do get better, faster service if you tip well. Plus, it's the right thing to do. Don't forget about the American Taliban's ruthless policy toward restaurant help. These folks pay income tax on tips whether they make them or not.
Tip in advance. If you plan to tip in cash, set your tip out before your food arrives. People have told me that's stupid--what if you are poorly served? Try this, and see if you ever get poorly served. It's not going to happen. Make the server happy before you get served, and guess what happens to your level of service? And the speed....

A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.