On work philosophy.

I learned a couple of things early on in my bartending career to be valuable words to live by when you're working behind a counter.

1) Work clean.

2) Newton's First Law. (A body in motion tends to stay in motion, a body at rest tends to stay at rest.)

Taken objectively, these two rules seem like something you'd say at a job interview to seem obnoxiously hard-working and sycophantic. But the fact is, adhering to these two rules actually makes your life significantly easier.

If you train yourself to work clean, to wipe off your tools as you go and concentrate on keeping your workspace orderly and neat, you require WAY less brain and body power to clean up at the end of your shift. Everything's where it needs to be, cleaning is light and thorough, and you get things done faster and more relaxedly than if you had a giant mess to address.

As to the First Law, try this little experiment. Cook dinner for yourself, and the instant you don't have anything cooking-related to do, take out the garbage. Then finish cooking, sit down to eat, then go sit down on the couch and watch an episode of The Office. Now take out the recycling.

So much harder, isn't it?

Just keep moving. When you finish one task, move on to the other. When you beat down a rush, set yourself up for the next one. It takes far less effort to just keep your momentum going than it does to stop and start and stop and start again. You can wear yourself out by the end of your shift by taking breaks. I'm not saying don't ever post up when you need to - hell, everyone's human, and a proper shift should take some of the jam out of your doughnut. Just don't post up if you don't need to.

So yeah, every interview I have, I make it a point to mention my work philosophy, whether they get it or not. Working hard is one thing. Anyone can work hard. But working smart is what gets you to the end of the day on time and still standing. Give it a shot, see how it works out for you.