Stop Caring

At one point early in my serving career a very nice older woman told me, "You are the worst waiter I have ever seen." This of course made me try harder and actually perform worse. I was running all of the time. I would rush to get drinks and if I forgot something I would practically run to the kitchen to get it.
I spent all of my time running and killing myself to please and it just made it worse for everyone. Then one day I had an epiphany (or I was just too tired to care.) I stopped trying to please everyone and just tried to do my job. I didn't run for one person. If I forgot something I just added it to my next trip. I never ran for one thing anymore. And you know what, people got happier and I got more efficient. Let me restate this:

The less I tried to please everyone, the happier my customers were.

I'm not saying ignore them. I'm not saying don't try and serve them. What I'm saying is focus on the whole job and not one person at one table. A little less concern reduces anxiety and stress, and makes things more pleasant for everyone. The job is stressful enough without adding more pressure on yourself. So consolidate your trips - so it may take a few seconds longer for that refill or the extra spoon, but you will be calmer cooler and have more time to take care of everyone.

Also don't take this as saying take a smoke break out back and neglect your tables. Take care of your tables. Just take care of all of them collectively.