You can work on two drinks at a time. That's all. Don't pull extra stickers, don't try to work ahead in sneaky ways if you're getting overwhelmed. If you have a headset, take it off. Two drinks. Hand one off, grab the next. Focus just on what's in front of you. Ask for help when you need it.

No matter how slammed we get, I ask to take a bathroom break when I start to get overwhelmed. Just so I have my own space to do some breathing exercises and ground myself.

It's something that took a bunch of practice but once I got it down, I started picking up on the cues I get before I start getting overwhelmed so I can nip it in the bud before it gets bad.

it’s easier said than done, but try to remember: it’s just coffee. the world won’t end if you get backed up on orders. if it gets to be way too much at once, ask for some help or ask if you can switch to dtr or something for a little bit

Sometimes when I feel myself starting to get stressed I pretend that I am playing a video game called Barista Simulator and then I become a robots

I always tell myself that if it’s busy, it’s busy and customers can wait. If they complain that they’re going to be late to work because they decided to order during peak, they can either be late or get a refund and leave. It’s not my problem. That’s on them.

If it’s too overwhelming, you could ask your shift to switch positions and/or take a breather in the back. Sbux is not worth your sanity. I always tell myself that the Siren is going to get $12/hr worth of work from me and nothing more.

ASK. FOR. HELP! This is something I learned early on. Maybe I'm just lucky to have a super SUPER supportive staff but as soon as I get too overwhelmed I will turn to the other bar or to the person on CS and be like "Will you please make this for me!?" 9 times out of 10 for me, they will go "ABSOLUTELY" and see that you're getting backed up and start helping you by taking your cold bar orders or even prepping your next drinks for you to help you catch up. If you get really overwhelmed, ask them to slide over for you and take over for ten minutes. Use your team. From what I have experienced, they want you to succeed and want you to be okay and there's nothing wrong from getting a little behind and having someone jump in with you.

Also, saying stuff outloud helps me a lot. I pull the ticket: "Grande! Iced! Pumpkin spice! Latte!" just like that (Not lout, but with energy!) It helped me a lot because I kept grabbing a hot cup for iced things - which would lead to me steaming milk I didn't need to steam and wasting valuable time I could be using for the next drink. It helped me to focus on the task at hand.

Another thing I do that I find helped (this is for cafe bar) Is that if I have lots of angry faces standing there watching me like I'm in a fishbowl, and mobile orders are printing up, I reach down and pull tickets JUST UNTIL i get through that mobile order (You can see at the top if it's 2-3 drinks or whatever. So I pull all of "Mary's" 2-3 tickets. If it's bigger than that I DO NOT do this). I stack those cups inside each other as "One" order. If the next ticket that prints out is a cafe order (as an example for dave), I make that first to get dave out, then make mary's. If the next order is another mobile, I just make Mary's order I just pulled. Does that make sense? It makes sense in my head but now that I"M reading it back it seems more complicated than it is. I can explain it better if you DM me. lol!

Your mental health is the most important thing. Do whatever you have to do to protect that during a rush. Let your team support you and take it 2 drinks at a time.

keep things clean and put stuff back where it actually goes. staying organized and clean helps me feel less stressed.