one box at a time

A while back I worked as a stock boy for a local computer store. There were three of us working in the back room handling receiving/shipping for our store, as well as inventory transfers to other stores. Every day we’d receive a mountain of boxes, full of rows of tightly packed smaller boxes and other products. My job was to unpack all of these boxes, print out new SKU stickers and individually label the unpacked goods, put those now-labeled goods onto our backroom stock shelves, re-stock the front displays as needed, and also break down mountains on mountains of cardboard. Putting the SKUs on everything was pretty tedious but overall, pretty easy work all things considered.

My boss back there was a guy named Dave, an old head who could have been retired for years but wanted something to do during the day. After watching me rush through those tasks for a few days, scrambling to get all the received products on the shelves lickety-split so I could dick around on youtube, he shared some great advice:

“Kid, take it one box at a time. There’s always gonna be another box delivered. Don’t break your back trying to clear the table. Do it slow and do it right. One box at a time.”