I was going to say I don't know I missed this thread when Okie first posted...but that's also the answer to the question; I tend to focus extremely hard on one task at a time and ignore everything else.
And also, everything gets faster/easier with repetition.
I generally don't work at hotels or dinners outside of taking notes. I try to enjoy the experience. I leave the receipt on my desk when I get home, and go to sleep/unpack, or do whatever needs to get done in my life that day. In the morning, I put the coffee on, scan receipts and organize my files while it brews, and then I get to work. It's not that exciting to watch because I just sit there drinking coffee and working until I am done, or at least, to the milestone in a hotel report where I want to be. Those can take 6-12 hours total.
I do have a 'trick' that I use in my regular work life as well, where I set milestones and rewards for progress. Dining reports don't get breaks, because they can be done in one sitting, but hotels can have snack breaks, meal breaks and such when I hit a certain point.
The rest is all about organization and having a really great ergonomic work environment. My main job requires a relatively large technical setup, so I have an large computer monitor (50") that allows me to spread one doc with notes, another with the narrative and the online form across the screen to see everything. I can also set up rows of pictures across the top of the screen so I can see the different meal courses pictured.
My theory is that sitting on a dining experience for the night while I sleep allows me to process it and think about it. I have been doing this for so long now that's it habit, and my brain is doing a lot of work while I sleep. The overall experience is clearer the next morning. The tipsy feeling has faded and been replaced with a caffeine buzz instead, and I don't have to spend much time chasing my words. I sometimes use dictation software for longer hotel reports and speak the narrative, then do an editing pass when I might clean up some wording.
But...I am only good/fast at these one or two things. I don't do as well with other MSCs outside of Coyle because it's not part of the 20 years of repetition I am used to (As evidenced by me blowing a taco shop last week). I used to struggle with the ACL reports because of their accordion style reporting software where sections are opening and closing, so they took too long, and I just stopped working for them.
I am amazed at people who can set up long routes of small ships and keep all those receipts organized. For a hotel or restaurant, it'd very limited amount of paperwork involved. It's just one big paycheck.
And @drdoggie00 the towel measuring scenario was a whole different kind of shop so I had to create a new technique, because there was no narrative and everything had to be done on site. I did one pass on arrival (room pics), and another the last morning (towels and sheet measurements). I also did 65 of those hotels and many were back to back, so it got faster and easier over time, and I never had to refer to the instructions after the first few that I did locally. The check in/out days were always lost to travel and reporting, but the middle day was always a day off and I used those shops to travel across Europe one summer with a free day to go sightseeing every other day.
And thanks everyone for all the kind words above!
He’s a great guy IRL
Thanks for the laugh!