VO Mindset: Park for the Exit

In one fairly short chapter of my life, I drove for a delivery company.

There was no training. (Also no GPS at that point, which made me amazingly good at using maps – does anyone remember “Thomas Guides”?). New drivers ended up with deliveries no one else wanted, which meant moving between widely distributed stops as quickly as possible.

One hectic morning, I pulled my van into the loading/unloading area at a large facility and hopped out to drop off a couple boxes. I returned to find more vehicles now blocking my exit. Leaving required navigating sharp angles. There was no way I could confidently back out using only my mirrors, meaning I was effectively stuck and losing time.

As I stood there muttering, an older driver from my company pulled into the lot, backed into an open slot and ambled over after dropping off his packages. He quietly looked at my predicament, and then said, “Always park for the exit.”

If I’d taken the short moment to swing around and back in – so the truck aimed in the direction I’d be going next – I would have been able to slide out through the narrow, angled gap and be down the road. Instead I had a significant wait in what became a fairly frustrating day.

You generally learn from lessons which leave a mark. I frequently think back to that day. These days, “Park for the Exit” means considering where I need to go next. When I do that right, the day feels good and moves smoothly. That moment of transition is very important.

Friction, focus loss, and momentum failure occur most often during task switching. It’s easy to get lost or distracted. We’re highly vulnerable to distraction at that moment. Parking for the exit means having a clear set of steps to get where you are going next.

It can be as simple as setting a calendar reminder for your next scheduled item. A clear stopping point helps. There’s that tendency to push auditions right up to the deadline time – giving “one more take” because we have the time to do so (which, of course, we really don’t).

Simply prepping the next step can be a simple and helpful hack – like organizing the morning coffee stuff before going to bed. It makes for a seamless studio workflow which does not waste mental energy on what to do next.

Parking for the exit.

That transition is a fragile step. It’s a very easy place to get knocked off course, or sucked deeper into a task which doesn’t matter. As with all things, I wish I was better at this. There’s no Thomas Guide map. Certainly no GPS. Unless you create one.

Parking for the exit.

Resources for Further Reading, etc.
James Clear’s book Atomic Habits takes the ideas from Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit and gives good, practical methods for creating an environment of helpful patterns.
BeFocused Pro is a nice little focus/rest tool I’m using.
APA on the mental costs of multitasking and switching.
The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin.
Here’s longer book list on JustAskJimVO.studio.

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