It's more in consideration of my coworkers.

I typically don't rush to clear appetizer plates off of a table the second they finish. BUT I am sure to get them before the entrees come out. You should know about when your food is going to come out if you've been working somewhere long enough. Either intuitively or by keeping the time.

* When you're training somewhere, you should absolutely ask your manager/ trainer about average ticket times on EVERYTHING.

When I know food will be coming out soon, I clear the appetizer plates AND get their drink situation handled.

The goal is a seamless dining experience.

I don't want them to get their food and have nothing to drink. I get them all set up with everything they need to seamlessly go on about their meal.

The biggest time killer when pre-busing appetizers is having to get everyone new silverware. In a nice restaurant, doing this isn't even a question. You replace the silverware. Period. But in higher-volume, more casual places, you can get away with not replacing their silver.

I always try to replace if I can, but here’s how it may play out when I'm super busy:

1)If their forks are dirty and covered in BBQ sauce or cream cheese or something, I replace it.

2)If the fork is sitting on their little app plate and not really dirty-looking, I may grab the edge of the little plate and say, “Want to grab your fork for me here?"

3)If some little plates have forks on them and some do not, I may just grab the plates with the fork not on them. This usually creates enough space for bigger plates coming.

2) and 3) are not recommended in nicer restaurants, but they work in busy shifts. On both of those, I want to emphasize that it's only if said silver is not visibly dirty.

Another important component behind this is in simple consideration of coworkers. I may be busy when the food comes out. So a coworker runs all the plates out for me, but now they have to bus the appetizer plates, get refills, get them a missing fork, etc....

Yay! Now you're thinking of others.