Make A 30-Minute Lunch Work for You

How do you make the most of your thirty-minute lunch? By not working. Here’s why, and what you SHOULD be doing instead.

This is the best steak you’ve ever had. Even though your eyes are closed, you can feel the flames of the candles gently heating your skin. The air smells freshly of-

Oh. You’re not at a restaurant. You’re not eating steak. There’s not even anything remotely close to resembling a candle. You’re at your desk at work, and you just clocked out to eat.

How can we make a thirty-minute work lunch work for us?

Location, location, location. Tri-City Medical Center reported that “More than 6 in 10 professionals eat at their desks.” I’ve even seen this statistic as high as 4 out of 5 employees. Step AWAY from the desk and nobody gets hurt. Ha, that last part of the sentence was written as a joke, but there’s some truth to it. If you don’t step away from the desk, you could potentially hurt yourself. Sitting all day makes it more likely for you to strain the muscles in your back and neck… it puts high tension on the spine.”

A new study shows that taking an easy walk during lunch helps “provides employees with better focus and less fatigue during the afternoon hours.”

Another idea (and for the sake of consistency), refresh, refresh, fresh. A lunch break is exactly as it sounds…a break. However, 13–38% of employees don’t take lunch breaks because they are worried they’re worried their bosses will think less of them, they don’t want to be judged by co-workers, or feel encouraged by their companies to take lunch breaks. You deserve a break, literately and legally.

Not only do working lunches lead to more stress and job burnout, but almost 90% of Americans claim that taking an honest to goodness lunch break helps them feel more refreshed and ready to get back to work. More than half of employees use their time to play on the internet, but that’s not refreshing. It’s mindless. So step away from the computer, and ah! Put away that phone. It’s time to recharge your mind.

Here are some things successful people do during their lunch break:

• Network. Invite another co-worker to eat with you.
• You are not obligated to do work during your lunch break. Use this time to catch up on news, educate yourself by reading books or blogs, and cultivate skills by watching YouTube tutorials.
• Use this time of day to do things you enjoy most like calling a friend, doing a quick workout, drawing or visiting the park.

A third idea on how to make a 30-minute lunch break work for you is to eat (eat, eat. Sorry, I had to do it!) Two in Three Millennials claim to skip lunch in order to “get ahead.” You know the age-old saying, you can’t work on an empty stomach, and it’s true. Take the time the night before to sit down and curate a nice lunch, something that will make you feel energized, fueled and not bogged down. Because if you really want to get ahead, you need to eat right. Hunger makes you more irritable, more stressed and can lead to chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. … And the more meals you miss, the more severe hunger affects the minds and bodies.

So if you’re worried someone might say something about you not working for 30 minutes of your eight hour day, simply say you’re on your lunch break, state that it’s been proven that taking a lunch break helps employees feel more refreshed and ready to get back to work, and then go back to whatever you were doing to unwind, because your time is precious. Metaphorical mike drop.