Read at lunch

Give yourself a little literary treat in the middle of the work day

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to try reading at lunch. We all
need breaks from time to time. Lunch is as good
a time as any to take a break. You have

(00:24):
to eat, and you have to manage your energy. When
you don't break midday, the afternoon can easily disappear into
unfocused email reading or social media checks. You might wind
up staying late just to get your work done. If
you've already worked through lunch, well, this can definitely lead
to burnout. Breaks are smart, but this raises the question

(00:47):
what should you do with this time during the work
day that you aren't working. One of the best ideas
I've heard lately is to use it to read. My
co host on the Best of Both Worlds podcast Best
Sarah hart Hunger works as a physician. She spends her
days seeing patients and managing her hospital's residency program, so

(01:09):
she has recently been using her lunch break to make
it through her summer reading list. I can't do this
every day meetings, work, et cetera, she recently posted on
her blog. But when I'm able to sneaking away to
read for thirty minutes while eating is the best. I
recognize it's a little antisocial, and I probably could be networking,

(01:29):
but the rest of my job is so social and
I'm talking to everyone all of the time, so this
break is really nice and sometimes needed. I agree, and
so did a lot of people posting comments on Sarah's blog.
One reader noted that closing my office door and reading
for thirty minutes over lunch is one of my sanity savers. Another,

(01:51):
a teacher, noted that she was around people all the time,
reading while the kids were at lunch was her treat.
Another commenter called lunchtime reading a nice mental pause. It's
also a great way to add more reading to your life.
If you read for thirty minutes at lunch twice a week,

(02:12):
that's an extra hour of reading time each week. A
lot of commercial books take four to six hours to read,
so this means you can read an extra book every
four to six weeks, or an extra eight to thirteen
books a year. Reading a dozen books a year right
there puts you in the top half of readers. Of course,
this is easier said than done. Many people find it

(02:35):
challenging to take a lunch break. In general, certain structural
decisions can help. You can push for an office culture
where morning meetings get scheduled on the hour and afternoon
ones on the half hour. This builds a thirty minute
break in there somewhere. It's also good to socialize, and
I'm a big fan of grabbing lunch with colleagues to

(02:55):
nurture relationships. But you don't have to do this five
days a week. Depending on the office culture, you just
might need to be careful about how you handle reading time.
If you have an office, great, shut the door. If
you don't go elsewhere, Sitting in a park or a
coffee shop or the restaurant where you grabbed your food
can work. Even your car would be fine. The company

(03:19):
cafeteria can be challenging because people won't be sure if
you want companionship or not. You might be better off
in a not frequently used conference room, or you can
just sit at your cubicle. One tip. I found that
people feel slightly less awkward reading e books on their
phones when they're visible to other people. I can sit

(03:40):
here and try to argue that pulling a paperback out
of your bag and reading it in the middle of
the work day should not be perceived as strange, but
in some offices it is. Sometimes people feel judged for
not doing stuff that looks like work of the time.
But people look at their phones all day long. No

(04:02):
one has any idea what you're doing on it, so
feel free to put the books on there and read
on the kindle app. By putting your brain in a
different space for half an hour, you'll return to work
with new ideas and you'll feel like you've got a
mini vacation. You're not on the beach, but you can
indulge in a beach read. Do you read on your

(04:24):
lunch break sometimes let me know. You can email me
at Before Breakfast podcast at i heart media dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(04:46):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
that's b E the number four, then breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast

(05:08):
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.