Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to try reading at lunch. We all
Speaker 1: need breaks from time to time. Lunch is as good
Speaker 1: a time as any to take a break. You have
Speaker 1: to eat, and you have to manage your energy. When
Speaker 1: you don't break midday, the afternoon can easily disappear into
Speaker 1: unfocused email reading or social media checks. You might wind
Speaker 1: up staying late just to get your work done. If
Speaker 1: you've already worked through lunch, well, this can definitely lead
Speaker 1: to burnout. Breaks are smart, but this raises the question
Speaker 1: what should you do with this time during the work
Speaker 1: day that you aren't working. One of the best ideas
Speaker 1: I've heard lately is to use it to read. My
Speaker 1: co host on the Best of Both Worlds podcast Best
Speaker 1: Sarah hart Hunger works as a physician. She spends her
Speaker 1: days seeing patients and managing her hospital's residency program, so
Speaker 1: she has recently been using her lunch break to make
Speaker 1: it through her summer reading list. I can't do this
Speaker 1: every day meetings, work, et cetera, she recently posted on
Speaker 1: her blog. But when I'm able to sneaking away to
Speaker 1: read for thirty minutes while eating is the best. I
Speaker 1: recognize it's a little antisocial, and I probably could be networking,
Speaker 1: but the rest of my job is so social and
Speaker 1: I'm talking to everyone all of the time, so this
Speaker 1: break is really nice and sometimes needed. I agree, and
Speaker 1: so did a lot of people posting comments on Sarah's blog.
Speaker 1: One reader noted that closing my office door and reading
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes over lunch is one of my sanity savers. Another,
Speaker 1: a teacher, noted that she was around people all the time,
Speaker 1: reading while the kids were at lunch was her treat.
Speaker 1: Another commenter called lunchtime reading a nice mental pause. It's
Speaker 1: also a great way to add more reading to your life.
Speaker 1: If you read for thirty minutes at lunch twice a week,
Speaker 1: that's an extra hour of reading time each week. A
Speaker 1: lot of commercial books take four to six hours to read,
Speaker 1: so this means you can read an extra book every
Speaker 1: four to six weeks, or an extra eight to thirteen
Speaker 1: books a year. Reading a dozen books a year right
Speaker 1: there puts you in the top half of readers. Of course,
Speaker 1: this is easier said than done. Many people find it
Speaker 1: challenging to take a lunch break. In general, certain structural
Speaker 1: decisions can help. You can push for an office culture
Speaker 1: where morning meetings get scheduled on the hour and afternoon
Speaker 1: ones on the half hour. This builds a thirty minute
Speaker 1: break in there somewhere. It's also good to socialize, and
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of grabbing lunch with colleagues to
Speaker 1: nurture relationships. But you don't have to do this five
Speaker 1: days a week. Depending on the office culture, you just
Speaker 1: might need to be careful about how you handle reading time.
Speaker 1: If you have an office, great, shut the door. If
Speaker 1: you don't go elsewhere, Sitting in a park or a
Speaker 1: coffee shop or the restaurant where you grabbed your food
Speaker 1: can work. Even your car would be fine. The company
Speaker 1: cafeteria can be challenging because people won't be sure if
Speaker 1: you want companionship or not. You might be better off
Speaker 1: in a not frequently used conference room, or you can
Speaker 1: just sit at your cubicle. One tip. I found that
Speaker 1: people feel slightly less awkward reading e books on their
Speaker 1: phones when they're visible to other people. I can sit
Speaker 1: here and try to argue that pulling a paperback out
Speaker 1: of your bag and reading it in the middle of
Speaker 1: the work day should not be perceived as strange, but
Speaker 1: in some offices it is. Sometimes people feel judged for
Speaker 1: not doing stuff that looks like work of the time.
Speaker 1: But people look at their phones all day long. No
Speaker 1: one has any idea what you're doing on it, so
Speaker 1: feel free to put the books on there and read
Speaker 1: on the kindle app. By putting your brain in a
Speaker 1: different space for half an hour, you'll return to work
Speaker 1: with new ideas and you'll feel like you've got a
Speaker 1: mini vacation. You're not on the beach, but you can
Speaker 1: indulge in a beach read. Do you read on your
Speaker 1: lunch break sometimes let me know. You can email me
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heart media dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four, then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.