Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to go on a lunchtime adventure, particularly as
Speaker 1: it starts getting darker Earlier. Adventures might be harder to
Speaker 1: have after work than, say, during the summer, but if
Speaker 1: you have a little bit of autonomous time in the
Speaker 1: middle of the day, you might be able to use
Speaker 1: it for all kinds of interesting things. So in some
Speaker 1: kinds of jobs, breaks are formalized and many others they aren't,
Speaker 1: but most people take some breaks for no other reason
Speaker 1: than that people need to use the restroom or procure
Speaker 1: things to eat. Handled right, breaks can make you more
Speaker 1: energized for the work ahead, so there are big productivity
Speaker 1: breakthroughs to be had by taking breaks intentionally and actively
Speaker 1: choosing activities for those breaks that boost mood and energy levels.
Speaker 1: If you aren't taking regular lunch breaks, commit this week
Speaker 1: to doing so. Then, once you are regularly stepping away
Speaker 1: from your workspace for at least a few minutes in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day, see if you can increase
Speaker 1: the fun factor by going on at least one lunchtime
Speaker 1: adventure a week. A lunchtime adventure is obviously going to
Speaker 1: be short. Most people aren't going to take more than
Speaker 1: thirty to forty five minutes or so away from their desks.
Speaker 1: But if you have your food ready to go, then
Speaker 1: you don't need to spend time standing in line to
Speaker 1: buy it, and you can do something else with these minutes.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you can do something really interesting. It's worth a shot.
Speaker 1: Doing so could make a random work day far more memorable.
Speaker 1: So wherever you work, look around at places you could
Speaker 1: get to in a very short walk, or, if it's
Speaker 1: that sort of place, a quick drive. Make a list
Speaker 1: of potential options. Maybe there are some interesting stores a
Speaker 1: few blocks away that would be fun to peruse. Maybe
Speaker 1: there's an indoor garden in the lobby of a nearby
Speaker 1: office building. Maybe there are a few food trucks parked
Speaker 1: in a parking lot that's a three minute drive from
Speaker 1: your office. If you hauled yourself over there, you'd get
Speaker 1: something more interesting than your cafeteria fair. Maybe there's a
Speaker 1: trail nearby you can walk. Maybe there's an actual destination,
Speaker 1: like a museum. Most people won't go to a history
Speaker 1: museum for just twenty minutes, but if you get a membership,
Speaker 1: you could come back once every week or so and
Speaker 1: see a lot of it. If you have more control
Speaker 1: of your time, then there are lots of other options.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite lunchtime adventures is to go over
Speaker 1: to Chanticleer, a botanical garden that is about a twenty
Speaker 1: minute drive from my house. I have to plan this
Speaker 1: out since I'm usually gone about an hour and fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes on days I do that, but once every two
Speaker 1: to three weeks during the spring, summer, and fall is
Speaker 1: good for seeing something beautiful. If I check the traffic,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's only about twenty minutes to the Philadelphia Art
Speaker 1: Museum in the middle of the day. If I go
Speaker 1: for less than an hour, my parking is free. I
Speaker 1: can't do that every day, but can I do it
Speaker 1: once a month. Absolutely. The point here is to shift
Speaker 1: a few mindsets. First, there is the story that you
Speaker 1: can't do anything that is not work during work hours.
Speaker 1: The truth is that people do things that aren't work
Speaker 1: during work hours. All the time we eat, we go
Speaker 1: to the bathroom. Often people read headlines or answer texts
Speaker 1: that are not required for their work. The breakthrough is
Speaker 1: to decide that since there is going to be time
Speaker 1: spent not working during work hours. It's best to use
Speaker 1: this time intentionally to rejuvenate. This actually allows you to
Speaker 1: get more done. Here's another mindset shift. You can do
Speaker 1: something occasionally and have it be a fun part of
Speaker 1: your life without trying to do things every day. Will
Speaker 1: you go on a lunchtime adventure daily? Probably not. If
Speaker 1: you look at your schedule. Could you try to do
Speaker 1: something fun and interesting at lunch once a week? You
Speaker 1: probably can. These things are not either or. And finally,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us are walking around with
Speaker 1: the story that we can't do things, so we don't
Speaker 1: do things. But what if you told yourself the story
Speaker 1: that you could get outside and see the fall color
Speaker 1: and see the sunshine in the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: Probably at least one day during the next week or two,
Speaker 1: you'll be just puttering around during a thirty minute chunk
Speaker 1: in the middle of your work day. Probably one day
Speaker 1: in the next week or two, you could make something
Speaker 1: interesting happen, and then you have an entirely different story.
Speaker 1: I am not starve for time, I am not put upon.
Speaker 1: I am the kind of person who can go browse
Speaker 1: that cool comic bookshop in the middle of the workday.
Speaker 1: It opens up all sorts of possibilities. So look at
Speaker 1: your schedule, look at when you take breaks, Think about
Speaker 1: what sort of lunchtime adventures might be possible for you.
Speaker 1: Choose a day over the next week to try one.
Speaker 1: Choose a backup slot in case the first time is
Speaker 1: taken away from you. I'm guessing if you do all that,
Speaker 1: you can make it happen and that workday won't be forgotten.
Speaker 1: We don't ask where did the time go when we
Speaker 1: remember where the time went in the meantime. This is
Speaker 1: low Biah. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.