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Seize the lunch break!
Take personal time to eat, exercise, read...and improve productivity at the same time
"How many people take lunch?" is the first question that time-management expert Nancy Colter asks her corporate client groups and students in her professional-education classes at Emory's Center for Lifelong Learning.
"About three-fourths of the people don't hold up their hands, and when I ask them what they do instead, they say 'work,' " said Colter, an HR trainer and owner of Nancy Colter Consulting.
"I tell them, here's rule No. 1 for time management: To get the most out of your day, take a break," she said. "You may feel like you need to multitask constantly, but what you need is to clear your head so that you can look at things differently in the afternoon."
Colter learned to make lunch count years ago while working in the corporate world. "Every day at 3 p.m., our CFO would walk twice around our building. I asked him why, and he said that he needed to take a break and he'd figured out that the building wasn't going to burn down if he did."
It was a valuable lesson, and Colter has been taking a lunch break ever since. Some days she takes sneakers with her to a client's office and walks; sometimes she'll sit in the cafeteria and read the newspaper or people-watch.
She encourages clients to move past their preconceived notions of what constitutes a lunch break and form new habits. Lunch doesn't have to be an hour spent eating. It can be time spent addressing your Christmas cards, shopping online, knitting, running errands or socializing with colleagues. One client told Colter that she read romance novels in her car for 15 minutes a day.
"The point is to make it a personal break that divorces you temporarily from your work. Even if you're on overload and don't know what to do next, a break will help calm your brain, so that you can see a starting point," she said. "If you can get over thinking of taking lunch as a subtraction of time from your workday, you'll find that you gain a lot from it, in terms of increased productivity, decreased stress and better organization of your time."
If you're ready to reclaim lunch, here are some suggestions from Atlanta companies and workers.
Get fit
In April 2005, the scale clicked to a bigger number than Deanna Smith liked, and the executive assistant at McKesson Provider Technologies in Alpharetta decided to do something about it.
The company -- which is part of McKesson, a pharmaceutical and information technology supplier to the health care industry -- made it easy by providing both a weekly Weight Watchers meeting on site during lunch and an employee fitness facility. Smith began going to the meetings and working out three days a week. She eats lunch with friends and then does a half-hour workout.
"I not only lost weight but gained muscle, and I feel really lucky to be able to do it this way," Smith said. "I'm more alert. The exercise really revs me up for the afternoon, and I've met people in the gym who have become friends and supporters."
McKesson encourages wellness by sponsoring lunchtime sessions that feature speakers on nutrition, healthy eating and stress relief. The company's 10-week "I Care About My Health" programs encourage employee teams to compete with one another and exercise daily.
Business development manager Eileen Brennan loves working for a company that cares about its employees' health.
"To have the company provide a free gym, beautiful walking trail and shower -- it's brilliant," she said.
Brennan started working out with a friend as a New Year's resolution three years ago and has been a team captain for the wellness programs.
"When the weather is nice, I walk the trail. During the winter I work out in the gym three times a week. I feel really fit and have the energy to walk the stairs to the fifth floor or play tennis with my granddaughter. On the days when I'm feeling tired or lazy at lunch, there's always a buddy to say, 'Come on, let's go,' " she said.
Get smart
Sherri Johnson, director of corporate communications at BellSouth, spends her lunch times on the Lenox Park campus, studying.
"I'm in my second year of law school at Georgia State [University]. People think I'm crazy, but I'm having a blast. This is my idea of an adventure," Johnson said.
She goes to school three nights a week and studies the other two.
"Time is so precious; I love having that little block of time in the middle of the day," Johnson said. "BellSouth makes it easy by encouraging education and providing an area with comfortable chairs on each floor near the break area. I can bring my lunch, heat it up and get a lot done."
Learning at lunch is common at St. Joseph's Hospital People in Progress Learning Center, said Ramona Franklin, center coordinator.
"The hospital opened the center in 1991 as an employee benefit, because we're all about staff development here," Franklin said.
Employees in housekeeping, the cafeteria or the business office often spend their lunch breaks learning computer skills or brushing up on academic skills (math, reading, writing, science, medical terminology) needed for certificate or degree programs in health care and other careers. Participants in the chaplain residency program often dash in for some quick research.
Online databases help licensed practical nurses study for the NCLEX exam to become registered nurses. Workers also can use the computers to study for the SAT and ACT exams so that they can enroll in college programs. Tutors teach staff members Spanish and offer English lessons to employees from other countries.
Revenue recovery analyst Regina Fowlkes is about a year away from earning her bachelor's degree in education from Brenau University and teaching elementary school. She's been taking classes part time since 2000.
"It's a challenge with four kids and a job. Having that space of time during the day and the PIP center really makes a difference. I can work on a paper or catch up on reading," she said.
More companies are taking advantage of lunchtime to offer programs that benefit their employees. MATRIX Resources offers exercise classes in its office-complex gym at noon, as well as periodic programs in financial planning, personal safety, stress management and nutrition. Individual departments sometimes offer Web-based seminars or team-building activities during lunch.
The company's location near Perimeter Mall also makes it easy for employees to eat or shop at lunch.
"We encourage work/life balance, so we don't want people to work eight or nine hours straight," said Sandy Jess, director of human resources. "When you take a break and get away, you come back refreshed, have more energy and are more focused."
Switch roles
In the morning and afternoon, Victoria David is all business, as owner of Enviro-Fundamentals, a builder/developer consulting company. But at lunch, she's all mom.
"I struggled with feeling guilty about working after my daughter was born, but getting to spend time with her every day has really helped," David said.
She drops in at the downtown location of Sheltering Arms Early Education and Family Centers to feed, cuddle and play with 1-year-old Eres Olivia.
"She's getting quite independent now, so if she's busy playing or sleeping, I just volunteer in one of the rooms," David said. "At first, it was hard to leave, but now, if she's playing, I just wave and go. She knows that I'll be back."
David chose the center near Centennial Olympic Park for its quality, welcoming atmosphere and location, which was close to her downtown clients. Sheltering Arms, which has been providing child care in Atlanta since 1888, encourages parents to visit and volunteer and offers a quiet room where they can nurse or feed children.
"We know it helps a lot to be with their children during the day. It builds a relationship with the kids and with their teachers," said Paige Kubik, director of development.
The center also provides occasional parenting classes and a book club for parents during lunch.
Renew the spirit
The stressful, plugged-in atmosphere of today's workplaces makes some people feel the need to refresh their spirits at lunch. That can mean taking a walk in a nearby park, doing yoga, meditating or reading spiritual books. Some workers even escape to nearby houses of worship for a quiet change of pace.
North Point Community Church in Alpharetta brings church to many Atlanta workplaces through its Life Lessons Over Lunch ministry.
"It started with one of our members wanting to buy his co-workers lunch and show them a DVD of Sunday's sermon," said Evan McLaughlin, ministry coordinator. "The idea took off and is now used by 90 groups in 70 companies all over the country."
The lessons are spiritual and practical and are presented in a no-pressure, nonthreatening way. "There's no complex strategy. It's just co-workers having lunch and viewing a video, which presents life lessons that are applicable to anyone," McLaughlin said.
More than 100 BellSouth workers at the Lenox Park office meet every other Wednesday in the cafeteria for Life Lessons Over Lunch.
"The cafeteria owner discounts lunch that day, and the crowd keeps growing by word of mouth," said Nadine Randall in BellSouth's communication group.
