How to use the online timer
Forty-five minutes is enough for a lunch break that is genuinely a break: time to eat something, get out of the chair, and be somewhere other than the desk for a stretch. Eating at the keyboard while carrying on working is a false economy that has become normal in a lot of offices, and it produces an afternoon that starts flat and stays there.
Getting outside for part of it does most of the work. Daylight and a short walk have more effect on the afternoon than the extra twenty minutes of work being sacrificed, and they take the edge off the mid-afternoon dip that arrives around four o'clock regardless. A heavy lunch makes that dip considerably worse, which is worth knowing before ordering something substantial ahead of a difficult afternoon.
Leaving the phone behind, or at least out of hand, changes the quality of the break more than its length does, since a lunch break spent scrolling gives the mind no more rest than the morning did. If the working day makes forty-five minutes impossible, half an hour away from the desk beats an hour of eating in front of a screen. Taking it at roughly the same time each day also stops it being negotiated away by whatever is on fire at half past twelve.
Common questions
Is it really worth leaving the desk?
Yes. Daylight and a short walk do more for the afternoon than the twenty minutes of work being given up, and eating at the keyboard tends to produce a flat afternoon.
What if I cannot take forty-five minutes?
Half an hour genuinely away from the desk beats an hour spent eating in front of a screen. Taking it at roughly the same time each day also stops it being negotiated away.
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