How Do I Get Back to Work Effectively After a Lunch Break?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.440 | OK, let's keep moving here.

00:00:06.560 | Question number three is from TooMuchRest.

00:00:11.080 | He asked, how do I come back to work

00:00:13.480 | after taking a lunch break?

00:00:16.320 | Yeah, it's hard.

00:00:17.720 | It's easy to fall down distractive rabbit holes

00:00:20.160 | after lunch breaks.

00:00:20.920 | I suffer from this too.

00:00:22.800 | Three things I'd recommend, and I would combine

00:00:25.200 | all three of these things.

00:00:26.280 | Number one, ritual, have a post-lunch ritual

00:00:30.520 | that you always do to prepare you to get back into work mode.

00:00:33.200 | A walk works really good here.

00:00:34.760 | I'm talking like five to 10 minutes.

00:00:36.840 | But you do a certain walk or whatever

00:00:39.800 | so that you are teaching your mind that this

00:00:42.800 | means we're shifting out of the much more wandering mindset

00:00:46.760 | that we're in when we're at lunch,

00:00:48.240 | just thinking about things and reading things

00:00:50.080 | and watching things back into a work mindset.

00:00:52.680 | Two, no email right after lunch.

00:00:55.640 | No Slack either.

00:00:56.800 | That just has to be a hard and fast rule.

00:00:58.520 | Do not start your first session after lunch going down

00:01:02.440 | a context-switching rabbit hole, like,

00:01:04.280 | let me see what's going on my inbox or what's going on

00:01:06.560 | with Slack, because your mind will never--

00:01:08.680 | well, it'll get back to work mode,

00:01:10.040 | but you're going to really slow it down.

00:01:11.360 | And you've just added 45 minutes of wandering if you do that.

00:01:13.920 | So never, ever, ever start your first moments

00:01:17.640 | after a lunch break with email or Slack.

00:01:19.320 | And then three, and this is critical,

00:01:22.800 | before lunch, figure out and set up

00:01:26.320 | what you're going to work on right after lunch.

00:01:29.160 | And again, it shouldn't be email.

00:01:30.520 | It shouldn't be Slack.

00:01:31.440 | So do email and Slack right before lunch.

00:01:33.240 | So like, OK, I'm not missing something urgent.

00:01:35.080 | And then set up.

00:01:35.780 | I'm going to work on this report right after lunch.

00:01:38.960 | Get it loaded up.

00:01:40.000 | Get it in Word.

00:01:40.840 | Get the documents that you need to draw from.

00:01:44.080 | Get that all loaded up.

00:01:45.040 | Take a look at it, kind of, all right, I get it.

00:01:47.320 | I see what's going on.

00:01:48.240 | I've sort of swapped it in.

00:01:49.400 | I think I'm ready to go.

00:01:50.400 | Good.

00:01:51.200 | Let me go eat lunch.

00:01:52.160 | When I come back, it's all there.

00:01:53.560 | It's all got prepped.

00:01:54.360 | And you can get right into work.

00:01:55.360 | Those three things, I think, do those three things,

00:01:57.680 | and you can tame lunch breaks.

00:02:00.040 | My lunch break recommendation, by the way,

00:02:01.720 | is read during your lunch breaks if you can.

00:02:03.540 | It's great for your brain.

00:02:04.760 | It's a great time to get some reading in.

00:02:06.640 | And it has a much more minimal impact

00:02:10.120 | on your cognitive energy for the remainder of the day,

00:02:12.760 | as compared to what most people do,

00:02:14.960 | which is they open up the internet and their phones

00:02:17.880 | and are basically saying, put it in my veins,

00:02:21.880 | and just go frenetic crazy.

00:02:23.800 | And then they're like, OK, time to go work on something deep.

00:02:26.340 | Yeah, good luck.

00:02:28.320 | Crossing off.

00:02:29.720 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:02:33.080 | (upbeat music)

How Do I Get Back to Work Effectively After a Lunch Break? | Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Chapters