Revolution begins with lunch

Can something as simple as having lunch outside of office reclaim your life? New York author Tony Schwartz and employees who are stepping away from the desk every Wednesday for the campaign Take Back Your Lunch, believe it does. Mumbai and Delhi will reclaim theirs on July 8, says Kasmin Fernandes

Look around your office at lunchtime. If there are more than a handful of workers gobbling down reheated food in a jiffy, the company you work at has a problem on its hands. Far from saving time, skipping -- or shortening -- lunch hurts employees' health, productivity and quality of work.



"Far too many of us -- managers and employees alike -- have bought into the belief that the best way to keep up with demand is to be working all the time. As soon as you say to someone, take back your lunch, I think it evokes a kind of visceral recognition that we've all been in the bunker for the last couple of years. When you think about the recession and the fact that demand on everybody has continued to rise, you suddenly realise that you've been operating full tilt bogey out of fear, out of survival mode," says bestselling Tony Schwartz, CEO, The Energy Project in an email interview to Sunday MiD DAY.

The company helps individuals and organisations fuel energy, engagement, focus and productivity. Last Wednesday, the company roused workers across nine countries to reclaim their lives with a simple act -- Take Back Your Lunch. The plan is to do this every Wednesday, all through this summer. The campaign is coming to Indian metros, includingu00a0 Mumbai and Delhi, on July 8.

So impressed is Washington Post reporter Avis Thomas-Lester, she has resolved to participate in the campaign and blog about it. "I met some buddies for lunch on Wednesday. We laughed and had a great time and pledged to do it more often," she writes on her blog on the daily's website. "Schwartz lunched in a park in Manhattan with hundreds of New Yorkers. In DC dozens gathered at a park at 22 and P Street NW. Other events were held around the country that drew hundreds."

Eat out for insight
"Maybe you feel that you'll look lazy if you insist on your full hour - especially if your office has a culture of people working through lunch. But there are huge health benefits to taking a proper rest from work in the middle of the day," says professional blogger Ali Hale who runs the hugely successful The Office Diet (https://www.theofficediet.com/) blog on healthy living for busy people.

Apart from the obvious time to appreciate and digest your food properly, and unwinding in the middle of a work day, she lists out advantages like gaining perspective on difficult problems. "Getting completely away from your desk often means you come back with a sudden insight".

It's an energy reboost
Pranav P, founder, all-in-the-box Mumbai marketing firm 2 Saints agrees. He lunches outdoors at least three times a week; his favourite lunch spots are Sandwich & Co., The Gourmet Store at Grand Hyatt and Chinese majors China Gate and Royal China.

We caught up with him at the cosy Bandra wine bar The Den, where he was digging into South African delicacy Cape Malay Kabab. "Energy is cyclical. Meeting friends for lunch recharges energy levels that drop by mid-day. In fact, I encourage my employees to take short breaks through the day," he says.

Interior designer Sharmila Telang is a takeaway person, but catches up with her pals at least once a week.

"Usually, it's on-the-go salads and sandwiches from Candies, Subway or Just Around the Corner, for me. But nothing beats meeting old friends over rare two-hour lunches," said the Santacruz resident who is also gung-ho about joining the campaign.

Where the idea came from
The campaign is the result of a recent poll that The Energy Project conducted on online newspaper Huffington Post (see box) and Schwartz's own radical New York Times bestseller The Way We're Working Isn't Working.
Says Schwartz, "At the most practical level, leaving the office for lunch is an opportunity to relax, let go of whatever stresses you've accumulated during the morning, and return to work feeling more energised, more focused and more engaged in the afternoon."

Trend forecast
A look at what's coming to a firm near you

Metronapping
Google has installed special sleep stations called EnergyPods created by the firm MetroNaps. The EnergyPod is said to use NASA science to help people get their energy back when they need to catch some quick shuteye. It does this by surrounding employees in a private space, shutting out any external stimulus, and reclines them in the optimum resting position to provide maximum blood flow throughout their body. After 20 minutes, the pod will wake you up with a combination of an acoustic alarm and a gentle vibration.

Activity-based working
Macquarie bank in Australia has adopted a new collaborative working style -- Activity-Based Working (ABW), a flexible work platform developed by Dutch consultant Veldhoen & Co. Their new Sydney office facility is designed for the part. The group's 3,000 employees now work in an open and highly flexible space where, for instance, in the 10-storey atrium, 26 various kinds of "meeting pods" contribute to openness and transparency.

Custom-designed bullpen
While most of us must accept sitting just AT our regular desks, the creatives at Hamburg's Syzygy agency sit IN their swanky, new desks. Thinking up ads and interactive campaigns for clients such as Chanel, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda and Fujitsu, will most likely go a whole lot smoother when your workplace is custom-designed for you. The sleek, white bullpens are not as inflexible as they look. The various configurations are endless, but the desks always join together and form a whole. This allows for close cooperation and reinforces the feeling of everyone being in the same boat. The flexible desks also make it possible to turn tight and tough-to-utilise spaces into productive working environments.u00a0

You can join the campaign too

Participate. Sign up for a local 'meetup' in your neigbhourhood. Visit www.meetup.com/Take-Back-Your-Lunch.

Follow the campaign on www.twitter.com/tbylunch

Become the Chief Lunch Organiser in your area and help your friends and colleagues every Wednesday Take Back THEIR Lunch. Go to Meetup Everywhere (www.meetup.com/Take-Back-Your-Lunch) and click on the big red button that says 'Schedule a Meetup'.

Involve your company. It's free, easy and a great way to demonstrate that yours is a progressive organisation that puts its employees first. Email info@theenergyproject.com or log on to https://www.theenergyproject.com/tbyl

New York Times bestseller that inspired the campaign
The Way We're Working Isn't Working -- The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance, makes a compelling case for a new kind of workplace, a better way of working and a more deeply satisfying way of life. Written by Tony Schwartz with inputs by Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy, the book draws deeply on the science of research and high performance to lay out a new value proposition -- rather than trying to get more out of their employees, organisations are better served by investing in meeting their multidimensional needs. Employees, in turn, are freed, fuelled and motivated to perform at their best.

The handbook

Can't step out of the building? Follow this plan to TBYL:
1. Treat lunch like a meeting, and put it in your calendar. Leave your desk at whatever start-time you've decided, on the dot. This is good for your productivity, too.
2. Get together with a friend at work. Arrange to go for a walk at lunch, or just sit in the breakroom with your sandwiches and the paper.
3. Take up or continue with a hobby. It will prove an incentive to set work aside for an hour. Try looking for lunchtime concerts in your city, get a book group together with colleagues, take your camera out onto the streets.
4. Get annoying chores out of the way. Sort out your bills online, get your watch strap mended
5. Turn off your mobile phone.

Poll khol

In a recent poll involving 1,200 respondents conducted by The Energy Project on online American newspaper Huffington Post:

60% workers, took less than 20 minutes a day for lunch
20%, took less than 10 minutes
1/4, never left their desks at all

4 ways to turbo-charge your lunch hour

Professional blogger Ali Hale who runs the hugely successful The Office Diet (https://www.theofficediet.com/) suggests:

Make it a full hour
A great first step to making the most of your lunch hour is to actually take that full hour. This is easier in an office environment where others do too, but you can always start a new trend. If you really want people to respect your time and avoid interrupting you with work matters while you're having your lunch break, then get as far from your desk as possible -- head to the break room, the canteen or lobby, or right out of your building.
Think about your lunch

You don't need to be a nutritional expert to eat well at lunch. Focus on these key basics:
>>Eat a lighter lunch if you want to be more alert in the afternoon and have a small snack two to three hours after lunch.
>>Avoid alcohol at lunch time -- even a single beer or glass of wine is enough to make you less alert.
>>Have some fibre and protein to keep you full for longer. Whole grains, fruit, veggies and lean meats are all great sources.
>>Avoid high-sugar foods which will give you a temporary energy boost, followed by a crash.
Get some exercise

Make a point of getting some exercise every lunch break -- even if it's just a 15-minute brisk walk. You may even find that a colleague is willing to be a gym buddy or walking partner. Getting some exercise at lunch time can:
>>Help you stay alert for the afternoon ahead.
>>Be part of your exercise/weight-management programme.
>>Unwind and de-stress if you've had a hectic morning.
>>Avoid back problems and other aches and pains from sitting at a desk all day.

Learn something new
This might not necessarily be something directly related to your job: for instance, you could use your lunch hour to learn vocabulary for a foreign language.