For a while, lunch happened beside my keyboard. I could not have told you what I had eaten by the end of the afternoon. Moving to the kitchen table did not require a new recipe. It required giving the meal a place.
Make the easiest version inviting
A tin of beans, a tomato and yesterday’s bread can become a perfectly welcome lunch. I put them on a plate, added a glass of water and sat somewhere other than my desk. It was the same food I might have eaten at my desk, but here I could put the plate down without moving a keyboard.
Your own lunch will look different. Budget, time, appetite and dietary needs all matter. Start with food you enjoy and can manage; there is no need to make a performance of it.
Give the break a beginning and an end
I used to answer one last message while eating, and the break would quietly disappear. Now I close the laptop before I pick up the plate. A visible boundary helps me notice that I have moved from one part of the day into another.
If work makes a full break difficult, a few uninterrupted minutes can still be worth protecting. Find the smallest arrangement that is possible in your circumstances.
Share the table when it suits you
Sometimes a friend joins me, or I read a few pages. On other days I look out of the window while I eat. I leave the screen at the desk.
The dishes still need washing. The afternoon still contains work. But lunch has stopped being an invisible event between tasks.
Lunch has stopped being an invisible event between tasks.
