Week 9: Lunch Hour Advantage- #AlphaFemaleFriday

Week 9: Lunch Hour Advantage- #AlphaFemaleFriday

 

“ WEEK 9 / 133 – 133 WEEKS TO SUCCESS ”

When we were little kids, we were taught the 3 R’s of Recycling: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Now that we’re grown up, it’s time we learn the 3 R’s of taking a break: Recharge, Refocus, and Regroup! I believe in using our lunch hour, or whatever breaks we can manage to get within our work days, to its fullest advantage and potential. Use it to take care of yourself above all things. We glorify being busy, but there’s a critical difference between being busy and being productive.

 

 

Using Your Lunch Hour Advantage

• Recharge

The human mind and body can only work for so long before it just becomes a monotonous machine. Your body can perform wonders and miracles, but that is no reason to test yourself beyond your limits for the sake of what appears to be productivity. Worse, you don’t want to push yourself for the sake of busy work: low-impact and low-value assignments! Your per hour isn’t worth the ramifications that can ensue.

I used to think people exaggerated the affects that mental stress has on the body. On Monday, I went into work feeling fine. On Tuesday, I had a bloated stomach. On Wednesday, I had horrible cramps. On Thursday early morning, after an unpleasant visit to the porcelain throne and a throbbing migraine to boot, I finally decided to go to the doctor during my lunch break.

 

 

Go figure: it turned out that it was not the stomach flu or foodborne illness as I was thinking. It was the physical buildup of a stress migraine alerting my mind and body to RELAX! Suffice to say that I am now a loud and proud member of a local spa where my membership fee comes with a free monthly massage or facial.

 

 

• Refocus

Have you ever tried to solve a problem by sitting around and ruminating on it? Sometimes it works. Other times you end up back where you started: no progress, crying in the corner, stuffing a bag of Fritos into your face, and hugging your worn-out copy Chicken Soup for the Soul. Step away—especially from those Fritos.

 

 

Another advantage of using breaks is to gain perspective. Stepping away from a problem allows you to look at the bigger picture. I find walks to be very effective. Even if you can’t take that long, one hour walk through Central Park (one of my favorite perks about working near the 5^th Avenue entrance to the park), at least take five minutes to go outside for fresh air. Take your cup of coffee outside and think about it.

 

 

• Regroup

It’s a rain Sunday morning as I type this post. (That’s my secret, folks. I don’t actually write #AlphaFemaleFriday posts on Friday mornings. I write them a few days before, sometimes the night before if I’m schedule is tight). A U2 album is playing in the background, and how fitting that the song “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” just came on! The U2 men have a point. Bono is a great vocalist, but I don’t think he would be U2 all on his own. He got to where he was in collaboration with his great lead guitarist (The Edge), bassist (Adam Clayton), and drummer (Larry Mullen Jr.)

 

 

Getting advice from and collaborating with others gives a fresh perspective. They may be able to provide a solution to the puzzle you were tackling all on our own, and even if they can’t, at least you have someone by your side who can say, “You’re not alone here. Now give me some of those Fritos.”

 

 

As Lois P. Frankel says in her book, “life is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t keep going at 100 percent without burning yourself out.” Use your breaks whether you think you need them or not. It’s for your own physical and mental health. If you’re sitting here thinking you don’t need them, then this advice was definitely meant for someone like you.

 

 

Cheers,

Kelly

@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales

 

 

About:

Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board. There are a total of 133 tips, and explore one tip per week in a program I call: 133 Weeks to Success.

Join the movement using the hashtag #133WeeksToSuccess with posts which are posted every #AlphaFemaleFriday.