Hello! This is Kanekiyo. If you work remotely from home, you probably eat lunch at home, but how do you spend your lunch break?
Everyone at mgn basically enters Gather at 10:30 in the morning to start work, but because of the fully remote flex-time system, some people start at around 8:30, others at 11:00, depending on their convenience, and everyone takes a lunch break at their favorite (convenient) time. I have the impression that most people take a one-hour break between 1:00 and 2:00 pm.
I take my lunch break at 12:00, unless I am not available for a meeting or something. I eat breakfast around 7:30 to 8:00 after dropping the kids off at school, so I get hungry around 12:00! In addition to that, my cats also start wandering around at that time, asking for food, or climbing on my work desk to interfere with me.
Spend time outside of lunch
Most of my lunches are leftovers from the previous day’s dinner, and if there are no leftovers, I make do without cooking most of the time with what I have in the refrigerator, such as natto and chilled tofu. Sometimes I make instant ramen or a simple stir-fry, but I prepare it with as little effort as possible. The reason for this is that I want to use my lunch break for something other than “eating lunch.
Time for valuable household chores
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What do you do with your lunch break…
hang out one’s laundry
cook rice
washing
cleaning
Preparation of dinner
shopping
Complete errands at the bank, post office, etc.
What I do is mainly housework; sometimes I finish the first load of laundry, pop the second load in and start work, and when that happens, I hang the second load of laundry during my lunch break. If I didn’t wash or clean up after breakfast in the time it takes me to start work in the morning, I sometimes wash them all together after lunch. I also complete errands such as banking that are done early in the day during my lunch hour. If I use my lunch break to complete household chores, I have more time in the evening and at night. Also, if there is a PTA or community gathering in the evening, I have to prepare dinner in time to make it in time, so it is very helpful to use my lunch break time for this as well! Being able to do household chores in between is one of the great things about working remotely.
And often these things cannot be completed in an hour. In such cases, we extend the break, change the end time of the work for that, or work more the next day.
Valuable relaxation time
I don’t use my lunch break every day to do household chores or run errands. When I concentrate on staring at the monitor, I often find that before I know it, my shoulders are tense and my whole body is stiff and stiff. And since my concentration doesn’t last forever, it is very important for me to take time to relax over a cup of coffee. I took a nap during my lunch break. Some articles say, “I have napped on days when I didn’t get enough sleep or when I was sick. I felt refreshed and was able to concentrate on my work, or my headache went away and I was able to come back to life.
Image by Adobe Firefly
Lunch breaks are valuable time
Lunch breaks are of course there to satisfy hunger, and I know that some people would return to work quickly after lunch, but for me, it is a valuable time for housework and a change of pace. When my husband and daughters were at home due to their own school or other commitments, we could go to lunch together and spend time talking. I am very grateful to have this time at my disposal.
From the new school year, my eldest daughter will go to high school and I will have to make her lunch every morning. This will mean less and less time for morning chores, so my lunch break will become even more precious. I am also thinking of using my lunch break to visit a chiropractic clinic that opened just around the corner. How do you spend your lunch break time?