Lunch with your nemesis
Did you know Richard Branson uses his lunch breaks to take his rivals out for a meal and a chat? Back when British Airways was trying to bury fledgling Virgin Atlantic, he called up Sir Colin Marshal for lunch, which resulted in them burying the hatchet (rather than each other) and becoming friends.
Hit the treadmill
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams keeps his productivity roaring all day by taking time out to exercise during his least productive time of day, which happens to be around lunchtime.
Catch 40 winks
Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post is a huge advocate for taking lunchtime naps.
“Whether it’s in your car, a sleeping pod, or even at your desk, 20 minutes of shut-eye can power you up for the rest of the work day,” she says.
Auction your lunch break
Did you know that Warren Buffett auctions his lunch break? For 16 years Buffett has been lunching with the highest bidder with all proceeds going to a charity that supports marginalised people get access to food, medical care, housing and rehabilitation. This year, bidding to sit opposite the world’ most famous investor started at $25 000. In 2012 this lunch date set back an anonymous bidder $3,45 million.
Defrag with harmless distractions
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft has been known to pass the time with idle card games. In fact he’s a keen bridge player. The mind is a powerful machine with many processes operating in the background.
When you afford it some time off from processing front of mind tasks and occupy it with diversions unrelated to the problem you’re trying to solve, your mind is then able to devote more processing power to finding a creative solution.