Hey,

Sometimes I hate weak-days, even as an entrepreneur. Because of my workaholism, I felt depleted by the time work ended at 5, 7, or 9pm. That’s my fault for not knowing my “end game” going into the day.

As I said last week, June 1st marks half-time in the year, but watching the NBA playoffs has made me rethink half-time in my work day. For many people that means their lunch break.

I’ll admit that when I was working full-time for someone else, I was a afraid to take my lunch break. Why? Because nobody else seemed to be taking one and my rationalization that I could get a little more work done if I ate at my desk.

The crazy thing is that even when I started working for myself, the habit carried over. Now that my income depended solely on me, I felt more pressure to work non-stop but I’m discovering that there is a thin line between workaholism and high performance and I know there is another way.

Have you went out for lunch at work and seen people chillin’, jogging, or walking their dog in the nearby park?

They aren’t wearing a suit, ties, heels, or leggings. They don’t appear to be pressed for time in any way. And they aren’t homeless.

When I used to see that, I would immediately think:

• They inherited a lot of money
• They have a sugar momma or sugar daddy and don’t have to work
• They must have got a huge severance or won the lotto, or
• That unemployment check must be nice

The reality is, that most of my thoughts were probably wrong.

They just designed their work day differently—even if they have a full-time job in a nearby building. So over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to break that habit by breaking my work day in half.

At first, I had so much resistance. One day, I was out in the city after a morning meeting and I grabbed two slices of pizza. I checked my phone and noticed some emails that I felt needed an urgent response. I ate them so quickly that I didn’t even really enjoy them and burned my tongue.

As I started walking toward a nearby Starbucks (my second office) to access free wifi, I caught myself and thought, “This is ridiculous. Work can wait.” And instead I went to Washington Square Park and listened to some amateur jazz and watched kids dance freely to while my food digested. When I finally did get to work, I felt focused like my day was starting all over again.

Oftentimes we wait until after for happy hour, when the happiest hour could actually be lunch.

After that, I decided to do it again and again and I became more intentional about my lunch breaks, so much so that I started planning them…with friends…to hold me accountable. Since that day, I’ve used my lunch break to:

• Have several lunches in the middle of the day with my wife followed by a walk
• I went bike riding with my friends King and Herman.
• I took my brother out to a long lunch at Grimadly’s Pizza Brooklyn.
• I went bowling, in the middle of the day, with my friend Jidenna.
• I listened to live jazz and watched kids dance in Washington Square Park.
• And sometimes, I read, or napped. (Naps aren’t just for kindergartners)

In the NBA, halftime is 15 minutes and quarters are 12 minutes each. If we learned to manage our work day like the world’s highest performing athletes, it would look a lot different. A 15 minute halftime would be equivalent to a 1 hour and 50 minute lunch break.

Instead of working from 9am-5pm, my workday was 7am-11am and 2pm-6pm. I still worked 8+ hours, but it definitely didn’t feel like it. My workday felt like two 4 hour sprints rather than once long drawn out marathon.

These experiences including travel took longer that 2 hours, but they broke up my day. I was productive in the morning because I knew they was a break…a finish line…not too far off in the distance. And then I took a break and took my mind off of work in the middle of the day. And once I got back to my real office or home office, I went hard again.

I don’t do this every day…yet. But on the days that my schedule allows, it has worked wonders for me (pun intended).

Even if you have a traditional 9-to-5 and have to tell your boss you have a mid-day appointment, I challenge you to try it one day this upcoming week and let me know how it goes. If you’re already using your lunch break in a creative way, email me or comment here and let me know your thoughts or strategies on how to reenergize during the day.

Sincerely,

Jullien

P.S. Thank you for the overwhelming response about my weekly planner. More people expressed interest than I needed for the trial. I excited to see their responses and I’ll keep posted on the future of this potential product.