If work is a prison then let the lunch hour be your escape.
Like your job, hate your job, love it or just tolerate it, that one hour slot at lunch is your chance to break free. Your mission this month, should you choose to accept it, is to capitalise on your lunchbreak, escape your workplace and cram in as much as possible.
Here are some ideas:
- See how far away from your office you can get in the allocated time (walk, run, bus, cycle)
- Visit that exhibition, park, new shop or museum you’d never considered an opportunity for a lunch break (is it really too far away?)
- Meet up with that friend who works nearby but you never actually find the time to see (go somewhere exciting!)
- Eat somewhere different, trek to a new area with your sandwiches, mission it on public transport to that cafe you were recommended
The specifics don’t matter. Just get out there and maximise your time.
If you are thinking:
- “I have too much work to take a lunchbreak” then consider that you only need to do this ONCE in the next month.
- “I only get 45 / 30 / X minutes, there’s not enough time” that doesn’t matter. A 15 minute power walk is still a power walk; 20 minutes snatched with a friend is still time well spent.
- “I won’t have time to eat / check my emails / go to the gym” then go hungry, get behind on your emails and skip a day’s training. This is a one off excuse to do something different, novel and exciting. Life can wait an hour.
I want you to go out on your adventure and I want you to report back.
How far did you get? Did you make it to the exhibition or did you get completely lost? Was that bagel shop worth the rush to get there? Did you make it back in time or did you have to sneak in without being noticed?
Go have your adventures and let me know how you get on with the comments form below.
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This is an everyday adventure and it is here for you to try.
There are no rules, constraints or conditions. Treat this as a spark for your imagination. Use it as an injection of excitement into your daily routine.
Please spread the word, email a link to this page or share it on Twitter and Facebook with the buttons at the bottom right. There’ll be a new idea for each month of 2010.
Now, what are you waiting for…? Go have an adventure!
7 Comments
Rob Cousins
My small adventure today, was making a phone call that has been long overdue. I feel happy to have done it, sad it took me so long, and a mixture of excitement and anxiety about what could happen next.
E.Harris
Was struck by the simplicity of the Challenge, but hard to do :) Having said that since reading it , I have been out and about during my lunchbreak and am so much more aware of the “40 mins of Freedome” which is short but all MINE! Thanks for the great posting :)
Tim
Ed… more aware of the 40 minutes of freedom? Sounds like mission accomplished. Well done, sir!
Rob, glad you made the overdue call. My adventure that same day was trying to find you on Clapham Common with a 90 litre hold-all on my back!
Spike
At work I’ve set up a regular lunchtime jailbreak. Every Friday at 12.40 we hot-foot it out of work to visit a local museum or gallery. There’s such a wealth of stuff to see in London (especially near where I work) and it’s a shame we all take it a bit too much for granted.
Cheers for the challenge Tim, you finally gave me the impetus to do something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
Tim Moss
That’s perfect Spike. It’s so easy to take for granted the things on your doorstep (I know I did) so really pleased to hear you’ve started capitalising on them.
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