How to Plan Your Lunch Break: Split One Hour Into Three Parts and Follow Easy Steps in Order

The situation in this article is adapted from everyday life, and the name is a pseudonym. It is only a reference for organizing your day, so please adjust it to your own situation.

Why Ruo-han's lunch break always disappears so fast

Ruo-han works as a sales assistant at a trading company, and her lunch break runs from 12:00 to 1:00. In theory this hour belongs to her, but every day when she gets back to her desk at 1:00, she can't say where the hour went.

Her lunch break usually goes like this. At 12:00 sharp, she sits at her desk scrolling on her phone, trying to decide what to eat, and it takes her five minutes before she heads out. When she gets to the restaurant there's a line, so she switches to another place. When she finally sits down, her manager sends a message, and she replies while eating. By the time she's done replying, her food has gone cold. As she walks out, she remembers that today she has to pick up an online order at the convenience store, and she still hasn't paid the water and electricity bill, so she hurries off to take care of it. By the time she's back at the office it's 12:58, and she hasn't even opened the files for the afternoon meeting.

Ruo-han says the problem isn't that her lunch break is too short. It's that the hour gets chopped into too many pieces. She does a little of everything, but nothing gets properly finished. So she decided to try a different approach. Instead of letting her lunch break happen on the fly, she would split it into three parts ahead of time and go through them in order.

When lunch breaks get stuck, it usually isn't about not having enough time

When many people feel their lunch break isn't long enough, their first thought is "If only I had another half hour." But if you look closely at Ruo-han's hour, what really ate up the time wasn't eating itself. It was these three things.

• Making decisions on the spot: What to eat, which place to go, whether to run errands first. All of this gets decided only after the lunch break starts, and the hesitation alone uses up a lot of time.
• Personal errands scattered everywhere: Picking up packages, paying bills, making appointments, replying to friends. These usually aren't written down anywhere, so you do them whenever they come to mind, and they often pop up right when you're most rushed.
• Messages cutting in at any moment: Your phone sits on the table, and every time it buzzes, you get pulled from your lunch break back into work. When you come back, you've forgotten what you were just doing.

These three things have one thing in common. None of them are impossible to do. They just weren't planned ahead. So the fix isn't a longer lunch break. It's making each block of time responsible for only one thing.

The three-part lunch break: follow this order

Ruo-han's method is to split the hour into three parts. The first part is for eating, the second is for personal errands, and the third is for one thing that doesn't require replying to anyone. Below, using a 12:00 to 1:00 lunch break as an example, there's a small prep step the day before, followed by the three parts, for four steps in total.

Step 1: Before leaving work the day before, decide where you'll eat tomorrow

While packing up at the end of the day, spend one minute deciding where you'll have lunch tomorrow, and write it on the first line of your phone's notes app. It could be a place downstairs from the office, or you could bring a packed lunch. The point isn't what you eat. It's not leaving this decision until 12:00 the next day. Ruo-han made a list of three places she often goes to and rotates through them: the first one on Monday, the second on Tuesday, and so on, so she doesn't have to think about it again every day.

Step 2: Part one, 12:00 to 12:30, just eat

These thirty minutes are for one thing only: eating. Before heading out, put your phone on vibrate and slip it screen down into your bag or pocket. If you're eating with coworkers, focus on chatting. If you're eating alone, you can look out the window or watch a short video. Don't reply to work messages yet. Save them to look at together at the start of part two.

Step 3: Part two, 12:30 to 12:45, handle personal errands

At the start of part two, spend one minute going through your phone messages. Reply to work messages that are truly urgent, and leave the rest for the afternoon. Then open your "lunch break errands list" and pick one thing to do. Write the list ahead of time, for example:

• Pick up or send a package at the convenience store
• Pay the water, electricity, or phone bill
• Book a haircut or a phone repair
• Reply to friends' messages and confirm weekend plans
• Take care of a small task at the post office or bank

Pick only one at a time, and stop once it's done. Leave the rest for tomorrow. The list won't disappear just because you didn't finish it today.

Step 4: Part three, 12:45 to 1:00, do one thing that doesn't require replying to anyone

For the last fifteen minutes, go back to your desk or somewhere near the office and do just one thing that doesn't require replying to anyone. This part has only one rule: don't open messaging apps and don't answer emails. Some things you could choose:

• Read a few pages of a book you carry with you
• Put on headphones and listen to two or three songs
• Write down on paper which task you'll do first this afternoon
• Tidy your desk and get the files ready for the afternoon
• Make a cup of tea and sit down to finish it

Writing a to-do list and tidying your desk are related to work, but neither requires replying to anyone, and you set the pace yourself. This way, you get a stretch of time where you don't have to reply to anyone before you're back at your desk, and you're less likely to feel flustered when work starts again at 1:00.

Sample week: how Ruo-han plans parts two and three

Common sticking points: what if you've planned it but still can't follow through?

Sticking point 1: Coworkers invite you to lunch, and it lasts until 1:00

Having lunch with coworkers isn't a problem in itself. The problem is that it tends to run long. Ruo-han's approach is to pick two days a week to eat with coworkers. On those two days she doesn't plan any errands, so part one simply extends to 12:45, and part three stays as usual. On the other days she follows the three parts. This way she doesn't miss out on chatting, and she doesn't get stuck in the same spot every day.

Sticking point 2: Your manager or clients message you during lunch

Work messages don't stop just because you're on your lunch break. Instead of picking up your phone every time it buzzes, set a fixed time to check messages at the start of part two. If your job requires you to be on call, you can check once more at 12:15, then put your phone away when you're done. Don't reply while you eat.

Sticking point 3: You keep forgetting to write down your errands

Most errands come to mind suddenly, while you're commuting or working. Ruo-han pinned a note called "Lunch errands" in her phone's notes app, and whenever something comes up, she adds a line. Just writing "pick up package" is enough. At noon she opens that note and does whatever is on the first line.

Sticking point 4: Splitting it into three parts feels like too much hassle

If it feels like a hassle at first, you can start with just Step 1: decide where you'll eat tomorrow before leaving work the day before. Just cutting out those few minutes of hesitation at 12:00 will make your lunch break go much more smoothly. Once that becomes a habit, add the errands list for part two, and add part three last. Add one part at a time. You don't need to have everything in place on day one.

Start with tomorrow's lunch break

A lunch hour isn't long, but it comes around every workday. After Ruo-han followed the three-part plan for a while, the biggest difference was that when she got back to her desk at 1:00, she could say what she'd done with that hour: she ate, finished one errand, and read a few pages of a book. It wasn't that she did a lot. It was that each thing got properly finished.

If you'd like to give it a try, there's just one thing to do before you leave work today: write down in your phone's notes app where you'll eat tomorrow at noon. For the rest, just follow the order tomorrow at lunch.

If you'd like more everyday planning ideas like this one, such as how to organize your commute, weekends, or time after work, feel free to subscribe to our life organizing tips. We'll put together small steps you can actually do and send them to you regularly.

FAQ

Q: My lunch break is only 45 minutes. How should I split the three parts?
Keep the same order and just shorten each part: 25 minutes for eating, 10 minutes for errands, and the last 10 minutes for one thing that doesn't require replying to anyone. If you have more errands that day, you can give part three over to errands first and go back to normal the next day.

Q: I don't want to go out. Can I use this method if I eat at my desk?
Yes. Eating at your desk is when you're most likely to be interrupted by messages and questions from coworkers, so it's even more important to minimize or close your messaging apps during part one. If you don't need to go out for errands, you can pay bills online, make appointments, or reply to friends instead. For part three, try changing where you are, for example by walking over to the window in the break room and standing there for a bit, so it feels separate from your desk in the morning.

Q: What should I do in part two if my errands list is empty?
If the list is empty, merge part two into part three. You can use the extra time to take a short walk near the office and check out shops you don't usually notice, or read a few more pages of a book at your desk. Part two doesn't need to be packed every day. It just keeps a fixed spot open for errands.