How to Stop Working Through Lunch (and Actually Take the Break)

By Antonio Neves

To stop working through lunch, give lunch a time in the morning when you plan your day, write one line about where you're stopping before you get up, and leave your desk and your phone behind for at least 30 minutes. Spend it on something you picked: a walk, a quiet bench, or a meal with someone you actually like talking to. And on the days you really do have to work through it, decide that on purpose, then take a shorter break back later.

A 2014 study in the Academy of Management Journal found that working during lunch was linked to people looking more tired at the end of the day, and that the effect got smaller when people felt the choice was theirs.

You know how it goes. Noon comes around and you think, I'll just finish this one thing. Then you're eating something out of a container with one hand and answering a message with the other. By 12:40 the food's gone and you couldn't tell anybody what it tasted like.

Nobody decided that. It just kind of happened, the same way it happened yesterday.

And it feels productive. You stayed at your desk, you kept going, you didn't "waste" an hour. But think about how you feel around 3 PM on those days. Odds are you're not cruising.

John Trougakos at the University of Toronto, along with Bonnie Hayden Cheng, Ivona Hideg and Daniel Beal, followed administrative employees at a large university for 10 workdays. People reported what they did on their lunch break each day, and their coworkers rated how tired they looked at the end of each workday.

A few things came out of it. Relaxing during lunch, when people chose to do it, was linked to the least fatigue at the end of the day. Working through lunch was linked to looking more tired, but that effect shrank when people felt it was their own call. Socializing was linked to more fatigue too, and the researchers tied that to whether people felt free to choose it. Lunch in the company cafeteria with the boss nearby, where the talk drifts back to work, may not feel like a break at all.

Trougakos put it this way: "We found that a critical element was having the freedom to choose whether to do it or not." (Here's the University of Toronto write up of the study.)

In January 2025 my family lost our home in the Los Angeles wildfires. After that, every morning I asked myself one question: What will make today a success? Not the year, not the month, not the week. Just this day.

That question turned into The 1-Day Method. One question, 3 priorities, and the Top 5: Sweat, Connect, Grow, Tech Free and Finish. And when you answer the question in the morning, you're already deciding what the day is for. Lunch is part of the day too, so give it a time.

If you want somewhere to write that down, the free 1-Day Method Starter Kit has the question, a spot for your 3 priorities, the daily acts and your end of day wins. Print it and write tomorrow's lunch time right next to your answer.

If you wait until you feel like you've earned lunch, it's probably not happening. There's always one more email.

So decide in the morning, right after you answer "What will make today a success?" Look at your calendar and put lunch at a specific time. 12:15. 1:00. Whatever fits. If your day is stacked with calls, block it like a meeting. My post on how to refocus after back to back meetings walks through setting your calendar so gaps like this exist in the first place.

Maybe part of why you don't leave your desk is losing the thread. You're in the middle of something and you know getting back into it is going to hurt.

Researchers Sophie Leroy and Theresa Glomb found that a quick "ready to resume" plan, written before you switch away from an unfinished task, cuts down the leftover attention that follows you to the next thing. So before you stand up, write one line. Where you stopped, and the next move. "Finish the second half of the budget notes, then send them to Marcus." Now you don't have to carry it to lunch with you.

Eating at your desk while you scroll is pretty much still work, just with food.

Get up and go somewhere else. Outside if you can, a different room if you can't. And leave the phone in your bag or face down on your desk. Michael Bohan, who ran a Microsoft brain study on breaks between meetings, said it plainly: "Try not to use that five or 10 minutes to squeeze in some other kind of work." Same goes for lunch.

If you keep the phone out of it, that lunch also covers Tech Free, one of the Top 5. Ten minutes off screens, every day. Lunch is an easy place to get it.

The Toronto study found the benefit came from people choosing what they did. So choose it.

Some days that's a walk around the block with a sandwich. Some days it's sitting somewhere quiet and doing nothing at all. Some days it's lunch with a coworker you actually like, where nobody brings up the project. That last one can count as Connect, one meaningful conversation, if it's real. If every team lunch turns into a status meeting with the boss at the table, that's the kind of socializing the Toronto researchers said may not restore you. My post on how to surround yourself with the right people gets into who's worth that hour.

Some days you're going to work through lunch. A launch, a deadline, a client who needs it by 1. That's real life.

When it happens, make it a decision. Say it out loud if you have to: "I'm working through lunch today to finish the proposal." Then put a shorter break on the calendar for later, even 15 minutes at 3:00, and take it. If the whole afternoon falls apart anyway, here's how to reset your day without throwing it out.

Aim for at least 30 minutes away from your desk. That's long enough to eat sitting down, get some air, and stop thinking about the inbox for a bit.

Short breaks help too. A 2022 review in PLOS ONE by Patricia Albulescu and colleagues pulled together 22 studies on breaks of 10 minutes or less. Those short breaks gave people more energy and less fatigue, but didn't do much for overall performance. Longer breaks did more for performance, and the authors noted that really draining work may need more than 10 minutes to recover from. (Here's the full paper if you want it.)

So a real lunch and a few quick pauses do different jobs. You probably need both.

And then stop at the end of the day too. The end of day shutdown ritual is the other break worth planning.

One more thing. If you're taking real breaks and still feel wiped out every day, or the tired doesn't lift on the weekend, that may be more than a busy season. Talk to a doctor or a therapist about it.

It depends on whether you chose it. A 2014 study in the Academy of Management Journal found that working during lunch was linked to people looking more tired at the end of the workday, but the effect got smaller when people felt the choice was theirs. An occasional working lunch you decided on is different from eating at your desk every day by default.

Aim for at least 30 minutes away from your desk. A 2022 review of 22 studies found that breaks of 10 minutes or less helped with energy and fatigue, while longer breaks did more for performance. A real lunch and a few short breaks do different jobs, so most workdays need both.

Something you picked. Take a walk, sit somewhere quiet, or eat with someone you actually like talking to. Researchers led by John Trougakos at the University of Toronto found that relaxing activities people chose for themselves were linked to the least fatigue at the end of the day. Leave your phone behind if you can.

Once in a while, sure. But eating while you answer email is still working. If you want lunch to work as a break, get up and eat somewhere else, even a different room, and leave the screen behind.

Give lunch a specific time in the morning, before the day fills up, and write one line about where you're stopping before you get up so it's easy to pick the work back up. On the days you truly can't step away, decide that on purpose and put a shorter break on the calendar for later in the afternoon.

The 1-Day Method Planner is the paper version of the question I asked every morning after the fire. Each day has room for your answer to the question, the Essential 3, up to five focused tasks, the Top 5 and your wins, and it takes under 5 minutes.

That's step 1 of this post: when you answer the question and pick your 3, you give lunch a time on the same page. Tech Free is one of the Top 5, so a lunch away from your phone shows up there too, and at night you'll know whether it happened. It's undated, it covers 90 days, and it's $29.99.

If you'd rather start with the idea behind it, the book is short on purpose. It walks through the question, the Essential 3 and the Top 5.

Not ready to buy anything? Grab the free Starter Kit and write tomorrow's lunch time on it before you open email.

Antonio Neves is an author, keynote speaker, and former journalist for NBC, PBS, and MTV Networks. He's delivered more than 400 keynotes for companies like Google, McDonald's, and Visa. After his family lost their home in the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, he created The 1-Day Method to rebuild his life one day at a time.