Whether you are trying to stay healthy, save money, or you feel as if you are simply too busy to take the full hour, having lunch at work is often a struggle.

However, no matter what job you do, a filling and nutritious lunch has a multitude of benefits, positively affecting your mood and your productivity in the process. To help you make the most of your midday mealtime, this article provides five useful tips for the perfect working lunch:

  1. Be realistic: It can be tempting to order an oversized lunch, however, more often than not, your large lunch just proves a hindrance to your productivity, and your concentration starts to flag. This usually happens at around 3 o’clock, just as you are about to go into an unnecessarily long meeting.
  2. Double up/buddy up/get social: While it is perfectly normal to seek some solitude with your sandwich every once in a while, lunch is one of those things that is almost always better when enjoyed with someone else. Although there may be mitigating circumstances always try and avoid being the canteen recluse.
  3. Mark your territory: If you work in a large office and one which has a communal refrigerator, there’s always the chance that your lunch will go missing. If this happens more than once, it may be time to take evasive action: write a post-it note and stick it to your Tupperware.
  4. Go outside: Lunch at your desk often involves browsing Amazon and watching videos of cats on YouTube. Scientists have proved that dining at your desk can actually be detrimental to your health, not to mention your productivity. Instead of indulging in the daily picnic by your PC, why not go outside and have a real one? Even a simple walk through the park can break up the day, making you more alert and ready to work by the time you go back.
  5. Variety: Even the most habitual of us enjoy a change from time to time, so try and vary your diet. Lunch is a great way to counter a daily routine which is otherwise hard to change, so take full advantage where you can. It could turn out to be the most important meal of the day.

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