With cutbacks and layoffs, many publishing professionals are skipping lunch to keep up with all the extra work. One writer thinks that’s a very bad idea.
Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Tony Schwartz, the founder of The Energy Project and author of the new book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. Schwartz (pictured, via) explained how American workers actually lose productivity when they skip lunch, and outlined his plan to celebrate the lunch hour. Every Wednesday, people will meet up around the globe as part of his Take Back Your Lunch movement.
Press play below to listen. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “The principles in The Way We Work Isn’t Working are even more important for people who feel they are under siege, who feel more pressure than ever, than they are for people who are a little more relaxed. The reason is that we’ve made a fundamental error. We think that the way to get things done is to work more hours, but actually it’s not about time–we’ve run out of time! The more hours you work, the less you get done in each additional hour.”
Schwartz continued: “It’s really about energy. It’s about consciously building more energy while you’re working. Part of that is recognizing is that resting and renewing throughout the day actually drives efficiency. Think about the Indy 500. The people who win are not just the fastest, but the people who make the most efficient pit stops.”
He offered some special advice for writers: “I spend a lot of my time writing. What I do in the middle of the day is take my run. For me, lunch hour is primarily built around a run and I have lunch at the end of the run. That’s enormously mentally and emotionally refreshing. The thing to do is figure out: ‘What thing actually makes me feel best when I do it when I’m not working?’ Renewal is really a function of how good you feel at the end of the renewing.”