*This year, Impulse is encouraging everyone to Live Life on Impulse. Head here to win some amazing prizes each week this summer.
Spending the lunch break at your desk, scrolling through Facebook, is so last season. Summer means getting out of the office and properly avoiding Liz from Accounts’ interrogations for an hour, instead of hiding under your desk like Gollum (helloooo my precious iPhone).
Our friends at Impulse are encouraging us to live life on impulse. So why not spend your lunch break doing something a little different, then striding back into the office to go about your business, coding invoices and what not. Here are five things we’ll spend our lunch breaks doing from now on and, spoiler alert, eating soggy sarnies is not one of them:
Explore your city or town
Chances are you stick to the same route every day and only ever see the same sights. Use your lunch break to lose yourself in cool attractions, or interesting exhibitions nearby. Don't plan it; just see where the hour takes you. You'll break up the day and go back to work feeling like you've started afresh.
Taster classes
An hour is a long time when it’s not defined by the amount of episodes you can watch on iPlayer. Use this time to pop to a Bollywood dance class or perfect your cross-stitch in a sewing group. There's so much out there! See what takes your fancy...
Embrace the outdoors
Swap the screen glare and air con for sunshine on your face and wind in your hair. Have an impromptu picnic this lunch time. You choose who you want to spend it with; friends who work close by, colleagues you actually enjoy speaking with, or by yourself with a good page turner. Bliss!
Reconnect
Get out of the office and go and make a phonecall to a friend or family member you haven't spoken to in a long time. Have a half hour catch up with that mate from uni who lives on the other side of the country and reminsice about the good old days, or perhaps call your old work mate, to get her advice on how to handle a problem in your new job? What about your Nan? She'd appreciate your call for sure. Not only will you feel good, but you'll be making someone else feel good too.
Go on a date
Who knows, it could be a lunch of lurveeee. But, if it's not working out, you have a perfect excuse for wrapping up the date early ("oh drat, my manager's just called, I gotta run...") Alternatively, this doesn't have to be the romantic kind; get to know the colleague you exchange pleasantries with in the kitchen. They could turn out to be part of your work squad! It's probably best not to mix those two types of dates though, because work + pleasure = awkward run ins if it doesn't work out...
Want to win? Impulse is encouraging you to Live Life on Impulse this summer. Click here to win some Impulsive prizes!*
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.