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5 Simple Five-Minute Activities to Increase Focus and Energy After Lunch

Activities anyone can do at home or at work to help beat the afternoon slump

Wang Yip
5 min readMar 15, 2021
Photo by Richard Tao on Unsplash

The fantastic thing about working from home is the ability to experiment with many things to take a break from work. When I was working from the office, I had limited options: I could go for a walk, maybe head over to a local coffee shop, chat with a co-worker. Working from home, I can:

  • Take a nap
  • Work out with kettlebells
  • Go for a run on the treadmill
  • Eat a fruit or a snack
  • Watch random YouTube clips
  • Find a book from my library that fancies me and read
  • Make myself a coffee or tea (choosing from my selection and not having to pay for it)
  • Re-organize the home
  • Throw out something I own on my path to minimalism

At the very least, I think you can see that my options for taking a break while working from home are much better than working at the office. And so that’s what I did, I experimented with all the above and more, to see what helped my energy and what helped me get through that afternoon slump we face from a solid lunch.

Here is what worked for me:

Meditate

Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight. – Ajahn Brahm

I used to think I didn’t have time for meditation. Successful entrepreneurs, athletes, celebrities and more talked about meditating first thing in the morning for an hour. What? I don’t have an hour to meditate. But paradoxically, the less time you think you have to meditate, the more you need it in your life.

After lunch, for me, is a great time to get in a small meditation session. Half my day is typically gone by then, and after tackling the hardest thing in the morning, you likely have other minor tasks you need to get done. So before I get back to the work, I practice calming my mind. I practice deep breathing. I set my intention for the second half of my day.

Organize

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Wang Yip
Wang Yip

Written by Wang Yip

Author of Essential Habits. I write about personal development, work and managing your career. Connect with me at www.wangyip.ca

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