It takes hard work to make your career successful and you really need to apply yourself during your 9 to 5. But what about on your lunch break? Most get an hour during the working day, so that’s five hours a week! Here are a couple of ways in which you can use those precious hours to shorten your journey to the top.

Eat Healthily

Successful people don’t just eat healthily to keep in good shape, they do it to fuel their brains. Your diet has an impact on everything from memory to productivity, so stay off the carbs and stick to known brain foods including Almonds, Raisins, Walnuts, Avocado, Fruit, and Dark chocolate.

Take a Nap

It’s difficult to be successful if you’re not feeling completely fresh and well rested! For example, did you know that both Sir Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison used to nap during the day to keep them going? Hopefully, your office has a nice quiet staff room, otherwise, you might find yourself pitching up in a quiet meeting room somewhere!

Set Some Goals

Successful people are always setting themselves personal and professional goals which they can drive themselves to achieve. Why not take some time out of your lunch break to draft out some things which you want to achieve in the next week, month, or year?

Review The Last Week

Looking backward is as important to success as looking forwards, and successful people are masters of self-reflection. It can be as simple as browsing through the past week’s emails to see if there’s anything you might have forgotten to follow up on.

Get Some Exercise

Getting out and about and engaging in some exercise helps to maintain your focus for the day. If you’ve got time to head out to a fitness class that’s great, but even just heading out for a walk or jog around the block can help you return to work ready to hit the ground running.

The likes of Barack Obama, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tim Cook all have strict workout routines which allow them to wind down ready to work.

Socialize

We’re sure you’ve heard it before, but a big part of being successful isn’t down to what you know, but you know. Your lunch break can be the perfect time to break bread with someone new. You never know where a new relationship can lead, whether it helps advance your career or simply leads to a new friendship out of the office.

Get Some Odd Jobs Done

Successful people know that work time should be spent working, and any personal tasks such as picking up prescriptions or taking the car to the garage should be done outside of work. However, getting things done during your lunch break is a much better way to manage your time and leave you completely focused on work (as well as giving you more spare time at home!).

Get Out of the Office

It’s definitely a good habit to get into actually physically leaving the office on your break. This is because it gets you away from all work-based distractions and allows you to recharge your batteries for an hour. If you simply sit at your desk, you’re still in ‘work mode’ and you can guarantee your boss will still be expecting you to work!

Do Something You Enjoy

What’s more, once you’re out of the office, don’t feel the need to just go and eat your lunch and then head back, make it into a worthwhile trip! Whether you want to treat yourself to some retail therapy, meet up with a friend for coffee, or just head to the park, taking some time out for yourself is important.

Read

Reading helps to focus and takes your mind off the day’s work, so why not spend some time catching up on a book or even the day’s newspaper? Bill Gates claims to read 50 books a year (around once a week), and a study of 1,200 wealthy people found that they all shared reading as a common pastime!