Lunch Notes | Swiss Chalet & Busting Through the Afternoon Slump.

Bet you didn't think that Swiss Chalet, playlists, and Twisters would make an appearance here today, did ya?

Welcome to Lunch Notes.¹

Lunch Notes is born out of a desire to use my daily lunch break better. Not in a productivity, “optimize for everything” way, but in a “use it or lose it” sort of way.

I hope that this feels like a note that someone tucked into your lunchbox. Or like a class newsletter tucked in your cubby that a cringy keener kid made for you.²

In today’s issue, we have…

• A decide once lunch solution that I’m already excited about

• Afternoon slump boosters - particularly helpful if you have a 2 pm slump daily

• The treasures iI have from this week

As always³: if you have ideas for what you’d like to see in Lunch Notes, I’m all ears! For now, Lunch Notes will be in your inboxes on Thursdays at 12 PM MST.

So, without further ado - welcome to Lunch Notes. 🧡

Heads up: today’s newsletter is a little long. You’ll need to expand in your email browser or read it on Substack itself — my preferred way to do it.

It happened two weeks ago and it happened this week, too — a day so full of meetings and having to be “on” that I couldn’t fathom taking time to prep or even think about a lunch.

One of them was a day where we presented an all day workshop. The other was yesterday, when I had seven meetings scheduled (six of them happened) with only an hour and a half free of meetings.⁴

I was grateful that on that all day workshop, I made a decision with my coworker, pal, fellow presenter, and Lazy Genius Super Fan, Caitlin.

It was a Christmas in July themed workshop for a client, and she said, “We should get Swiss Chalet!” Exceptional idea. While the client was working on a worksheet, I scheduled the Swiss Chalet to get to me while we were on our lunch break. It was a 100% worth it decision for me, and out of that, I chose my Decide Once — on big, full work days, I’m ordering delivery so I do not have to think about lunch.

Yesterday, after enduring three of the scheduled meetings, I said, “Nah. I’m not going to add lunch to my mental load” and ordered a lunch to get delivered to me. Again, 100% worth it decision.

I’ll be back to your regularly scheduled lunch content next week but this is my encouragement to you: is there a lunch decision you can make once that will serve you when a weird season or moment of your job comes up?

Busting Through The Afternoon Slump

The clock strikes 2 pm, and I’m mostly done with meetings for the day. But I’m tired - tired of looking at my screen, tired of making micro-decisions, tired of having to be on.

And thus begins my slumping hours, my witching hours, my corporate slow down to a slug time.

I work most days from 8 am - 4 pm. That two hour stretch from 2 pm - 4 pm is the two hours of my day that separates me from the end of my day… but I can never seem to work through that witching hour without being exhausted, uninspired, and lazy. Often, it’s some combination of all three — and it leads to never really feeling “done” with my job. And moving my environment to work? Always a bad idea.

Which is why I brought this frustration to therapy last week. In chatting through everything, Jenny (long beloved therapist) suggested two things…

1. Framing whatever comes next as an afternoon pick-me-up, rather than a little treat. I need nothing more to contribute to my already incurable “little treat” disease.

2. Creating a menu of just four things that I can do in the afternoon to get unstuck and work through those witching hours.

After therapy that day, I had dinner with a couple of friends — one who showed me her Dopamine Menu (outlined in this TikTok, for your stealing pleasure) and gave me a great starting off point.

Plus… as soon as Jenny suggested the menu, I thought, “Yes, I want to do that” and “Yes, that will make a great Lunch Notes essay this week.”

The Afternoon Slump Buster Goals

When I set out to make the Slump Buster Menu™️, there were a few goals and priorities I knew I needed to take into the creation process.

• The menu could not involve leaving my house or spending my money. This is a work from home specific scenario, but my work right now is such that it’s hard for me to leave my house. And it takes time to leave and get set up somewhere else. That’s defeating in my afternoon slump. So - the menu had to be things I could do, right where I am, with things I have.

• The menu needed to be easily seen everywhere. If it was going to be four options, I had to be reminded what those options are all the time. I set up a daily reminder in my work calendar, with all the necessary links in the description section of the calendar invite. I’m also putting it on a cue card that I keep at my desk, and it’s in my journal. Really, it has to be everywhere.

• The menu needed to be easy to accomplish. It needed to be things so easy that it was hard to talk myself out of doing them. And the list needed to be primed for easy ways to get myself unstuck.

• The menu needed to be things I’d look forward to doing. It couldn’t be all boring other tasks I needed to do — the menu had to have an element of fun.

With all of those goals and guiding principles in my head, the menu came took shape!

Hannah’s Office Get Unstuck / 2 PM Slump Menu

Here are the four slump buster options currently on the menu:

• best of: 2 PM slump playlist and pull out the walking pad: After years of an archaic crank standing desk (that made pulling out the walking pad I got last fall seem… unappealing), I finally invested in a motorized standing desk base and I really feel like a changed woman. The mental shift to just press a button to stand up has been game changing. When I used the walking pad for the first time, I noticed being able to dive into work immediately — thinking, “Oh, if my body is busy with something else, my mind can focus.” And a fresh playlist of pump up jams? I never say no to making a playlist.

• enjoy the silence, make a tea, and read 10 pages of a business book: This is a throwback to a habit I’ve had in the past. I used to do 15-20 minutes of reading a book that applied to my work before I started my day. I’ve fallen out of that habit now — but I miss how my brain used to have ideas about work, instead of trying to optimize how to get the most done. Plus, I love an afternoon tea, particularly with my favourite cookies.

• my favourite focus playlist and writing a page to get unstuck on some work: This one is tricky for me. With so many of my work things, I just want to do the thing - I don’t want to think about the thing, or write extra pages, or add layers of complexity. But I forget: sometimes, taking the time to write a page about all the thoughts swirling in my head regarding work is one of the fastest ways for me to get unstuck. I hope this little practice reminds me of that.

• my favourite lofi soundtrack playlist and brain dumping on the whiteboard: I’ve hung a whiteboard in my office and I often use it to get unstuck. I’ll either work through a question, an aspect of a project, or brain dump what I need to do. I’ve also been known to keep track of what I can do in an hour on there to prove to myself I get stuff done and time is not a circle. But this is a reminder menu option that the whiteboard is one way I get unstuck, and I should use that more. Plus… if the brain dumping or brainstorming is bad — immediate erase. It never happened. Good day. Boom.

A Momentary Disclaimer & Questions To Ask Yourself to Build Your “Get Unstuck” Menu

The disclaimer: This is very set up for my context as someone who has a lot of meetings but very few meetings after 2 pm, needs to wrap up her workday and often has outside deliverables, and who works from home all the time. It might not be a fit if you work from an office, are in shift work, or work at a school.

But if you also struggle with a midday slump (or a morning slump! or a post-work slump!), here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself to start thinking of your own menu of “get unstuck” options.

1. What does it look like for me to get unstuck? Walk? Putting pen to paper? A plank? Change your environment?

2. What would infuse a bit more joy into my day? You need to get unstuck but what can you do that would add some enjoyment? A favourite snack you save for the slump? A doodle before you start? A five minute dance part? A plank?

3. What’s the ease level I need to be able to accomplish this? You know yourself best - how easy do things need to be? Can you make it a bit more complex for a possible higher reward? Base your menu off of that.

4. How do I need to be reminded of these options? Don’t forgettaboutit. I’ve got a daily Google calendar reminder & a cue card taped to my monitor. If I thought about it more, I COULD GIVE YOU MORE.

I’ll report back in a month with how it’s going so far — but please let me know if you make your own menu and what goes on it! (I’m happy to be flexible and adapt my menu to steal your amazing ideas!)

In the Lunch Box is a collection of treasures in my life from the last few weeks - media I’ve consumed, products I’m loving, things I can’t get enough of… in a condensed, digestible, aesthetic format (I hope).

1. Twisters: I’m probably the first person online you’ve seen talking about this movie, so get excited for my hot takes on it.⁵ Have I seen the original Twister? No.⁶ And am I regularly interested in weather? No. I really consider it none of my business. But this movie did humble me, a resident of Northern Alberta, whose big weather phenomenon is A Big Snow and wildfire smoke. A new respect for those of you who have lived through or live in a place where tornadoes are the norm. I thought, “Wow. WEATHER is the villain of this movie” and that was about it. It was a fun movie to see with my sisters, it wasn’t deep, and watching Glen Powell is always a fun time. I said what I said.

2. Normal Gossip: I’m certain I’m screaming at people who have already heard about this podcast, but if you enjoy good storytelling, being nosy about other people’s lives, and jaw dropping moments… you can find all that and more on Normal Gossip. My favourite thing to do on a long drive back home with friends is hold them hostage in the car and listen to one or two of my favourite episodes, where we can pause and gasp and gab through our takes on them. I want to take some time in August to rank all of the episodes, but if you were to force me to pick my top three… fine, top four… FINE TOP FIVE (I think, until I do a chaos rank): Ready to be Bunco-Fied, 25 Bridesmaids and an Empath, Til Deb Do Us Part, Every Peach is a Miracle, and You Can’t Fight with Heiress Tongue. It’s part that I had a perfect listening experience for each of those episodes, and part that each of those stories just make me so happy.

3. One Star Romance: I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book since January, when

   Becca Freeman
   talked about it on Bad on Paper - and for me, it delivered. It was a different romance book than I’ve read lately (it felt a little more literary?), and read like a Nora Ephron movie (specifically When Harry Met Sally, which is one of my favourite movies of all time). I loved the little vignettes of the two main characters over the years and I did love how they came together as a couple. But equally, I loved the commentary on friendship, what happens to friends as we grow up, the dynamics of parents on relationships, protecting people we love, building a life you love, and more. The last 80 pages… I couldn’t turn and read them fast enough. I really enjoyed it and gave it a full five stars. If any of the above sounds appealing to you, pick it up this summer!

Okay, another one of these down and that was so much fun! Thanks for reading along - maybe even on your own lunch break.

If you have ideas for future Lunch Notes topics or things you’d like to see me write about here, please let me know and I’ll add them in!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your lunch!

1. Please, no feedback on how very few of my other “series” have worked for me. THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT, BUT DADDY I LOVE HIM, etc.

2. I can own it, fine. Yes, I did this. I’ve always been who I’ve always been.

3. It’s week two of this. “As always” is generous but hilarious.

4. If you’re a co-worker reading this I AM WORKING ON BOUNDARIES SO THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN.

5. THIS MOVIE JUST FEELS SO EVERYWHERE

6. But I did listen to a Cinema Sidepiece from The Popcast on it, so I feel like I understood enough of the original to go into this. Although I was waiting for Daisy Edgar Jones or Glen Powell to be the long lost niece / daughter / family friend of someone from the original. SPOILER: No dice.