You’re way too busy to have an actual break on your lunch break, right?  Who has time to stroll around the block, sit peacefully on a park bench, or chat idly with co-workers in a cosy cafe anyway? You do, that’s who. In fact, you can’t afford not to.

It doesn’t matter if you’re hammering out hugely important emails, checking to see what fresh horror Trump has tweeted, or just absent-mindedly scrolling through Insta; the point is, if you’re multi-tasking or self-distracting while wolfing an M&S sandwich and crisps combo, you’re preventing yourself from making the most of your greatest gift. Your subconscious mind.

We’re rarely aware of it, but our subconscious is constantly working away, absorbing, analysing, connecting and decoding information at a level of genius that your conscious mind can rarely match. Right now your subconscious probably already has the answers to the tough, seemingly intractable problems that your active thoughts are struggling to crack. But we only benefit from all that effortless ingenuity when we give ourselves the undistracted headspace to let it be heard.

The smartest, most creative and innovative people on the planet, are just normal people that have got really good at listening to their subconscious. They’ve figured out how to access and interpret the pattern recognition and problem solving skills that the 70% of our brains outside of our conscious control are constantly putting into action.

Why do you think you have your best ideas in the shower? Because you can’t look at your phone, watch cat videos, plug into a podcast or use any other tactic to block out the voices in your head. So they speak to you, and they hand your most profound thoughts and breakthrough ideas – admittedly these are sometimes mixed in with seemingly useless random memories –

That’s what your lunch break is really for. It’s not about rest, or re-fuelling. It’s about giving your brain a moment to process and bubble up the sort of big thoughts that can change your whole day or even your whole future. Some might call it mindfulness. Some might call it daydreaming. Some might call it their muse.

So use that hour, go for a wander, have that chat with Jenny from finance about Peaky Blinders, then get ready to listen to your subconscious and nail the second half of your day.