Remember your first job? Way back in the days when you were younger. Perhaps more resilient. Maybe had less responsibility? My first job ever was as an “Appointment Setter” for a home security sales company. Yes, it’s just as glamorous as you might imagine. I sat in a room with 5 to 20 other folks making phone call after phone call. Being rejected, sworn at, and hung up on. And those were the good calls. Sometimes folks actually listened intently and engaged us in conversation – that was worse. It was boring. It was stressful. It was a little bit crazy. But there was one thing about that job which I still really appreciate.
We took breaks.
There was no option to do otherwise. The employer was exceptionally careful to follow the letter of employment laws, not necessarily the spirit. Our breaks were enforced. Every couple of hours we all hung up our phones and stepped outside. Mostly to smoke, because so many of us did, but sometimes we stretched our legs, ran next door to play a game of pinball, gulped coffee, made a personal call, or grabbed a snack. For 10-15 minutes every couple of hours the homeowners of the state of Oregon were free from our solicitous calls and we were free to do… something else.
How many of us still take that time. Step away from what we’re doing. Maybe to drink coffee, though I am fully able to do that while I work, but maybe to do something else. To check on the garden. To prepare a healthy snack. To play a video game. To stretch. To meditate. To write a poem. Eat an orange. Take a walk. Play with your pet.
I don’t know! If you absolutely had to take a coffee break, what would you do?
CamiKaos 
We take a walk to the local coffee shop at 10 every day. My company actually set up an account there to support us. It’s nice. I’m trying to convince myself to do it in the afternoon too– just a walk, no coffee.
I take walking breaks to take K to school in the morning and pick her up, which is a nice departure from the computer but I’m so busy getting her out the door that it never really feels like a break.
I’ve already had enough coffee this morning, but you’ve inspired me to go slice up an apple.
When I was working those awesome 12 hour shifts, every afternoon around 3:45 or so I would get the itch to go downstairs (or upstairs, or across; depending in where the Staffing Goddess put me that day) and go get coffee. At first I thought it was because I needed to leave the floor and my ever so charming sick people for a few minutes and regroup. And it probably was. But why coffee, every nursing student and oriented would ask?
Then one evening Grandma, Jouni, and I were crowded around a teppan table and Grandma was telling Jouni about the farm. She said that every afternoon at 4, no matter how hot it was, Grandma Mary had the coffee ready for Grandpa Gus and the workers.
So there you go. Coffee isn’t addictive. It’s genetic.
I didn’t, not for a long time.
Then I started raising Guide Dog puppies and they force you to take breaks ‘coz they need to go outside for a piddle and you simply can’t ignore a puppy for very long.
:D