WASHINGTON — Experts have long said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But now, thanks to demanding schedules and longer workdays, it could also be the most powerful.
People are turning away from the time-consuming power lunch and choosing instead to catch-up over a power breakfast, says Julia Carpenter of CNN Money.
“After-work plans or middle of the work plans just with people’s schedules become kind of sticky,” Carpenter told WTOP in an interview. “Breakfast is time efficient … you don’t see people sitting down to three-hour breakfasts.”
Juggling demanding schedules and constantly being plugged-in to our phones can make it difficult to coordinate lunch plans, Carpenter says. But with a power breakfast, people can enjoy a meal with colleagues or friends before the chaos of the workday.
“Instead of plans at the end of the day, where you’re kind of recapping your day, or backward-looking, (with) breakfast you’re walking in and saying, ‘This is what’s on my agenda, this is what I’m thinking about,’” Carpenter said. “It’s a little bit more of a forward look than a backward look.”
And power breakfasts aren’t just helpful for networking. Carpenter says the mealtime is for everyone from millennials to caregivers to workaholics as we’re all affected by changing schedules.
“It’s either making time for social time before work so that you’ve kick-started your day with some of that social interaction before you put your head down at your desk. Or it’s networking,” Carpenter said. “So networking in the beginning of the day, or even doing it with your colleagues before you even go into the office, is a little bit of a more forward-looking endeavor.”
