TIP #108: Establish a Lunch Time and make sure others respect it.

Many years ago I decided that if I didn’t respect my lunch time, no one will. I established a simple rule. My last meeting was at 11:30am or need it to be after 1:30pm. From 12 to 1:30pm I wasn’t going to have one. If for any reason you needed to meed with me, you need to invite me for lunch.
Honestly I had more than one free lunch because of this, but that wasn’t the objective. The objective was not to lose my lunch time again. Many people I know get to the end of their working day without any lunch or anything, because they have been from meeting to meeting. In general no one will respect your lunch time, unless you begin respecting it and asking people to do it.