Correspondence on Laptop Lunch Relocation
Laptop lunch relocation describes the movement of both the laptop and the meal to a non-desk location with the intention of separating eating from working, which produces a meal eaten while reading something on the laptop.
ANNUAL REVIEW: Laptop Lunch Relocation: FY2021
Program Summary: Laptop lunch relocation was introduced in January 2021 as a response to the observation that eating at the desk produced a meal that was functionally indistinguishable from working, which produced sustained cognitive engagement during a period nominally designated for rest.
The solution was spatial: move the meal away from the desk. The desk is the work location. The couch, the kitchen table, and the balcony are not the work location. Moving the meal to a non-work location would create a distinction that the desk could not provide.
FY2021 Findings
The relocation was successful by every spatial measure. The desk was not the meal location on the days when the program was followed. The meal was eaten at the kitchen table or the couch.
The laptop accompanied the meal on the relocation. This was understood at the time as a temporary necessity: something was playing, a podcast needed the interface, the news was being checked. The laptop accompanied the meal on the relocation on subsequent days under the same or similar justifications.
The desk was abandoned. The laptop was not.
The Behavior Under Review
The behavior under review is not the desk eating, which was the original problem, but the migration of the desk-eating behavior to the new location. The relocation was successful as a spatial intervention and unsuccessful as a behavioral one. The behavior transferred without spatial correction.
The relocation introduced one new problem: the kitchen table now has an association with working while eating that the kitchen table did not have before the program was introduced. This is a documented side effect of spatial intervention programs and was not anticipated in the January planning.
Results Against Objectives
Objective: eat lunch without working. Result: eat lunch while reading something on the laptop at a different location than the desk. Achievement: partial, with geographic variation.
Recommendation for FY2022
Leave the laptop at the desk when relocating for lunch. This recommendation was available in January 2021 and was not adopted. It is submitted again here without expectation of a different outcome.
The program continues.