Stephen Covey shared something interesting in his book, The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. If you haven’t read it or heard of him, don’t worry. The power lies in his message. Covey goes on to tell the story of the woodcutter whose axe goes blunt. He continues to cut down trees, however. If he were to stop and actually sharpen his axe for a moment, he would save time and effort over the long run. Our humble woodcutter would see better results, and faster. Why flog a dead horse eh? The simple process of sharpening your own axe every so often isn’t a silly measure either. You’re ensuring that your greatest asset in your professional life is in top shape every day. And yes, your greatest asset is you!

According to our ultradian rhythm, we can only retain focus for about 90 minutes before we require a 20-minute break. A study conducted of young violinists in 1993 by performance researcher Anders Ericsson found that they performed better practising for 90-minute sessions before taking a break after each one. The same type of pattern was discovered among athletes, writers, chess players and just about everybody else engaging in a physical or mental activity. If this study is anything to go by, it’s fairly safe to assume that the way we work now, probably isn’t working anymore!

At this point, you may be asking, “what the flying heck has this got to do with The Oakroom?” Well, to be honest, we would love to see more hard working corporates taking time out every 90 minutes at our place. That would indicate that something has drastically changed in the NZ’s employment sector (flying pigs holding nine dollar notes would be fun too!) There’s probably no harm in asking the boss if you can start an “Ultradian Rhythm Awareness Week” though. Who knows? Office culture may slowly change as the result of your efforts. In that case, we’ll see you at The Oakroom more often.

Until then, our friendly team are always here to cater to the current break times as per your standard employee contract. We like to think of our services as your liberating lunch break lifeline. There’s nothing more satisfying for us than to see you removing your physical self from your office for the purpose of reinvigorating your inner soul for an hour or so. But let’s not get carried away here. This is lunch, not enlightenment.

What makes us unique? We have outlawed “clientele thumb-twiddling” when you order a drink. As a result, we claim to be the fastest bar-slingers in the Auckland’s CBD, so come and test out our quick-fire skills. From a decorative perspective, we all have our little quirks. We’re all about miniature bottles and 1920’s Chicago gangsters. We’re all about supreme customer service and we’re decked out perfectly for you to conduct your business here, or run away from it for a bit.

So, for corporates on their midday pilgrimage in search of ways to satisfy the demanding needs of their rumbling tummies, head down to The Oakroom.