Have you got the stomach for a 16-minute lunch?

The same goes for spontaneity. Normally I entertain at least three lunch options, and it may sound sad but I enjoy weighing up what I may have. But if you’re in the 16-minute club you have to be decisive. This is leading to a rise in mono-lunching, eating the same food every day to save the mental energy of decision-making. I picked up the cheddar baguette that I’d already decided on and inwardly cheered that there was no queue to pay. The mango pot caught my eye but I felt a twinge of start-of-the-week financial guilt.

A time check: I’d made it to Pret and paid in four minutes so I had time to risk a trip to Marks & Spencer for fruit. Woohoo! If I carried on like this I could actually eat away from my desk — now that is living.

If you still think lunch is an allotted break for you to catch up with your real life, you won’t do well here. The moment I committed to the 16 minute dash I had to park my ideas of going to the bank, calling my mum and picking up toothpaste. This is a one-goal situation.

I managed to make it to two shops and back to my desk in a record 14 minutes. Which left me with two minutes in which to eat. I think this means I failed. But I see it as a stealth win. I am capable of wolfing down a meal in two minutes but the consequences are not worth it — on the sad occasions when I’ve done it, I end up wasting more time: reading the internet instead of focusing.

It’s far better to take your time. Nutritionist Kim Pearson agrees: “Eating too fast compromises our gut’s ability to effectively digest food. If you must eat in a hurry, soup is a better option than tougher to digest foods.” Neill David Watson, author of The Lean Exec adds that rushed meals can trigger overeating. He recommends stretches to ease speed eat-induced tension.

As the late restaurant critic A A Gill observed: “We are the only animals that can make eye contact over dinner: that’s because we invented manners. They aren’t just middle-class snobbery, they are the surest way to eat with pleasure and remain fit and slim.” Some of the best ideas have been hatched at lunch. Anyway, if your lunch is gone in 16 minutes you may wonder if it ever happened. In the end that is less effective than if you’d just taken a proper break.