Welcome to "The Coffee Break,"

a newsletter that's less about your caffeine fix and more about fixing our relationship with work.

What’s going on here?

I am trying to engineer my way out of corporate life using a laptop, plenty of coffee, and a bit of persistence. It's a three-year escape plan, and you're invited to watch the probably messy process unfold.

The benefits you can expect from joining the “Coffee Break” newsletter community:

• We're here to trade progress updates between coffee runs. Your tiny wins and wildly ambitious plans are both welcome here. Consider this your judgment-free zone for plotting your exit strategy.

• We're not just building exit strategies - we're redesigning what work could look like. While everyone else is climbing the corporate ladder, we're building our own weird and wonderful space on the internet.

• Burnout stories? We’re sharing how we bounced back and built those resilience muscles.

• We're book nerds. We raid non-fiction books, steal their best ideas, and experiment with them in real life. All while maintaining optimal caffeine levels, obviously.

Here's what you're signing up for:

I publish consistently every Wednesday at 11:00 GMT.

Each week, the published issue is a little different to keep things interesting for both of us:

• Week 1: Personal essays. I'll wrestle with the big questions. You know, like "Why does time move at half-speed during meetings?" and "Can reading the right self-help book actually help?" Expect personal essays that are part confession, part analysis, and just a dash of existential dread.

• Week 2: Essay + Challenge. Essays and book recommendations come with exclusive challenges for paid subscribers and turn into group discussion threads. Bring your work frustrations, your half-baked dreams, and your best office, life survival tips.

• Week 3: Behind the Substack series:  I'll interview other Substack writers who are also trying to turn words into rent money. We'll discuss their strategies, commiserate over shared struggles, and maybe learn something useful.

• Week 4: Take a Break Issue#: I'll curate a list of things that might make your brain hurt less. Books that aren't just airport bestsellers, podcasts that won't make you roll your eyes, and movies that don’t suck. You're welcome.

You can catch up on all the previous posts in the archive.

And a bit about me….

Look, I'm not an expert.

I'm just a corporate manager with a 15-year stint in the trenches and a penchant for overthinking things. Most of what I know is from the books.

I've been through burnout (it's not just you, I promise), I've developed a slightly unhealthy relationship with productivity “hacks”, and I have Thoughts about office culture.

But I'm also genuinely curious about why we do what we do. We'll explore behavioural science, social studies, and performance coaching research mixed with small business strategy. If you're into turning your coffee breaks into mini-rebellions against broken workplace norms and normalised exhaustion, subscribe.

Free subscribers get access to all weekly posts as they are published.

Paid subscribers get access to the monthly Coffee Break Challenge.

Each challenge includes a specific exercise for that month. You'll also participate in private discussions where we plan to break free from soul-crushing jobs and pivot toward something that actually feels meaningful.

So, are you in? Let's see if we can turn these stolen moments between spreadsheets into something meaningful.

Or, at the very least, something less soul-crushing than another team-building exercise.

What others say about the Coffee Break:

Contact

If you have any questions, please send them to jana@coffeebreaknewsletter.com.