Coffee at eleven. This is a habit I love.

Ideally its a short break accompanied by reading, crossword or solitaire.

"What about elevenses?" Pippin worries in The Hobbit and who can blame him? I don't like to miss elevenses ever, but where Chris keeps his to five, maybe ten minutes, mine can stretch to half an hour or more of daydream and drift.

It's like afternoon tea but happens mid-morning and, like many obviously perfect things, is a tradition found worldwide. Sometimes called "second-breakfast," elevenses is best with a treat, say, a kringle, or cake or toast with jam.

I like the Swedish word "elva-kaffee" (eleven-coffee) or the simple Norwegian word "kaffe." Much of my childhood was spent at the kitchen table listening to Mom and her friends chat as they drank endless cups of black coffee. It was an energy boost if you were a housewife raising four kids in the 1960s.

What Chris taught me with elevenses is that it's okay to take proper breaks during the day. Before, I didn't factor in breaks. I just worked until I became grumpy or tired or both. I had a snack or coffee without really stopping and usually felt guilty about it.

It's easy to find stuff online about how movement and naps and breaks increase productivity but what's helped me most is giving my breaks official names: elevenses, teatime, or jause (a mid-afternoon snack in Austria).

According to Wikipedia, elevenses is mostly associated with elderly people. Well, we are becoming elderly people, but I recommend it for the young and old and everyone in between. Our 20-year-old loves elevenses and has graduated from hot chocolate to tea-with-milk-and-sugar to coffee-with-milk-and-sugar to black coffee like his grandma.

Before long he'll be downing a straight-shot of espresso like his dad, a true sign of his Nordic and Viennese heritage.