Productive without caffeine or coffee
Published on
A day without coffee is a day wasted. Many people swear by it for productivity. But is that really justified? It is still a stimulant, and you absolutely do not need it to become incredibly productive.
Quite the opposite! In this blog, I will show you how to be productive without coffee and how to give it up.
What is caffeine?
Caffeine is a stimulant that binds to certain receptors, adenosine receptors, in your brain. This keeps you from feeling tired. Your body responds by making more receptors, however, leading to tolerance. That is also why you feel extremely tired and get headaches if you stop all at once.
Tolerance
Something people often forget about tolerance is that you do not become tolerant to a drug as a whole. You may be tolerant to some effects of a drug such as caffeine. For example, you can become tolerant to the stimulant effect, which everyone experiences as needing more and more, without becoming tolerant to going to the bathroom more often.
Does coffee really help your productivity?
Some consequences of drinking too much coffee are:
- Being unable to sit still - Coffee is a stimulant; it acts on your adrenaline hormones. This is very powerful and relates to the fight-or-flight response. Do you stand your ground and club that saber-toothed tiger, or run away? The problem is that there is no saber-toothed tiger in your office, and certain functions of your body that you need in that situation switch off!
- Less focus - Focus is one of the functions that switches off in the fight-or-flight response. This can result in a kind of “haze,” especially if you drink more than you are used to.
- Needing the bathroom much more often - Coffee gets your digestion going, irritates the stomach lining and is a diuretic. That means you go to the bathroom much, much more often. The result? Less productive time, and it is harder to keep your attention on your work if you are constantly going to the bathroom.
- An energy crash around midday - Or in the evening, if you postpone the crash with even more coffee and sugar.
The role of coffee in our lives
Coffee serves a particular purpose in our lives, which is also why most people use it. Understanding that purpose lets us find a replacement for it.
Some roles coffee can play, for example, are:
- Socializing - A pleasant trip to the coffee machine to talk with colleagues about that impossible deadline, and so on.
- A remedy for the afternoon slump - Nothing beats a stimulant for getting you through the afternoon. But that price has to be paid back eventually, and it never comes at a convenient time.
- Comfort - A lovely warm cup of coffee. The smell alone relaxes me, mentally at least, because it still sends your body into fight-or-flight mode. Yet many people see a cup of coffee as relaxation or comfort because of their associations with it. A little break!
- Waking up - This is a tricky one. Because you drank coffee all day yesterday, your adrenal glands have to go into overdrive just to get you to work somewhat on time.
To give up coffee, it is important to replace these functions with something else, such as caffeine-free tea, warm water or fresh mint tea, my favorite.
What is the alternative?
Coffee can still have a place in your life, of course, but use it occasionally. At the weekend, for example, or when taking a date to Starbucks. It will taste much better too, and you will find it easier to notice what it actually does to your body.
Productivity without coffee
The first two weeks without coffee are difficult, and your energy levels will feel “strange.” That is because you are no longer working in bursts of energy. You will notice your energy level is a little lower, but fairly steady throughout the day.
Work with your body rather than against it
Try to work with your natural rhythm rather than against it too. When you feel a little sluggish, and this will be much less sluggish than when using coffee, try doing the tasks that work best then. For me, that might be administration or some code documentation. Save tasks that ask a lot of your prefrontal cortex, such as thinking, for the morning, or for the evening or late afternoon if those are your productive times.
A marathon, not a sprint
Remember, maximum productivity is a marathon, not a sprint. The temporary turbo boost coffee gives you is just that: temporary! It must be repaid in fatigue at best, or burnout at worst.
If you are already rushing to finish projects to meet a deadline, that will not get any better in the future. Raise it with your client or employer in time, and do not “solve” a long-term problem with a short-term solution.
Focus on focus
There is no shortcut, trick or hack for productivity. It is about maintaining focus on tasks that matter. “Productive” comes from “production” with the suffix “-ive.” So it is about producing something that matters.
Train your ability to focus and spend longer working on one thing at a time.
Production requires focus. That is why machines are so good at it: they have zero distractions.
Being productive mainly comes from focus. If you only do everything halfway, you are not focused, and you cannot deliver something of high quality. So it really comes down to two things: “things you do not do” and “things you do.”
For everything you do, you say no to something else. Be aware of this. If you drink too much coffee, you say no to recovery. If you are already working on three projects and want to take on a fourth, you are effectively saying those other projects are not important, or less important.
The same goes for distractions. If you reply to emails and messages immediately, you are effectively communicating that you do not respect your own time. Why would other people respect your time, then?
I have decided to answer my emails twice a day: before lunch, from 12:00 to 12:30, and at the end of the day, from 16:45 to 17:00. By saying no to distractions, you say yes to focus! What you are working on is more important than the usually neurological flatulence of other people’s problems.
You will also find that most problems resolve themselves.
Upgrade your physical energy levels
Your body is the home you live in 24/7. Taking good care of it makes everything easier. You not only save a huge amount on medication and visits to the hospital and doctor, but you can think better and are generally more effective.
This has also been demonstrated scientifically. Sitting at a computer a lot, for example, can cause your head to jut forward. The veins leading to your brain then become slightly compressed, affecting blood flow and your ability to make decisions.
You really do not need to go to the gym every day to be healthy, but do focus on the basics of a healthy life:
- Supplementation - Everyone should really take magnesium citrate, D3 and B12 supplements. Even if you eat healthily, because modern farming methods mean food contains few vitamins and minerals.
- Enough water - Water is the basis of everything. You may not find it special, but humanity is searching for it throughout the galaxy. Water is the basis of life, and most of your body consists of it! So drink enough water during your breaks.
There are also a few things that everyone with an office job should really do:
- Stretch your shoulders, back and hips - Some of these exercises can be done at your desk between tasks. They help prevent back, neck and shoulder pain. These are the most common causes of staff illness and absence. Your quality of life is also much better without aches and pains, and keeping this in order does not take much time! Shoulder rotations are a simple exercise for this, for example.
- Variety - The next posture is the best posture. If you have a sit-stand desk, use it. Also try walking to the water fountain and stretching for a minute or two every half hour. This prevents physical problems, and when you have physical problems, it becomes hard to focus on your work.
If you do all of this, or even follow just a few of these tips, I am sure you can be incredibly productive without needing coffee!