ProductivityAndCoffee

The bean. Roasted. My life is enhanced by an occassional dose of tasty coffee. It's a habit I've had to control. It got out of control again a year ago when I was working with someone roasted their own beans as a hobby. It's an easy hobby to get into. Here's a visual taste:

My habit is again under control, at a steady 3-cup-a-day rate. It's a productivity crutch. I'll ramp it down to 2 cups at some point.

How much coffee to you drink?

--DaveSmith 2006.04.15

I estimate I drink about 24 oz of coffee a day. I brought back 8 kilos of coffee from Costa Rica last November. I just opened my last medium roast. I have 250 grams of dark roast (vacuum sealed of course) left. I've decided I like the dark roasts better. I don't need the caffine.

--DonGray 2006.04.15

Based on measurements this morning, more like 32 - 36 oz. But it doesn't push my blood pressure out of range, and I'm done by 11 AM. I sleep well. --DonGray 2006.04.16

Three weeks ago I decided to

drink less coffee
eat less food
sleep more

I have accomplished two of three (still eating too much food). I feel better. I now drink one or one-and-a-half cups of coffee. Each cup is half regular and half decaff.

For me, less caffeine translates into better sleep which leads to more productivity.

Another side effect of less coffee is that since I am only going to drink one cup, I go out of my way to find a cup of good coffee, something better than I had been drinking. I find myself enjoying the coffee more.

DwaynePhillips 16 April 2006

I gave up coffee a few years ago. I'm picky when it comes to coffee, and Starbucks is too strong and bitter for me. On the other hand, I do love a little caffeine.

I drink green tea in the morning, iced tea with lunch. At home, I drink seltzer in the afternoon. But when I travel and I'm tired mid-afternoon, one diet coke is enough to pk me up.

I'm not completely decaffeinated, but I'm close. I find that using caffeine judiciously, while eating correctly (for me) and sleeping enough is more productivity-enhancing for me. -- JohannaRothman 2006.04.16

Any significant caffiene after 3pm means I won't to sleep until midnight. It wasn't always like that. In college, I often had to have a cup at night to calm me down enough to sleep. I read something a few years back that explained why that worked (and why it stopped working as one got older), but don't remember the details.

One trick for dealing with bitter chain-store coffee is to ask for a Caff� Americano, which is a shot (or two) of espresso in hot water. It costs a bit more, but the taste is often much better. (This works for me at Peet's and Starbucks.)

--DaveSmith 2006.04.16

Coffee? We don't need no stinking coffee! Now ask me how much chocolate I need in a day and we got a conversation.

Kurt4OuncesADaySimmons 16 April 2006

20 years ago I had a serious coffee habit: about 8 cups a day. I think it went with being a heavy smoker and a fairly driven personality. Then I got sick and gave them all up in favour of living.

Now I love good (strong) coffee, but generally limit myself to one cup a day. If I need a boost at work in the afternoon I like tea, something like green tea with jasmine, or China Black. For me, caffeine is a powerful drug. It's perfect to help lift the morning fog, but if I have any after about 3 pm, I'll be awake all night. Too much during the day makes me feel my heart is racing, a most uncomfortable sensation.

I'm really not sure caffeine does anything good for my productivity. Sufficient sleep, decent food and regular exercise are the real deciding factors for me. I really need 7-8 hours sleep a night. I think I'm lucky to still be a solid sleeper in middle age, and I wouldn't do anything to mess that up.

At home I drink only good coffee, and it has to be politically acceptable. That means fair trade, organic and shade grown. Away from home I'll compromise on the politics and drink Starbucks bold.

--FionaCharles 16-Apr-2006

Hmm. I never got started with coffee. It seemed to produce great anxiety in people when they had it, and even greater anxiety when they didn't. So, I don't do cafeine at all. It makes me dizzy and unable to work. - JerryWeinberg 2006.05.18

Coffee and I don't mix, which is shame because I've just begun to like the taste in the last few years. Then again, I've always been a tea drinker and have slowly begun to learn more about it. Darjeeling, anyone? As to chocolate, I can't wait until July for

Thanks, Kurt! -- MikeMelendez 2006.05.19

How about "Productivity and Keeping Your Head Free of Chemicals"? - JerryWeinberg 2006.05.19

How about "one man's addiction is another man's performance enhancement?" When coffee stops hitting me like a drug, I know it is time to dry out.

-- JimBullock 2006.05.19 (Hic!)

I was in the midwest visiting my Dad this weekend, and we took a drive through the old neighborhood. One a corner near the High School, there's a big red "DRUG FREE ZONE" sign. Two blocks farther on, right across from the school, there's a new Starbucks.

--DaveSmith 2006.05.21

. . . and what does this make the rest of the geography - a "drug enabled zone?" At least we have diet soda (phenylalanine + caffeine) available in the schools along with potato chips and snickers. Helps to balance out the Prozac.

Here's the thing. All of the comments so far here, beginning with "coffee" show people aware of its effect on them, making a conscious choice. With the theme "amplifying your effectiveness", this is the perspective that matters - learn how you, and others operate, and make deliberate choices. Could be coffee, or not. Could be a run at lunch time, or not. Could be a work environment that has the right chair, the right music, the right multiple monitors, the right pair programming partner, or the right "keep out, while I think."

-- JimBullock, 2006.05.21 (Dangerously close to politics on that one. Step back from the edge. Nothing to see here . . . )

Amen. The key being "conscious choice". What -- these tiresome moralisers with the big red signs don't use insulin if they're diabetic? Most grown-ups, unless they're Christian Scientists or have other religious objections, make choices about which drugs they will ingest and in what circumstances.

We also choose our morality. Presumably the religious objectors to drugs made a conscious adult choice. I have no moral interest in their choices (who am I to judge them?) and I'd greatly prefer them to keep their morality out of mine. Same goes for my slow startup in the morning, BTW.

--FionaCharles (occasional curmudgeon) 22-May-2006

I didn't start drinking coffee until I got out of college (I was a tea fiend in college), drinking Luzianne because that's what my co-workers drank. (Yes, I like the chicory.) I became rather dependent over time, and kicked the habit for awhile (when I was an organic vegetable farmer--dirt poor). I later started back, but promised myself never to stoop to instant, again.

Now, I drink coffee on demand. Usually it's in the one to eight cups a day range, though I've been known to exceed either limit. And I like a wide range of coffees (but no instant). The mellow and rich taste of a fresh medium-roast Sumatra is one of my favorites. Chock-Full-Of-Nuts is OK with me, too. I don't much worry about it, and it doesn't worry me. I did finally give up the after-dinner espresso because of a tendency to pop awake in the middle of the night, but stress is more likely to give me sleeping problems than coffee is.

As for choosing drugs, I gave up sugar thirty years ago and feel much better for it. I don't even miss it. A piece of chocolate would probably make me sick, as even orange juice is too sweet for my tastes.

- GeorgeDinwiddie (2006.05.22)
Maybe it's time for me to give up that drug, "stress."

George, interesting what you say about sugar. I started to low-carb because I was terrified that if I went back on a diet I would continue to gain weight. I find that not eating sugar helps me choose which foods to eat much more wisely. I'm still a chocoholic, because I never travel without my sugar-free chocolate bars. But I only need one a day, rather than the many more I used to eat.

As Fiona said, our conscious choices are the key to increasing our productivity. -- JohannaRothman 2006.05.23

This past month I have made the conscience choice (my third time) to be caffeine free. As expected the headache punched through the Tylenol I was taking. As expected the results are good for me. I feel better. I find abstinence is much easier than trying to control the amount of caffeine I ingest.-- CharlesAdams 2006.05.23

Updated: Tuesday, May 23, 2006