8 Ways Coffee Improves Our Productivity (Proven By Science)

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

There are over 400 billion cups of coffee drunk in one year and that makes caffeine the world’s most commonly used psychoactive drug. For most people, a nice warm cup of coffee is a really powerful stimulant that is needed in order to start the day right. Even though caffeine effects vary depending on the person that is consuming it, it has been proven that it not only improves productivity but it also has many health benefits. Numerous studies have proven that if you consume coffee in small doses it will make you more alert, energized as well as improving your cognitive performance. Let’s deep dive and understand how Coffee Improves Our Productivity when consumed in the right manner and quantity.

More Cups of Coffee Don’t Make You More Productive

As we all know caffeine is a really efficient and powerful stimulant. But its effects on boosting productivity levels can vary from person to person as no human is the same. Many studies have proven that caffeine in small doses, one or two cups per day, can be surprisingly effective as it is providing you with short bursts of energy and making you more alert. It has also been proven that a cup of coffee will make your cognitive and motor performances better as well as giving you a quick memory boost and incising the actuality of your ability to focus and react. Coffee improves our productivity for sure but we need to focus on the intake.

You must know that just like with any other substance the effect of coffee depends on how you dose it. But that dose will vary depending on what your body type is, how much you weigh, your age, height, what time of the day it is and the quality of your sleep.

If you’re not a regular coffee drinker, drinking coffee will have more powerful and longer effects than it would on someone who drinks it regularly. That is because your body is not used to it and it will experience more benefits of caffeine. People who aren’t regular coffee drinkers will feel stronger bursts of energy and being able to focus better as well as being able to accomplish more during that energy boost.

But that doesn’t mean that in order to be more focused and more focused you need to drink large amounts of coffee. When you have too much caffeine in your body you will create a negative effect instead of getting the good one. If you drink too much coffee you will most likely be anxious, jittery and even get an upset stomach.

Because coffee is an adenosine inhibitor if you consume too much of it can completely mess up your schedule. If you aren’t a referral coffee drink and you overdo your coffee intake it will most definitely make you have trouble falling asleep at the time that you usually do. But as we mentioned before not all people will experience it in the same way due to the difference in your organism. If you end up drinking too much coffee it will not only disrupt your sleep it will make you less productive the next day and that defeats the whole purpose of caffeine.

If you are someone who drinks multiple cups of coffee per day, your body will get used to caffeine and then it won’t have any effect on your productivity. If you are still getting those busts of energy you are experiencing the placebo effect. 

There are people who need to drink two cups of coffee in order to function in the morning and that is because they have become addicted to it.

But it isn’t impossible to experience that boost of energy and production if you are a regular coffee drinker. Still, it is more likely that that is you subconsciously associating being productive because you are drinking it in order to get things done.

When you are aware that you are feeling more tired than usual a cup of coffee is the quickest and the most delicious way to fix it. And that is why we tend to over drink it. Most people are aware that they are addicted to drinking coffee and that they are experiencing the placebo effect of it. But even with the placebo effect, you will be more productive and more focused and you will get your things done faster and better.

The best way to find the perfect dosage for you is to take it slow step by step.  Start by seeing how your body will react to one single cup of coffee that usually has between 90 to 200mg of caffeine. Then slowly adjust your dosage day by day until you find the perfect combination. If just one single cup of coffee is too much for your organism you can try by adding really small amounts at a time until your body gets used to it. But if one serving of caffeine is not enough for you, you can always add another shot of espresso to your existing coffee and make it stronger. A normal and good amount of caffeine to have in your body for one day is about 400mg for adults. But as we mentioned before that can also vary depending on how your body reacts to it.

If you are a coffee fanatic and just can’t go without it, but you have noticed that the effects are starting to not be as effective as they used to be, try drinking decaf coffee for your second one. Keep in mind that decaffeinated coffee will still contain caffeine but just in much lower amounts than your regular coffee.

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Coffee Will Have Positive Effect for your Long-term Memory

Because coffee is the most popular caffeinated beverage the researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that if you consume a small amount of caffeine you will improve your long-term memory. They gave their participants either a 200-milligram caffeine tablet or a placebo one and then they asked them to look at a series of images. The next day they gave them similar ones to look at and the group that had the caffeine tablet were able to identify that they were similar rather than saying that they are the same. That is because caffeine promotes memory retention and your pattern separation skills will be enhanced. Thus having a positive effect on our memory, coffee improves our productivity in general.

But researchers have also proven that the effects of caffeine can be replicated by placebo. They gave their participants caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee on random and told half of them they gave them regular coffee and others that they were given decaf at random. The ones who have been told that they had the caffeinated one performs better on reaction time, motivation and self-control. They came to the conclusion that the relationship between consuming it, mood and individual psychological variables increased feelings of depression after having the cup of coffee but it was slightly lower in the group that actually had the caffeinated coffee. 

It Will Make You Less Tired, Fatigued, Happier and Healthier

Based on personal experiences, many people have agreed that drinking coffee makes them feel better. Especially if they have woken up feeling more tired or fatigued than usual. As we all know when you are tired you are less alert and focused, but coffee will help eliminate those effects and even boost your physical performance. Coffee can be a quick pain relief as it reduces body inflation. It can also reduce headaches or any soreness that can keep you from being productive. As a plus, coffee is known for helping with releasing dopamine, which is the chemical in the brain that makes you feel good, helping stabilize emotions and improving your mood during your workday which ultimately means that you will get more things done. If you drink it moderation it can be a healthy drink as it has a handful of health benefits that most people don’t know about. It has been proven that coffee is full of antioxidants and it lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. It is also good for your liver and can help fight type two diabetes. Because it has so many health benefits it is great with making you more productive, but you always have to make sure that you also fuel your body with healthy foods.

Coffee Will Also Improve Any Group Decision Making

It has been proven that drinking coffee will increase groups’ focus and encourage them to say their opinions in discussions. Those groups who have consumed a coffee before working on their task together have proven that they were getting along better and their tasks were done faster than groups that didn’t have any coffee. People who are consuming coffee are happier and make better social interactions with other colleagues. That is why having workplace coffee machines is a must. During these workplace coffee breaks people will be more social while they are working on their group project which means that they will be done faster and better. Believe it or not, having employees sitting together while drinking coffee doesn’t only mean that they are socialising, they are most likely talking about the task and sharing ideas.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Coffee Can Help You Learn New Things Faster

There is a reason why most coffee shops are located around large company buildings and campuses. And that is because brains that are fueled with coffee will learn faster and improve your information retention. It has been proven that if you consume about 200 milligrams of caffeine your brain will be able to recognize words and phrases faster than without any caffeine in your system. Once again there were two groups in this research one was given a caffeine pill and the other was given a lactose pill. The participants that were given the caffeine pill were able to figure out much faster if the sting of letters made an actual work or not. The other group didn’t perform as half as well as the ones who had caffeine. Another study has proven that those who drink 200 milligrams of caffeine during the day can remember words from six lists that have fifteen words on each. There was also a study that proved that drinking coffee will improve your short-term memory and that increases the ability to solve reason-based problems faster. No matter what kind of work you are doing and need a boost, coffee will most definitely make you more productive and effective.

Coffee Will Make Your Creative Juices Flowing

Researchers around the world have also proven that drinking coffee will improve your creativity just as well as productivity. Some people think that the fact that coffee improves your creativity is because coffee boosts your alertness and lets your mind wander, causing us to be more creative. As we all know wandering dreamy minds are usually the most creative than ones that don’t think outside the box. For some people drinking coffee will stimulate their brains that much that it will blow away all the cobwebs and create room from new innovative thinking and bursts of inspiration.

Coffee Strengthens Your Brain

Most people don’t think about what a cup of coffee does to your brain. Therefore, they don’t know that coffee has a positive effect on your brain functions. That is because coffee is keeping your brain from being attacked by stress-inducing hormones because it is releasing something called cafestol and kahweol which are anti-inflammatory agents that are in the oil in coffee. So, when you drink your coffee you are protecting your brain from stress and straightening it.

Coffee Gives You an Energy Boost

There are many researchers that have proven that coffee is a great energy booster for your body. Therefore, it is a great way to boost your productivity. The effect is not only limited to your body. It will help you make clearer judgments and clear your mind. Having said that, we now understand and agree that coffee improves our productivity.

As all of us are aware productivity is something that is highly discussed in offices and generally amongst people who work. Because we are only human most times we find ourselves needing some external stimulants in order to reach out maximum productivity levels. That is why we have coffee, drinking it in moderation will improve your productivity. So get up and get yourself a fresh cup of coffee!

For most people, however, drinking coffee in moderation will translate to improved performance at work. So fire up the espresso machine, get out the coffee grinder, or go find the filters. It’s time for a fresh cup of coffee!

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