3 Tips To Best Utilize Caffeine For Productivity

Caffeine is a natural stimulant found in staples of everyday life — coffee, tea, and cocoa. As most people know, its effects can be magnificent—the increased alertness working through our system, and an improvement in focus.

There are side effects too. Caffeine is a drug. Tolerance lowers and dependency can creep in. You begin to crave the “caffeine hit”.

Drinking caffeinated drinks later in the day also impacts our sleep. With an average half-life of 5 hours, an after-dinner espresso at 7 pm will still be working its way around your body when you go to bed at 12 am.

We all want to enjoy our caffeine — whether that's a coffee, tea or can of White Monster. Here are 3 ways to use it for the maximum ROI on your productivity.

Don’t Have It First Thing In The Morning

Hear me out on this one.

You wake up in the morning feeling groggy.

Once you’re out of bed, you head to the kitchen to make a coffee to wake yourself up.

Contrary to popular belief, this isn't the most effective way to increase alertness and get the energy boost you’re after.

Instead, after waking using salt may be more effective, according to Dr Andrew Huberman.

As you go through your day, adenosine builds up. This is the sleep hormone. Before going to bed, adenosine levels are at their highest whereas in the morning they’re at their lowest.

Caffeine blocks the adenosine receptors — the “pick-me-up” experienced after a coffee when you’re feeling groggy.

Your body also needs some time to cleanse itself of any remaining adenosine left over from your slumber.

Because there’s no adenosine to block in the morning, you’re not getting the maximum benefit of your favourite beverage.

Salt (electrolytes), however, increases your cortisol levels (the stress hormone) without putting your adrenals under pressure. Heightened cortisol provides the same alertness and energy compared to caffeine.

An electrolyte tablet contains numerous salts to ensure you’re getting the right balance with each dose.

Tip: Pair this with a big glass of water to start your day off. I also take my creatine with this too!

Have a Caffeine Window

As I mentioned above, caffeine has a relatively long half-life.

What this means is it takes on average 5 hours for half the caffeine you ingested to leave your system. 5 hours after that another half will have left. And so on.

The reason why this is important is that your biggest performance enhancer is negatively affected — sleep.

Caffeine later in the day affects the quality of your sleep. Those who say they can have a coffee at night and then have a good’s night sleep are not considering the quality of their sleep.

The part of the sleep cycle known as slow-wave sleep, (the time when you’re in a deep sleep) which leaves you feeling refreshed in the morning, is negatively affected.

Deep sleep is critical for processes such as:

The release of growth hormone
Muscle and bone repair
Replenishing energy stores

Making sure you get the appropriate amount of deep sleep will in turn boost your productivity through the above.

Are You Working Out?

Athletes and average gym go-ers use caffeine before a workout for numerous reasons.

They get an energy boost and become alert. They’re ready for what’s about to be thrown at them.

You can reap the benefits too.

Caffeine is an ergogenic aid — a fancy term for a performance enhancer.

It can be used for both strength and endurance work with the following being potential benefits:

Improved muscular strength, endurance, and power
Sparing glycogen stores and utilizing fat as a primary fuel source

This is great for our performance in the gym however how does this improve overall productivity?

Exercising releases dopamine making us feel good afterwards. We’re more likely to do the work needing done when we’re motivated and have already accomplished something.

I’ve found exercising before work to be the way to do this. I can arrive at work with alertness I wouldn’t have if I crawled out of bed to go straight to work.

My productivity has improved since making this change to my daily routine. Supplementing my workout with caffeine beforehand helps for a better session, possibly hitting a PB or 2 before heading to the office.

With that in the bag, I’m ready to attack and complete my work for the day.

Caffeine is is a wonderful supplement for improving productivity.

When paired with the right habits, the maximum ROI can be achieved.

Viewing caffeine holistically (what are the side effects, how will this affect my sleep etc) will lead you to use it more wisely.

Enjoying a coffee every day is one of life’s simplest pleasures. I hope you enjoy your next one :)