Many of us live non-stop. And, of course, getting up under the alarm clock in the morning is a feat for some. Turn off the alarm clock and with your eyes closed and on the machine go to the toilet, tripping over slippers along the way. Is that familiar? And this, most likely, is not due to the fact that you are an owl, but depends on how much you drink coffee.
Harm your favorite drink
Caffeine is a light drug. Studies show that too much caffeine can lead to problems such as anxiety, insomnia and high blood pressure, among others. And, as you know, the increase in energy after coffee, as a rule, lasts only a couple of hours, leaving behind a terrible energy recession, which can disable you and require another portion of your favorite drink.
So, for the sake of my health, I decided to check how it feels to not drink coffee for two weeks.
Two weeks without coffee
It was not easy, but this lesson changed my morning routine.
I realized that sitting at a table all day, or rather focusing on long tasks for long periods of time, requires a long and productive mental work, not just energy. Coffee was a great quick fix to get the first boost of energy, but for me to continue working longer, I really needed focus and productivity for a long period.
Good habits
With that in mind, I picked up a few new habits for myself to see which ones would be most effective. To begin with, I began to meditate before work and found that devoting just 10 minutes to this helped me easily move between the stages of REM sleep and wakefulness.
Every day I also made a plan of the day in which I celebrated the achievement of short-term goals. I took 45 minutes to complete the main tasks and left a small intermediate place to rest. And I must say that the countdown to my next break was a much better incentive to work than another cup of coffee.
The reality is that I didn't need as much coffee as I thought. I just needed a great workday order.
Now I know that it’s easier said than done and completely excluded coffee from my life. But from seven cups of coffee a day I switched to one that I just drink for my pleasure.
So try and you give up a large amount of caffeine and realize that not only coffee can charge you with energy, but also meditation, exercise, or a cold shower.