We're Probably Drinking Our Office Coffee Wrong
You'll probably start to see copies of Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky's new book on airport newstands soon. The time-management tome is the sort of thing that productive business-people types read to better understand how to manage people, improve efficiencies, take over the world, etc. But the only takeaway from Make Time: How To Focus On What Matters Every Day that matters to me is this: I've been drinking coffee wrong my whole adult life.
Knapp and Zeratsky, both former designers for Google and YouTube, likely have advice on reading emails, improving daily routines, streamlining meetings, etc., but I'm focused only on their revelations about caffeine. According to CNBC's distillation of the pertinent coffee information, the biggest pitfall most of us make when it comes to coffee is drinking it too early in the morning. In order for coffee not to interact negatively with our bodies' cortisol levels (which causes a "stressed out" feeling), we shouldn't drink our first cup until around 9:30 a.m., after the average 9-to-5 worker gets into the office. I usually have two full mugs before I start my work day at 8, so I'm woefully in need of a new routine, apparently. (But seriously, how will I make it through those pre-work breakfast hours without a warm mug of joe?)
Another revelation: My productivity might rise if I drink an afternoon coffee followed by a 15-minute power nap. Now this is music to my ears! According to the book, the body benefits from another dose of coffee around 2:30-ish, followed quickly by a short nap so that upon awakening, all that sweet, sweet caffeine is just hitting the bloodstream and powering us through the end of the day. If you want to go next-level up, there's this trend called nappuccino, penned by author Daniel H. Pink, that's gaining traction (links to PDF): It involves drinking coffee before you take a power nap, the idea that it takes 25 minutes for caffeine to enter your bloodstream anyway, so you'll wake up rrrrrrrrrraring to go. Hey boss, I'm finally taking you up on that nap offer.