9 Reasons Why You Should Drink Coffee at Work

Drinking coffee can sometimes keep your sanity. Say you had a bad night, or you just feel down and don’t feel like doing anything. Or it’s just Monday. Either way, a good cup of coffee can bring you back from the dead.

Coffee drinkers know a good cup of coffee by smelling it - the aroma that intoxicates you, and the joy of having that first, strong sip of that brown liquid of Gods will at least help you power through the day, if not save it.

Other than having positive sides concerning your mental health, coffee is also associated with decreased health risks and increased longevity. Coffee is full of antioxidants, and it has been linked with warding off various heart conditions, cancer, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Drinking moderate amounts of coffee can be healthy and helpful.

Scientists even suggest boosting your caffeine intake to 400 milligrams per day, which roughly equals to three to five coffee cups a day. It may sound a lot, but if it’s for health, we are all for it! So, the next time you hear someone says ‘Coffee is life’ - they may be right! Since coffee is so precious, we wanted to dedicate this text to 10 reasons why it is good to drink coffee at work.

1. Coffee keeps you alert

It’s a common misconception that the coffee wakes you up. Coffee doesn’t actually take away the fatigue and the feeling of tiredness, but it does stop the compound in your brain that makes you sleepy. So, technically, you are still sleepy, but coffee helps you forget about it. The Nutrition study that reviewed scores of scientific research on caffeine says that coffee boosts your brain’s energy levels. With more energy, comes enhanced memory, ability to better focus, be good at problem-solving and have a better general cognitive function. These are all the more reasons why it is a good idea to sip on coffee while working. If you have a big project coming up, and you know you need to be at your best, get yourself a steaming cup of coffee to wake up your receptors and amp up your brain.

1. It improves productivity and enhances willpower

Productivity levels decrease during the day, as your brain gets more information and your eyes get more tired. Drinking coffee can improve productivity in two ways - first, you are taking a break from your desk area and stepping away from the situation at hand, which may not even be as difficult as you first thought. Sometimes, we just need a fresh perspective, and stepping away to take a mini-break and sip on some delicious coffee can result in us being more productive. If the project you are working on is giving you headaches, you feel stuck, trapped and as it will never end - go get a cup of coffee.

Also, if you need to make a decision, but can’t quite decide - coffee can ease your decision-making process and strengthen your willpower. When you’re tired, any decision you make will be under the influence of fatigue, so you should avoid making big decisions when tired. You are more likely to compromise and succumb to pressure, so before making any decision, take a couple of good gulps of coffee to shake up your brain.

1. Drinking it reduces back pain

If you work long hours, especially in a sitting position, chances are - your back hurts. Here also, coffee has a dual function - The first function is that you need to get up and go get yourself a fresh cup of coffee. That requires you to stand up, straightening your back muscles, walk to the coffee machine, getting the blood flowing, and finally standing for a bit, waiting for the coffee machine to make a fresh batch. All of this lasts maybe a couple of minutes, but it is enough to pump the blood back to all the neglected areas of your body that can ache due to long periods of inactivity.

The second function is that scientists have actually proven that coffee reduces pain development and caffeine works as a pain moderator. The only downside to this is that to be able to lessen the pain greater than what we’re used to, we have to up the dosage of coffee we normally drink. So, if you drink two cups of 200 milliliters a day and your back starts aching, you will need to either drink a 300 milliliters cup of coffee or add a third cup.

1. Coffee makes you social

Socializing in the workplace has always been the most fun part of the day. Gossiping, sharing ideas, experiences and projects can leave you fulfilled and happy. The epicenter of all that used to be a water cooler, but these days, the coffee pot is the main place of gathering. The break room is the perfect place to just stand around and drink latte or cappuccino while talking to your coworkers. Drinking coffee alone just isn’t the same as chatting with someone over how good the coffee is, the weather, the children or whatever else you have in mind. It’s the small talk like that that can make you friends and bonds that will last a lifetime. Even if you are not especially keen on talking to people, coffee will bring out the extrovert in you and get you some new friendships.

1. Your coworkers drink it

Even if you don’t enjoy drinking coffee, chances are that the majority of your coworkers do. So, instead of pining over the fact that you simply aren’t accustomed to the taste of strong coffee, there are many ways around it. The new Lavazza Office Coffee offers a variety of different types and strengths of coffee. So, instead of the regular filter coffee that you need to put extra cream and sugar just to make it bearable, opt for any of the 20 drink selection to finally enjoy some good coffee. If none of these drinks catch your attention, which we seriously doubt, you can always make yourself a chai latte (black tea with milk) and pretend to drink coffee. You will blend in with your coworkers as easily as the new coffee machine will blend in the break room.

1. Coffee reduces stress

Stress is the number one disease among working people. It can cause baldness, stomach aches, headaches, colon problems, ulcers and many more illnesses that you may not even be aware of. However, if you are an avid coffee drinker, you are in luck! Caffeine lowers the stress levels in a body and can help you feel better! Coffee is known to affect many hormones, such as adenosine, adrenaline, cortisol and dopamine, all linked to stress. However, large amounts of caffeine, especially if not followed by physical activity, can cause more damage than good. If you drink a lot of coffee and continue lounging on the sofa, watching TV, your body will get mixed messages that you need the energy, but you are not actually using it. High amounts of caffeine (or stress) can lead to the negative health effects associated with prolonged elevated levels of cortisol. So, the next time you feel under pressure at work, and your body starts aching from the tension, get yourself a nice, steaming, hot cup of coffee and go enjoy it in peace!

1. Coffee affects your sleep

Because of its effects on the body, caffeine can affect your sleeping schedule, which in turn, affects your work. This is only one of the many reasons more to be careful about the coffee intake during the day. In smaller doses, you should not feel the effects of coffee on your sleeping habits. However, if you drink too much coffee, too late in the day, it can mess up your sleep and you may even experience insomnia. Unfortunately, this can create an unhealthy cycle of sleeping, which in turn causes stress and exhaustion that can reflect on your work. Now, this is a very dangerous and vicious circle that you may find difficult to get out of. Once skipped a full night of sleep can cause a disrupted sleeping cycle, which will undoubtedly increase the need for caffeine.

What you need to avoid is to take more coffee than usual, since longer-range results of stress can cause burnout and an anxiety attack, which you don’t want. So, the next time you want to drink coffee near the end of your shift, think twice how much of physical activity awaits you. If you are going straight home to lounge in front of the TV and eat dinner, then consider skipping this cup. However, if you are going on an event where you will walk and stand a lot, then go for it! Your body will spend the excess of the energy, and you will be able to fall asleep easily, making it easier to get up in the morning and go to work bright and ready.

1. You learn faster

In order to learn something new, you need to be physically and mentally prepared for it. In a setting where there aren’t many changes, such as, at home, you aren’t given the opportunity to learn new things. However, in a workplace, where things are constantly changing and improving, you are much more likely to learn new things, whether consciously or unconsciously. A recent study showed that as little as 200 milligrams of caffeine are more than enough to help your brain identify words and phrases more quickly. Caffeine supposedly boosts your left hemisphere and help you rearrange letters that are put in a different order than the usual. Also, the same amount of caffeine is linked with better memory, testing students to see how many words they can remember from a list of words, briefly shown to them. So, a boost to short-term memory, problem-solving skills and cutting short the time needed to learn new things are all thanks to coffee.

1. It gets the creative juices flowing

We already know that coffee helps with alertness, waking up and generally, being more focused and productive. Stands to reason that is can also help you be more creative. Creativity comes from being focused, and not wandering. Coffee can help you be more creative both individually and in a group. Individually, because spacing out can sometimes be beneficial and may induce some new ideas that you haven’t thought of yet. And in a group, because having coffee in a relaxed and casual setting can lead to breaking down (or at least loosening) normal social and professional barriers, making it easier to pitch an idea that you would be too embarrassed or ashamed to pitch otherwise.

However, if you work online or from home, and like to have your work done in a coffee shop rather than your living room, a study shows that it is actually the ambient noise that gets you creative. Some people find silence to be deafening (an oxymoron, we know), and it can lead to an increase in stress, but having a cup of coffee in a coffee shop can only benefit you. Even if you do not enjoy ambient noise and prefer to have a set of headphones, the crowd can give you a sense of belonging that you wouldn’t feel at home.

Conclusion

Nine reasons why coffee in the workplace is good later, you can finally show your superiors that drinking coffee can only be beneficial to their workers. However, coffee is a drug, and therefore, you need to be careful how you take it, when you take it, and how much of it you consume during the day. Harmless as it may be, it can still cause disturbances in your life and the same way it can prevent diseases, it can also cause them. So, keep your coffee intake in moderation, and you will have a perfectly balanced workplace that will be the joy to spend time in!

Neil is a student of web design who enjoys writing a great content. His home is the whole world because he travels a lot. While you are reading this he is probably somewhere other than where he was yesterday.