Ask HN: How many coffee do you need per day to get your work done?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13611485

by bsvalley • 9 years ago

11 28 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I tried to get off coffee several times (1-2 months without coffee) but it seriously affects my day to day performance. At work, home, etc. I need at least 2 coffees per day to get through the entire day and be functional.

How about you, how many coffees do you drink per day?

rbg246• 9 years ago

I have two double shots of espresso and one tea all before midday as I found caffeine after midday was causing interrupted sleep with vivid dreams.

I was similar to you in that ive given up coffee but found I was unproductive without it.

I've found the before midday approach has worked well for me.

bsvalley4• 9 years ago

Same here. Any coffee after 3pm would impact my sleep.

DanBC• 9 years ago

How's your sleep? Have you tried recording your sleep or using a sound activated recorder to see if you have sleep apnea? (Not sure what the recommended method of self detecting sleep apnea is)

When's the last time you had bloods taken? There might be a thyroid thing going on.

bsvalley4• 9 years ago

I actually did these 2 exact tests not a while ago. Thyroid was negative but they recorded that I have short apnea under 10s. Which put me in the mild apnea group, where you don't necessarily need further investigations.

xyzzy4• 9 years ago

I stopped drinking coffee because it was making me feel too anxious. I also stopped caring about my total productivity per day for the same reason. Instead I make sure I just do something per day.

bsvalley4• 9 years ago

I understand that, though, coffee makes that "something" less painful. Which is why I decided to keep drinking coffee beside the anxious side effect that I get as well. The trade off was worth it.

cylinder• 9 years ago

ymmv, and this could be placebo for me, but NALT[0] eliminated my post-coffee anxiety.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/BulkSupplements-N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine-P...

dozzie• 9 years ago

I also stopped caring about my total productivity per day for the same reason.

I'm not sure how much it'll be worth, but I stopped worrying about any productivity of any particular day. Instead, I choose to write tools that are placed strategically: server config distribution system, data bus, data storage system, command issuing tool, things like that. I make my colleagues' lives easier (or so I like to think).

Though I'm in a somewhat privileged position, being a half-sysadmin and evading the most repeatable and/or customer-facing work.

qksfjkhlhkdj• 9 years ago

this. the years I wasted beating myself to work harder, drinking gallons of coffee and not actually doing quality work as a result...pointless. Get some sleep, work less but smarter

ezekg• 9 years ago

I usually keep it at 3-4 cups. Any more and I get a little jittery and it becomes hard to focus, any less and I'm a monster. (Yes, I have a problem. My wife agrees.)

jmarchello• 9 years ago

0. As long as I get 6-7 hours of sleep I can be pretty productive throughout the day. Have you tried going for a walk during your lunch hour?

bsvalley4• 9 years ago

I was working for a company that had access to a nice trail where I used to walk for 30 minutes every day after lunch. It helped digesting but didn't change much in terms of productivity.

tjalfi• 9 years ago

I drink two cups of coffee and one cup of half decaf/half regular during the work week.

nyddle• 9 years ago

One double espresso in the morning + 2 espresso shots throughout the day.

mrfusion• 9 years ago

FYI. It took me eight months to truly quit and not miss it.

(Fast forward two years and I'm hooked again. Turns out adding a few drops of caffeinated coffee to your decaf cup will gradually snowball into full caff cups.)

_m8fo• 9 years ago

Zero. If you need coffee you probably lack adequate sleep. That being said, coffee smells, and tastes delicious, so it can be nice to have one in the morning.

poletopole• 9 years ago

Three cups of coffee and maybe four diet cokes.

amerkhalid• 9 years ago

I love coffee, in past, I would drink 5-6 cups of black coffee everyday.

This year I am cutting back on coffee because I think it messes with my stomach. I am down to 2 cups in the morning to get going. This leaves me a bit foggy in afternoon. I try to take walk breaks when I feel a bit foggy.

My goal is to stop drinking coffee regularly. (I still love coffee too much to give it up completely. And I can never give up relaxing/reading/writing in coffee shops.)

lastofus• 9 years ago

Strong black tea can be a nice middle ground to get a bit of caffeine without going full bore, especially in the afternoon.

bjourne• 9 years ago

About 4 cups. But I can admit that my sleep schedule is pretty awful too.

malyk• 9 years ago

0 cups

b_emery• 9 years ago

n+1 where n is the number of kids I have. Currently, n=3.

orky56• 9 years ago

Down to 0. I have a cup of decaf in the morning since I need to override my behavior of having something hot and bitter in the morning. In the afternoon, I'll have some hot barley tea. Over the weekend, I'll treat myself to one regular coffee that's more on the fancier side.

I decided to stop caffeine because I was getting random headaches in the evenings. Also, it would be very hard to forgo that afternoon caffeine when I started to get sleepy.

With this new routine, I feel much more in control of my mind and can escape the roller coaster of energy that caffeine puts me through.

auganov• 9 years ago

About a gallon of coke zero so that's roughly 4 classic cups in terms of caffeine content. Never tried actual coffee, though.

saluki• 9 years ago

I had the same issue with soda. I felt like I had to have a 20 oz soda first thing in the AM to focus and get things done.

If I had a tight deadline I would drink them non-stop throughout the day.

I started setting up green tea at night in sealed cups in the fridge so they were cold in the morning when I would typically have soda. (if you're in to coffee try hot green tea).

Basically I transitioned over to green tea from soda. Now I don't even drink tea everyday. I've been drinking water with a few table spoons of lemon juice and ginger tea with apple cider vinegar when I feel like I need a pick me up and I have just as much energy as drinking soda except without the calories and the crash.

Also having a small snack when I would normally need a soda helps.

I will occasionally have a soda with pizza but I've tried to avoid that by having beer or a carbonated non-sugar drink instead. If I have one soda the next day I'll start craving one again.

Good luck. Give it a shot. You don't need caffeine like you think you do. Especially the strong/sugared variety.

adnanh• 9 years ago

2-4 espressos per day

1 in the morning after my breakfast 2 during the work day (one usually around noon (sometimes I skip this one) and one after lunch) 1 after I come home from work before dinner (sometimes I skip this one)

mswen• 9 years ago

5 to 7 standard size cup/mugs per day. I drink it black, no sugar or creamer. I used to worry about the health effects. But studies like this [1] suggest that it their might increased health benefits up to about 5 cups a day. So I have decided to enjoy my coffee and just keep an eye on it to not interfere with sleep.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/182/12/1010/2195423/Ass...

tbihl• 9 years ago

I drink two cups of black tea in the morning, and sometimes also a soda if I really need to be productive. My sleep schedule is pretty abysmal: 5.5-6 hours on weekdays, 9 ish on weekends. Nonetheless, I seem to be able to focus for at least 10 hours per day of good work. The other two of my twelve daily hours at work tend to be pretty low quality.

It used to be that I'd be a useless blob when I got home. I seem to have mostly fixed that by standing for 5-8 hours each day at work. Only downside is I've become acutely aware of how uncomfortable some of my shoes are.

Ask HN: How many coffee do you need per day to get your work done?

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