3 Reasons to Drink Coffee at Work

If you are like nearly half of Americans, starting your workday with a cup of coffee at the breakfast table is simply a given. Coffee is a part of the morning routine, but here at Hugo Coffee, we don’t believe that coffee has to stop once you get to work. Here are a few reasons why coffee is not just a worktime indulgence but actually a catalyst to help you perform better on the job.

Coffee Improves Your Focus

This should be obvious to most coffee drinkers, but the stimulant effect of caffeine can have a significant effect on your mental performance. Research shows that a small dose of caffeine can improve your ability to hold attention to specific tasks. Who doesn’t want a more attentive employee? Even better, coffee seems to improve your ability to learn and recall information. A study at Johns Hopkins shows that caffeine equivalent to two cups of coffee improved the participants’ ability to recognize and distinguish photos they had been shown days before. That is not just a slight improvement in short-term performance; that is a boost in long-term memory.

Coffee Will Get You Through the Afternoon Slump

The unfortunate reality of the 9-5 grind is that we don’t get to nap nearly as often as we should. Most people will experience some level of fatigue throughout the day as our body secretes adenosine, a molecule that causes the feeling of drowsiness in our body. Caffeine staves off that drowsiness by competing with adenosine in our brains, preventing the molecule from causing us to nod off. The best way to use coffee to prevent the afternoon slump is to drink a cup a half hour before you usually feel drowsy. This gives your body adequate time to absorb the caffeine before the drowsiness kicks in.

Still need a nap? Coffee can still help. Drinking coffee before a 20-minute power nap will help alleviate exhaustion more effectively than either a nap or coffee on its own. Some research indicates that the combination of coffee’s competition with adenosine and the body’s ability to clear adenosine during sleep makes for a powerful combination. The timing seems to be the most important thing here. Drinking your coffee too early may disrupt your ability to sleep, and sleeping too long may disrupt your ability to wake. For best results, downing a quick cup or two of coffee then laying down for a short nap will give you the most energy on waking.

If you’re really on the grind, you may not even have time to brew a full pot. If that’s the case, Hugo’s single-serve coffee bags are a great option for the office. Eight ounces of hot water and a mug is all it takes to enjoy a perfect brew and without the environmental guilt of a plastic pod. No hot water? We have you covered with our cold brew packs. One pack in your thermos the night before will prepare you for those long days at the office.

Coffee Will Make You a Better Team Player

Eating and drinking are not just physical necessities; they are a way for people to bond with each other. Just like sitting around a coffee shop is a fun way to spend time with friends, drinking coffee in the break room is a way to spend pleasurable time with your coworkers away from the demands of work. This sounds like an excuse to waste time at work, but it actually has benefits for the entire workplace. A 2010 study from MIT shows that this bonding time improves group cohesion, which in turn increases the productivity in the group, both in individual and group work.

Allowing for regularly scheduled breaks in which employees can socialize relieves pressure from high-demand jobs, which creates higher job satisfaction and better work as a result. In Sweden, the afternoon coffee break is called fika and is an important part of work culture. The fika break happens two or three times a day, and unsurprisingly, Swedes are some of the least stressed employees in the world. The break is an important time for bosses and employees of any level to interact, communicate, and bond. Perhaps it is time we made the practice more popular worldwide?

We might be biased, what with being a coffee roasting company and all, but we think it is high time we give coffee the recognition it deserves in the workplace. The coffee break is not a reason to walk away from our responsibilities but a proud, noble reason to refresh and restore our energy, to gab with our coworkers, and to refocus our energy into the work that matters.