3 surprising ways quitting caffeine actually INCREASED my productivity

We have been taught in our society that caffeine is productivity fuel.

Whether it’s coffee, tea, energy drinks, pop, or whatever else, these supposed hustle elixirs are believed to supercharge our output and put us on the fast track to side hustle fame and riches.

But you know what? I’ve found the opposite.

I say that as someone who was addicted to caffeine (and coffee specifically) for decades.

It’s only in the past six months that I’ve made a real go at trying to live my life without artificial stimulants, but the positives I’ve noticed after caffeine breaks are so powerful and positive that I keep coming back and trying to ditch the wretched drug for good.

Caffeine is a creativity crusher

Everything I do in my career and in my side hustles revolves around writing and content creation.

In order to produce that kind of work, I rely heavily on creativity and flow states.

What I’ve discovered recently is that, instead of powering that creative output and the associated financial gains, caffeine actually puts the brakes on it.

Stick with me and I’ll explain how removing caffeine from your life might actually increase your productivity the way it has for me.

You may think coffee is helping your productivity but it’s actually putting up barriers to creative output. (

Caffeine solves the problem that caffeine creates

This won’t necessarily apply to everyone, because each and every one of us has a unique physiology.

There are people who can drink a pot of coffee right before bed, nod off, and have a great night’s sleep.

If you’re reading this article, however, I would hazard a guess that this description doesn’t apply to you.

Perhaps, like me, caffeine takes you on an insane, all-day rollercoaster ride that reaches a peak before screaming to the lowest of lows and then climbs back up on the strength of another cup (or three).

My distaste for my daily caffeine crashes was one of the main reasons I’ve really tried to cut back this year.

Goodbye cheap dopamine

When you’re a writer — or any creative professional really — the hardest parts of your work are a) getting started and b) staying focused.

That’s because being a content creator means doing a lot of non-linear work.

It’s not like having a set amount of numbers to punch into a spreadsheet and manipulate with well-used formulas.

Writing an article or conceiving a video is creatively demanding and mentally draining.

It’s also extremely rewarding.

The problem is, when you start replacing the dopamine reward of creating with the cheap alternative caffeine provides, it can sap your motivation to work and move your mental focus from creative flow to when you can get the next hit of your drug.

Here are the top 3 ways quitting caffeine actually increases my productivity.

A calm mind is a creative mind

I have an ADHD mind, which I’m sure many restless creatives out there can relate to.

My brain can be relentlessly focused on a task or a topic to the point of obsession, but a lot of the time it’s all over the place.

I’ve found that, when I have caffeine, it redlines my brain right away and kind of blows the engine.

Some days it can help me work faster and harder for a short period of time, but then I become almost catatonic.

I find it almost impossible to focus on anything, so I focus on nothing.

When I’m free of caffeine, however, I enter a flow writing state effortlessly.

I sit down, I work, and I feel happy and rewarded after a good writing session.

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again because I find it so strange: even my typing accuracy vastly improves when I don’t have caffeine in my system.

In his great book The Productivity Project (affiliate link), author Chris Bailey writes about research showing that caffeine actually hurts your performance on tasks that require creativity.

And if you’re an introvert like me, it can be even more damaging.

Bailey writes that introverts are more stimulated by their environment by default, so caffeine can push them over the edge (this would explain my catatonic state after drinking too much of it).

He adds that studies have shown caffeine can also make introverts perform more poorly on tasks that are quantitative and done under time pressure.

Consistent energy all day

You know that mid-afternoon crash you get where every mental task you have to perform seems 10x harder than it would have been in the morning?

You’re tired, you’re mentally drained. All you want to do is go rest your eyes, but you can’t because you have to work.

Trust me when I tell you this: it doesn’t have to be this way.

Without caffeine in my system, the roller-coaster ride disappears and I just have consistent energy all day long.

It may not be perfect energy — our bodies do have circadian rhythms that cause our energy to ebb and flow throughout the day — but the hard crashes disappear completely.

That means your work in the afternoon can be almost as effective as your work in the morning.

Don’t believe the myth that you need to get all your toughest work done in the morning because you’ll be in crash mode after lunch.

The reason you feel like s**t in the afternoon is that you’re coming down from your morning caffeine high.

Good mood equals good productivity

Being in a crappy, tired mood saps your energy to do anything creative or productive.

Instead of getting excited to work on a creative project, you start to resent it.

“Why do I have to do this? I don’t want to do this. This is boring.”

Caffeine sends your brain on a biochemical ride that ultimately leaves you feeling stressed and anxious.

It blocks adenosine to keep you alert and boosts your adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

During a very short period of time, you may be able to work a bit faster.

But soon you’ll be left feeling moody and unmotivated for hours.

As Bailey writes in his book, you’re not getting more energy from it — you’re borrowing energy from later in the day.

When you’re happy and feeling optimistic about the future, it’s easy to get into a flow state and work on your goals.

When you’re equal parts wired and exhausted due to a drug, everything seems pointless and impossible.

In summary

So those are just a few ways my creativity and productivity actually increased when I quit caffeine.

If you find yourself in a bad mood during the day and unable to motivate yourself to do the work you know you should, maybe try giving caffeine a break and see what happens.

After the initial withdrawal process, I’m willing to bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Folks, thank you so much for reading this post all the way to the end! If you enjoyed it, please give it some claps so others can find it! I love to hear from you in the comments as well.

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