How Tweaking My Morning Coffee Routine Changed My Outlook

Deconstructing and monotasking my way to well-being

“Without my morning coffee, I’m just like a dried–up piece of goat.” ~ J.S. Bach

For the longest time, I gave no thought to my morning coffee. It was solely a means to infuse caffeine into the body and kickstart the day. I had no particular fondness for the taste of coffee, which I usually adulterated with cream and sugar.

A tweak to my morning coffee routine has, however, changed my outlook on coffee and indeed life. Deconstructing and monotasking this mundane act has enabled me to go about my day with greater mindfulness, intention, purpose, and productivity.

OLD ROUTINE: COFFEE AS CAFFEINE

Drinking my morning coffee had over time devolved into an exercise in multi-tasking. I would feed the dog while boiling the water, grab a quick shower while brewing the coffee, and work on half a dozen things (such as checking work emails that came in overnight, replying to missed messages, logging onto social media, and scanning the news headlines) while finally drinking my coffee absent-mindedly.

It was deeply ironic that, despite investing in good equipment and quality beans, I do not often enjoy the coffee I made, let alone remember anything about them.

The multitasking of the morning coffee was symptomatic of the problems of my life. I looked at coffee in purely instrumental terms, for the injection of caffeine that would help get me out of the door and to the office every morning. However, the dependence on adrenaline (fight or flight response) and cortisol (the stress hormone) to survive the day was deeply unhealthy. Chronic stress is after all associated with various health problems. Physically, stress can trigger inflammation, which can lead to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disorders, etc. Psychologically, stress contributes to anxiety and depression disorders.

NEW ROUTINE: THE INTRINSIC PLEASURE OF COFFEE

I was inspired to change my coffee routine after listening to an episode of the No Stupid Questions podcast. In it, Angela Duckworth (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance) related how she was able to quit putting sugar in her morning coffee through a mindfulness exercise.

I was curious to see if I could break the vicious cycle of caffeine and stress. To this end, I distilled my morning coffee routine into six deliberate steps:

1. Decide on the method of brewing the coffee. Will I use the French press, the pour-over, the cone drip, or perhaps the Vietnamese phin today? The method decides the coarseness of the grind.
2. Choose the beans. I usually have at least two kinds of coffee beans of different roast levels at home. I see if one appeals to me a little more or corresponds to my mood that morning. Some days, I combine the coffee beans in different proportions to create my own blend. I take a moment to notice the color of the beans and the aroma of the roast.
3. Grind the coffee beans. I notice the immediate release of aromas. It can be quite intoxicating, which helps wake me up a little more. I touch the ground beans to feel their texture.
4. Brew the coffee. It is very therapeutic to watch the coffee drip rhythmically into the mug. I see the liquid darken as the coffee pools at the bottom of the mug. The aroma of fresh coffee fills the room.
5. Let the coffee cool. I don’t like my coffee too hot, so this takes a few minutes. It is tempting to walk away, but I try to remain focused on my coffee. I attempt to recall what my coffee tasted like yesterday and how I felt when I drank it. I try to imagine what my coffee will taste like today. I think about how I slept the previous night or the weather outside, and visualize how the coffee will relate to all of it.
6. Drink the coffee. Hot coffee pairs well with meditation. The key is to drink the coffee mindfully. I pay attention to the aroma as I bring the cup close to my nose, the warmth that radiates from my tongue to the rest of my body, and the bitterness that gradually dissipates in my mouth. I also utilize a gratitude exercise by thinking of the coffee bean’s journey across continents and oceans to make its way to my mug. I think about the people involved in growing, harvesting, drying, milling, transporting, roasting, packaging, and finally selling the coffee beans. I think about the confluence of variables, in particular soil, water, and weather, that had to come together to produce a good bean. I give thanks to the stray speck of ground coffee that escaped the French press; that tiny imperfection reminds me that I have a whole mug of coffee for which to be grateful. I occasionally finish drinking my coffee before I can finish the gratitude exercise, but that just means I have something to look forward to the following day.

THREE LESSONS

1. The Power of Monotasking

I monotasked my morning coffee routine instead of trying to juggle a bunch of other tasks at the same time. Furthermore, I monotask each of the six steps of preparing the coffee, focusing on the unique experience that each step brings.

It takes me no more than 15 minutes to grind, brew, and drink my coffee, but the new habit has improved my life immeasurably:

• Monotasking enables me to appreciate the small but important things. If I can be grateful for a humble coffee bean, I can and should be even more appreciative of the more valuable things in my life. The practice also reminds me to be grateful for what I have rather than what I do not have. It puts me in a positive state of mind as I approach the next tasks on my to-do list, whether it is taking the dog out for a walk, going to the gym, or preparing to write my next article.
• Monotasking my morning coffee routine allows my mind to warm up, stretch, and wake up fully. Instead of immediately focusing on mundane tasks, I allow myself to relax, look more broadly, and think more deeply. This helps me concentrate my focus and energy, to explore more creative and productive ways to solving problems, and ultimately to take on bigger challenges.
• Monotasking enabled me to reflect on the negative impact of multitasking. The ability to multitask remains highly valued by many employers. I used to be one of those managers who harangued their subordinates for not being able to multitask effectively. However, I understand this only meant that they happened to not be working on whatever I felt was important at any given moment. I learned to focus on quality rather than quantity, efficiency rather than speed.

2. The Power of Small Changes

Deconstructing my morning coffee routine into a series of micro-steps represents a small change. However, it catalyzed some behavioral changes and reinforced others:

• I devoted more time to self-care. Postponing the time I checked my work emails taught me that nothing bad would happen if I didn’t check my emails at 6 in the morning. I deferred the start of my workday to when I arrived at the office, rather than the moment I crawled out of bed. Instead, I started to devote my morning routine to self-care practices, especially spending time with the dog and working out.
• The new routine reinforced new healthy habits. I had already stopped adding sugar to my coffee for health reasons. However, the deconstructed morning coffee routine enabled me to develop intrinsic enjoyment of black coffee.

3. The Power of Doing Nothing

Compared to the array of tasks that I used to try to complete while drinking a simple cup of coffee, my new coffee habit is closer to the Taoist practice of wu wei (無為), which is translated as “doing nothing”. Benjamin Hoff has a more elegant description in The Tao of Pooh, describing wu wei as “work(ing) with the natural order of things and operat(ing) on the principle of minimal effort”.

I discovered that doing nothing — or at least very little — during the six steps of preparing the coffee has enhanced my experience in unanticipated ways:

• By doing nothing during the steeping process, the coffee develops a different eventual taste every day, with varying levels of intensity, caffeination, bitterness, acidity, etc.
• By doing nothing during the resting process, the coffee cools to a different temperature until I am ready to drink it. This provides an interesting sensory experience, especially when contrasted with the ambient temperature.
• By intermittently doing nothing during the drinking process, I allow the anticipation of the next sip to build. When combined with my thoughts during a gratitude or meditation exercise, this alters the imagined taste of the coffee.

FINAL THOUGHTS

First, it is better to monotask than multitask. Monotasking our daily routines sounds especially counter-intuitive as it calls for us to spend more rather than less time on seemingly boring tasks. However, devoting our full attention to any task can help us derive greater meaning and enjoyment from a given task. This is important as our daily lives can often feel like little more than a series of reflexive routines performed without thought to their objectives, substance, or impact.

Second, deconstructing a routine can help with habit formation. It is a good way to introduce mindfulness and intention into even the smallest daily actions. It can also help with the formation of good habits. By breaking a new habit into component sub-routines, one can find a greater variety of intrinsic motivations to support a new habit or routine.