Ask HN: If you cut caffeine, how long would you last at your job?

Nah I would probably force myself to sleep earlier. Stimulants are a cope for bad discipline imho.

Personally, I’d miss it, as I really enjoy coffee, but I wouldn’t foresee any impact to my ability to work.

If you really feel that caffeine is sustaining your existence, time to reset. Start cutting down by substituting tea, do some sort of ritual or physical activity after work to establish a boundary and get more sleep. Before bed, turn off the TV and do something without a computer. Read, have sex, do a puzzle, whatever.

No significant effect probably except for some craving; during the start of the pandemic, with all of the changes going-on, mind was no longer bored and so didn't really seek or drink any caffeine for months.

I notice the caffeine craving is stronger when bored at the job, otherwise, it can be ignored. Now in the latter years of the pandemic, boredom is setting-in and so caffeine craving has increased.

What? Withdrawal would be over in a week in the worst-case scenario. Last at my job? What?

If I quit drinking coffee it would take two weeks for the worst of the withdrawl to end, then I'd get most of my productivity back.

For the last twenty or so years, I've given it up for a month each year. I don't see much difference

As an experiment, around 6 months ago I cut out caffeine, down from a solid 40-60oz of coffee a day, and fairly strong at that. In the first week to 10 days I had some headaches, and then was pretty much back to normal. Still drink coffee, just switched to decaf. Honestly, I can't tell the difference.

One great side effect is that on occasion we will have coffee in the evening, which we never used to do.

I had hoped that I'd start sleeping better, between coffee and establishing a better bedtime routine. Dropping caffeine did very little to help, getting better bedtime routines and not drinking much fluids after 5pm (cutting down bathroom trips in the night) helped the most.

I'm OK without Mr. Coffee, I treat it more or less like a drink instead of something essential.

But still, losing it would be miserable. So I chose to drink as much decaffeinated as possible. Basically I reserve the ordinary one for days when I need to work on some difficult projects or I need to present something in a meeting (rare these days).

I expect this is a placebo effect. It's completely possible to feel more productive without actually being more productive. Looking back on the (admittedly very few) caffeine-fuelled stints I've had they were just more chaotic and overall less productive than drinking tiny amounts of coffee, or no coffee at all.

Most software engineering occurs on self-imposed deadlines and goals. Often, certain members of the team push themselves much harder then the rest of the group. However the vast majority of engineers work relatively light hours. It's unlikely the majority of the team is on performance enhancing drugs.

I've never regularly taken caffeine or other stimulants, and my work is fine. I imagine that stopping would be more about an adjustment period than a significant productivity decrease.

Without my medication? I think that would be problematic, yes.

But caffeine, I already avoid it because I think it redundant with my medication.

It doesn't do much for me either way. I don't see a clear difference between my productivity when I use it and when I don't.

It's easy to make too much of coffee "addiction", like it becomes part of people's personalities (a very modern stupidity that substitutes for character IMHO) i.e. ZOMG I NEED COFFEE TO LIVE. Nobody needs that.

It isn't like going cold turkey on heroin or anything like that.

I'd probably switch my workout time to early in the morning instead of getting a cup of coffee and browsing the internet before starting my work day. I find drinking a cup of coffee and browsing the internet for 15 minutes in the morning has taken the place of my morning commute since the pandemic started, I'm sure I could find an alternative routine to get ready for the day. Once I had to start paying for my own coffee while working from home I went from 60 ounces a day down to 30. Maybe this helped me get better sleep or maybe I'm just less stressed two years into the pandemic, I'll probably never know unless I double my coffee consumption to find out which is not worth it.

A place with high turnover allows you to coast for years... so I'd probably just look a little lower energy than normal.

I usually break from coffee when going on vacation, so coming back to work afterwards and not having coffee isn't so much of a problem.

The thing though is... I _like_ coffee. The caffeine is maybe 20% of the experience for me. I enjoy the routine I have with coffee: Weigh the beans, run them through the grinder, prep my drip filter, carefully pour the hot water in, listen to the drips while taking in the wonderful aroma... and then finally, when I take that first sip of the morning, feeling the warmth of the drink in my chest.

Everything in that process is soothing for me, and serves as mental preparation for the day to come. It's the marker for the start of my workday, separating work from home. It's the mental replacement for the commute I no longer have.

I don't _need_ those things, and I could totally do my job without any of them, but I'd be losing the happiness I get from the experience.

I cutted caffeine in April 2020 for almost 1.5 years. It took me a while to get over the habit and the headaches but overall it was not an issue to me. I didn’t have peaks and crashes during the day, it was more uniform days form me.

I don't drink caffeine except in emergencies, so I guess it wouldn't affect me much at all.

I've never been on any drug outside of sickness, but what I've always found made a COLOSSAL difference is a 15 minute afternoon nap. Turns the second half of the day from a slogfest to actually productive. Wish I could have done that in school.

I (mostly) quit soda last fall and I don't like coffee. I still use caffeine occasionally when I've slept poorly and need to wake up.

The biggest effect on my productivity is that I need fewer bathroom breaks. No danger of getting fired (except possibly from excessive HN browsing).

I get the correct amount of sleep. I don't need it. I just drink water.

I completely cut caffeine a few years ago. I was groggy and tired for about a week before I was entirely back to normal. Now I only use it to counter the occasional sleepless night, and not as an every-day thing. I continue to do my job just fine.