The false god of coffee

Re:The false god of coffee by vessenes on Saturday October 24, 2009 @11:15AM (#900526)

I love the tracking of productivity idea. It's interesting, I also frequently use coffee to 'concentrate', but a little differently than you. I'll have tea or sometimes coffee in the morning (one cup) and if I'm not sleep deprived, that's it. If I need to work or focus on a task in the afternoon, I'll get a large coffee, clear my area of all distractions, get comfortable and try and crank through for as long as it takes. This is sort of a different way than you use coffee.

For a while I went off coffee completely because it was causing mood swings and serious blood sugar problems. Green tea changed my life, and I frequently felt it was almost all upside as compared to coffee. I wonder why I got off that bandwagon?

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Re:The false god of coffee by dstorrs on Sunday October 25, 2009 @08:10AM (#901548)

The productivity tracking he's talking about sounds like the Pomodoro technique. Check here for more: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

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Re:The false god of coffee by Mz on Sunday October 25, 2009 @09:06AM (#901575)

The author stated (in the Comments section) he doesn't use it per se but he does indicate he borrows from it:

Re: Pomodoro technique

I don’t use the pomodoro technique as written, however I was tracking 60 minute periods and switched to 25 minutes after reading that this was the ‘best practice’ discovered by the pomodoro people.

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Re:The false god of coffee by jodrellblank on Saturday October 24, 2009 @12:11PM (#900601)

How did you notice/know you were having serious blood sugar problems?

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Re:The false god of coffee by vessenes on Tuesday October 27, 2009 @04:21PM (#906334)

Eating binges and weird physical symptoms made me realize something was likely wrong, that started me into research about hypoglycemia, and tracking symptoms.

My old breakfasts: coffee, sometimes a sweet. Result: by noon, I thought I was starving, but it was really just extremely low blood sugar, sort of like a diabetic would feel after the insulin injection. Moody, Shaky hands, etc. Especially if I had sugar in the coffee or a second one at 10:30.

Result would be sugary lunch to spike bloodsugar back up, and similar problems at dinner.

Solution: More fiber at breakfast, less sweets, decaf coffee or green tea. Interestingly, I can now live through a breakfast like that with significantly better results, partly because I know how to get back on track, and perhaps because my bodies not in such a yo-yo type situation any more.

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Re:The false god of coffee by euccastro on Sunday October 25, 2009 @04:01AM (#901379)

He probably checked by other means, but mood swings are a good hint.

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