๐ How quitting alcohol and caffeine led to my biggest products growth ever
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21 replies
Hi,
Let me start with this - it's been exactly two years since I switched to non-alcoholic beers, and six months of barely any caffeine. In those two years I released two successful books, a course and started work on a couple side-project startups, next to running a software house.
I want to talk a little bit about my experience, because I am now sure, that the effects of drinking alcohol stay with you for a lot longer than I previously thought. I was doing a lot of things before that June day in 2019 too, but there was a lot less focus, a lot more chaos and my mind was often tired.
This is NOT the case anymore, I sleep better, wake up refreshed and always motivated to do something awesome.
My theory is that even days after a drink or two, I used to be 5% less "able" to do my best work. It may not sound like much, but over the years those 5% compound between all those party weekends and undermine the things you're doing.
Caffeine was the next one to go, and quitting this drug led to huge headaches with the withdrawal syndrome for the first week or two, but after that it turns out you're just as refreshed in the morning without it, as you were after your first shot of espresso.
These two years had seen more growth than all my previous years in this industry combined (and I've been doing design for 22 years). I'm also a lot happier and mentally stable and that helps a lot when juggling many different tasks and businesses.
Did you see a boost in creativity, productivity and motivation after quitting too? Are you willing to try for a month?
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Konrad Caban@konradcaban
Is it really worth it?
Is productivity more important in life than having some fun?
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@konradcaban I'd say happiness is a more visible outcome than just mere productivity, it just so happens that both are connected.
But let me ask you this, do you need poison to have some fun? :) I'm having fun drinking beer with no alcohol too ๐
@michalmalewicz I love the taste of different booze. And I very much like the feeling of being slightly poisoned. ;)
I wouldn't sarifice that for more productivity. And I don't believe it could result in more happiness.
But I'm glad it worked for you!
@konradcaban Everyone's different, but it's hard to believe in something without trying it out for a while :-) I was a huge fan of craft beers (just loved myself a hoppy IPA) but now there's so many hoppy IPA's without % I can still enjoy it without the side effects on my mind.
@michalmalewicz I had a some 2-3 month breaks from alcohol in my life and I didn't like it. ;)
I like Lagers, British Ales and Porters. Never found a drinkable 0% though.
If I can't drink at a moment, I prefer kvass or leak.
Quitting alcohol for a month actually helped - I slept better and felt a little happier and more productive. Still don't think it's worth it, but I can see the benefit.
Quitting caffeine for a month changed nothing for me, I felt mostly this same as before. The only caffeine-related change that helped me was to stop drinking it after around 3 pm - it improved my sleep.
Which one did you find harder quitting? And which one do you feel had the bigger impact on you?
Played with the thought of quitting caffeine multiple times. It feels simply way harder than alcohol because it's so deeply engrained into daily life.
@carlo_thissen I think alcohol had an easier to measure impact, as I only quit caffeine a few months ago, but both have pretty similar negative (lasting) effects of tiredness and lower motivation. And yes, caffeine is normalized in a huge way, but in reality you don't need it to feel awake in the morning - you only need it when you already abuse it, like heroin ;)
@michalmalewicz Gosh...now I can't decouple my filled coffee mug from heroin anymore haha
Actually you got me curious again. Time re-tackle project "caffeine abstinence" for good!
@carlo_thissen I went hard-mode and for entire month of May went with water only to also reset my taste buds. It's quite enlightening :)
@carlo_thissen Definitely a better approach! I like starting things โright nowโ instead of putting them off for a โnicer dateโ
@michalmalewicz counting today as my 1st coffee free day already would have been a massive lie to myself haha
Thanks for sharing this inspiring story! It's always challenging to quit bad habits, especially those that ruin your health. I radically changed my diet 2 years ago and since then I never worked harder. Body is better, so my brain!
Keep going!
@cica_laure_mbappe That's amazing! I believe it's worth talking about these things because they are normalized so much it's scary. We can be happy and productive while being completely drug-free ๐ฅณ
I wish this could be me, but I have ADHD and I have gotten dependent on coffee because of it.
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Quitting alcohol and caffeine likely boosted your product growth by enhancing focus, mental clarity, energy levels, and creativity. Improved sleep, reduced anxiety, and increased physical well-being also played roles. Savings in time, money, and positive discipline, along with potential influence on others, further contributed to your success. I'll recommend one of my friends, ENTEROSGEL GEL. Enterosgel is used as a detoxifying substance for acute and chronic intoxications of various origins, including poisoning with venoms, medicinal preparations, alcohol, alkaloids, and salts of heavy metals; in the complex therapy of acute infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including food toxicoinfections; and with food allergies, incl. drug-induced. You can check more details here https://parafarmaceja.pl/strona-...