The Top 5 Perks of Getting a Coffee

I once read, somewhere or other, that eating an apple will do a better job of waking you up than a cup of coffee. So why don't we have any apple shops, with exposed brick walls, industrial-hipster lighting, and queues of apple-deficient people snaking out the door waiting for their fix each morning? Well, for whatever reason(s), we are stuck with the cafe. But it just so happens that there are plenty of benefits to grabbing a quick coffee in the morning, completely aside from whether or not the beverage in question can make you feel more awake and alert. Here are my top 5:

1. Getting Some Fresh Air
Stepping out of the office for a quick coffee run is a very good thing. Being outside and exposed to direct sunlight can help lift your mood. There are proven links between lack of sun exposure and anxiety and depression. The sun will also give you a (probably much needed) dose of vitamin D, which is imperative for bone strength. There are apparently a whole heap of other amazing benefits that a few minutes of sunlight a day (recommendations are generally for no more than15 minutes a day without sunscreen) can bring including preventing certain cancers, and helping to heal conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and a number of skin conditions from eczema to acne.

2. Spend Time With Colleagues
Being able to spend 5 or 10 minutes with your work colleagues away from your desks is a great idea for a number of reasons. "Water cooler conversation" encourages you to get to know one another better, which can lead to greater productivity and collaboration. It also means that you'll get along better, which will make work a happier place to spend your time. 

3. Talking to strangers
As well as talking to your colleagues, you can engage with the people taking your order and making your brew. And funnily enough, engaging in small talk with strangers is not a tedious, awkward waste of time, but something that is GOOD FOR YOU. 
“Small talk feels good because it affirms us, our ideas, and our worth. When we interact with strangers, we automatically take the effort to be polite, nice and friendly. And so does the other person. This means that both parties experience these conversations as positive events, and go away feeling validated and attended to.”
I know myself that on some days, the absolute highlight has been chatting to the barista or a fellow queue dweller somewhere. And I'll often walk away feeling elated, and carry that mood through the day with me. 

4. Spending Time Alone
If it’s early January, and all your colleagues have given up coffee for soon-to-be-broken New Year’s healthy living resolutions, there are still great benefits to going for coffee by yourself. Spending time alone has loads of benefits, and research shows we are doing it less and less. Even 5 minutes alone can allow you to think through and nut out a problem that you’ve been unable to solve with constant distractions in the office. Being alone gives you the opportunity to think more deeply, creatively and with greater focus.

5. It Tastes Delicious
Surely, taking a small moment of joy from a warm, quick, and cheap ritual is a good thing? There is plenty of research to show that coffee does all kinds of things to our brain chemistry in terms on turning on pleasure centres and making us feel more lively, but, honestly, what's wrong with just saying “I like the taste so it makes me happy”?

Further Reading


If you want to read more about the benefits of talking to strangers,  you might like to check out the article I quoted from, on a website called Brain Fodder. And, indeed, the Brain Fodder website is a great place to go if you’d like to while away a little more interwebby time looking at other interesting stuff. In fact, you may well want to unsubscribe to this budding little enterprise and just go with Brian Fodder, because it’s completely awesome.

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