Waligaa ma is aragtay in aad maalin kula soo wareegtay madax xanuun aad u daran oo aad xasuusatay in aad ilawday in aad qaxwo cabto? Keligaa ma tihid. Waxaa jira dad aad u tiro badan oo isku dayaya inay joojiyaan kafeega. Raadinta fudud ee Google -ku waxay soo saartaa tiro isbarbardhig ah oo natiijooyin ah "jooji kafeega", "jooji khamriga" iyo "joojinta daroogada". Cajiib^(Impressive), sax? Hase ahaatee, qofna dhab ahaantii midkan si aad ah uma fiirsado. Iyo halka 2 kale ee caadooyinka ay eedeeyaan bulshada, kafeega ayaa dhab ahaantii la ansixiyay. Taasi waa sababta, maqaalkan waxaan doonayaa inaan ku qeexo sida aan ku dhammeeyey go'aan ka gaarista joojinta kafeega, habka aan u sameeyo iyo saameynta ay ku yeelatay hurdada iyo heerarka tamarta. Ahaanshaha geesinimo la qiyaasey oo leh in ka badan 9 bilood oo xog faahfaahsan oo nafteyda ku saabsan, waxaan awoodaa inaan xiriiriyo dhowr calaamadood oo muhiim ah tijaabooyinka aan nafteyda ku sameeyo. Aan bilowno:

Taariikhdayda Cabitaanka Kafeega

Waxaan bilaabay cabitaanka qaxwada fasalka 9aad. Waxaan ka qayb qaadanayay olympiad-ka xisaabta waxaanan ku bixinayey habeeno badan isku dayga in aan baadho fikradaha xisaabta iyo xalinta mashaakilaadka. Maxaan sidaas u sameeyay? Sababo dhowr ah dartood. Marka hore^(First) , waxaan lahaa shirkad: Anigu ma ahayn ka kaliya ee online sida guumays habeenkii isku dayaya in ay xaliyaan dhibaatooyinka xisaabta adag. Midda labaad^(Second) , dugsigeyga sare waxa uu ku socday xoogaa dib-u-dayactir ah, waxaana naloo ballansanaa in aan gelinka dambe iyo fiidkii aadno fasalka. Waxay ahayd cudur daarka ugu fiican in la soo jeedo inta badan habeenkii, sax?

Dhammaadkii sanad dugsiyeedkaygii sare, arrimuhu way ka sii dareen. Xilligii jiilaalka ee sannadkii ugu dambeeyay, waxaan isku dayay inaan codsado dhowr jaamacadood oo Maraykan ah anigoo wax walba isku haya. Waxaan dhammeeyey hal bil oo dhan oo habeen 4-saac ah, iyo cherry-ka sare wuxuu ahaa maratoon 48-saac ah si aan u dhammeeyo wax walba oo codsiyada lagu soo raro waqtiga.

Ka dib waxaa timid Jaamacadii^(University) . Waxaan ku daahi jirnay akhrinta waxyaabaha aan xiisayneyno, marmar xafladeyn ama aan isku dayeyno inaan wax walba ku xajinno imtixaanka ka hor. Waa in aad tagtaa oo aad soo booqataa fasalada jaamacadayada habeenada ka horeeya imtixaanada. Waxaad la yaabi doontaa inta qof ee aad ka heli doonto halkaas oo hurda (qalad.. waxaan ula jeeday waxbarasho). Maalmahaas, waxaan cabbi lahaa qaxwaha si miyir la'aan ah iyada oo aan xitaa ku dhibin inaan tiriyo koobabka sinaba. Ka sokow, kafeegu waa raqiis, sax? Waxaad ka heli kartaa koob qaxwe oo wanaagsan meelo badan oo Bucharest ah qiyaastii 50 ¢ ilaa $1.

Intii aan jaamacadda ku jiray, waxaan bilaabay inaan la shaqeeyo saaxiib hore oo hadda loo dalacsiiyay hoggaamiye kooxeed shirkad caalami ah. Dabiici ahaan, waxaan tan sameeyay waqtigii ugu adkaa ee manhajka, sannadkii u dambeeyay, markii dhammaan asxaabta kale ay shaqada ka tageen. Aad bay u fiicnayd inaad noqoto qof xun, sax? Waxaan dhameeyay shaqada 90-100 saacadood ee usbuucyada shaqada mararka qaarkoodna ma arkin iftiinka maalinta. Inkasta oo shaqada waqti-dhiman lafteedu ay qaadanaysay qayb yar oo taas ka mid ah.

Kadib waxaan dhameeyay jaamacadii waxaanan si degdeg ah u go'aansaday in aan aado shahaado PhD . Waxaan naftayda u maleeyay in wax yar oo la siiyo ay xaqiijinayso inaan ka shaqayn karo wax kasta oo aan doonayo, anigoo lacag qaadanaya. Wax yar maan ogayn! Waxaan ku khasbanaaday in aan dabada ka shaqaysiiyo si aan boos ugu helo cilmi baarista anigoo gudanaya waajibaadkeyga kale (ka qaybqaadashada mashaariicda Yurub iyo waxbarida). Mar kasta oo aan dareemo inaanan sii socon karin, kafeegu had iyo jeer wuu jiray, oo u dhow. Saaxiib la aamini karo!

Ugu dambayntii, aad ayaan uga niyad jabay akadeemiyadda, taas oo aan ku biiray bilowga farsamada. Anigoo markii hore doonayay inaan ka tago PhD , waxaan go'aansaday inaan dhammeeyo oo waxaan dhex maray 6 bilood oo toos ah oo aan shaqeynayo si aan kala joogsi lahayn, maalin iyo habeen, usbuuca ama maalmaha shaqada. Halkaa marka ay marayso, runtii arrimuhu waxa ay noqdeen kuwo faraha ka sii baxaya. Cabitaanka 4 koob maalintii (iyo dadka, gaar ahaan Maraykanka, waxay si isdaba joog ah ii sheegeen sida uu u xoogan yahay qaxwaha Romania). Taasna lagu kabo shukulaato badan.

Oo ma ay fududaan ka dib. Isla markii aan dhammeeyey PhD-ga^(PhD) , waxaan ku dhamaatay inaan helno oo aan rarino mashruuc ballaaran isku mar. Iyo wixi la mida.

Hal mar waxaan go'aansaday in xiriirkayga kafeega uu isbeddelo.

Dhiirigelin^(Motivation) - Maxaa Keenay Go'aankayga^{(My Decision)} Inaan Joojiyo Cabitaanka Kafeega^{(Drinking Coffee)} ?

Waxaa jira tiro badan oo naga mid ah oo ka niyad jabsan sida kafeega nolosheenna u qabsaday. Eeg hareerahaaga, intaad ku jirto supermarket-ka ama dukaamada wax-ka-iibsiga waxaadna bilaabi doontaa inaad garwaaqsato baaxadda warshadaha kafeega. Fiiro^(Pay) gaar ah u yeelo qaybta wax soo saarka kafeega leh ee dukaanka weyn, ama hawl maalmeedka dadka aad jeceshahay. Sidee maalintoodu u bilaabataa? Kafee leh, sax?

Waxaan go'aansaday inaan joojiyo qaxwada marki aan xaqiiqsaday xaqiiqooyinka soo socda:

• Inaan iska iloobo, ama isku dayo inaanan cabbin maalin gaar ah waxay i siisay waqti adag runtii. Markaa waa ama waa inaan walaxdan jidhkayga ku hayaa had iyo jeer ama innaba.
• Waxa aan u isticmaalayay in aan aamusiyo calaamadaha jidhkaygu isku dayayo in uu ii soo diro. Mar kasta oo ay ii sheegto inay daalan tahay, waxaan ku xidhi jiray qaxwo (iyo laga yaabee xoogaa shukulaato ah).
• Xidhiidhka kafeega ayaa sannado badan hoos u dhacay, mana soo hagaagin. Xataa ma sii ahaan mid joogto ah. Hal ama laba kafeega ayaa loo baahday kaliya si loo "bilaabo" iyada oo aan lahayn wax saameyn ah oo dhab ah.

Joojinta Kafeega, Dib loo hindisay

Waxaan qirayaa, maan baadhin wax habab ah wakhtigaas. Waxa laga yaabaa in aan kalsooni waali ah ku qabay in aan keligay samayn karo. Dib u milicsiga, waxaan ahaa nacasnimo ugu fican. Sababtoo ah iskudayga fashilmay ayaa si weyn u dhimi doona fursadaada joojinta mustaqbalka. Dhanka cuntada, taasi waxay u tarjumeysaa: Cuntooyinka badan ee fashilmay, fursadaha badan ee aan weligood dhuuban.

Waxa kaliya ee aan niyada ku hayo waa hal mabda'a hagaya oo aan dabaqo inta badan horumarka noloshayda: samee horumar yar oo tartiib tartiib ah kuwaas oo waara oo cabbira kahor intaanan ficil samayn.^{(All I had in mind is one guiding principle that I apply to most of my life improvements: make small, gradual improvements that are sustainable and measure before acting.)}

Markii aan go'aansaday in aan gabi ahaanba joojiyo kafeega, mar horeba waan iska jarayay. Bilihii hore waxaa ka buuxsamay kookaha^(Coke) iyo qaxwada, waxaana igu dhacay walwal. Waxa aan bilaabay in aan cabbiro marka hore, waxaanan ogaaday in aan cabbayay ilaa 30 kafee muddo 2-usbuuc ah, badidoodna inta lagu jiro maalmaha shaqada. Ka dib markii la arkay tirooyinka, aragtida helitaanka eber waxay ahayd mid aad u adag.

Furaha markan waxa uu ahaa in loo tixgeliyo geedi socod dheer. Sannadku wuxuu leeyahay 52 toddobaad. Haddii aan helo hab aan ku dhimo tirada kafeega 1 2 toddobaadba mar, waxa la i samayn doonaa sannad gudihiis! Dabcan, waxay qaadan doontaa anshaxa gelitaanka xogta nafteyda, sababtoo ah ma jirin Vessyl dib. Si kastaba ha ahaatee, aragtidayda shakhsi ahaaneed ayaa ah in la siiyo faa'iido ku filan oo wanaagsan, dadku waxay samayn doonaan gelitaanka xogta naftooda halkii ay raadin lahaayeen hab toos ah.

Suugaanta la xiriirta joojinta sigaarka, waxa aan isku dayay in aan sameeyo waxaa loogu magac daray "yaraynta tartiib tartiib ah". Waxaa jira dugsiyo badan oo feker ah, waxayna inta badan u qaybsan yihiin habkan (ama la mid ah) oo si lama filaan ah u joojiyaan ("turki qabow"). Si tartiib tartiib ah u dhimista iyo ka-soo-jeedadeedu waxay caddeeyeen inay aad uga waxtar badan yihiin tijaabooyinka (iyaga oo cabbiraya soo noqoshada ka dib 6 bilood ama 1 sano).

Waxay igu qaadatay wadar dhan 8 usbuuc inaan kaxeeyo gabi ahaanba. Dhammaadkii waxaan helay imtixaankii ugu dambeeyay: u safrida Mareykanka iyo dib ugu noqoshada 5 maalmood shir - oo aanan cabbin kafeega! Midkan ayaan ku dhaafay midabo duulaya inkasta oo ay adkeyd, waxaanan filayaa in aan si fudud ugu dhex maray jet-ka sababtoo ah kafee la'aanta awgeed.

Sprints My Si Loo Joojiyo Kafeega

Waxaan ahay injineer software ah waxaanan ku dhawaadaa wax walba iyadoo la eegayo aragtida injineerka. Barashada habka agile, waxaan ku dhawaaday joojinta kafeega 2-usbuuc ee orodka. Halkan waxaan ku siin doonaa dulmar gaaban oo ku saabsan orodkayga. Waxay igu qaadatay wadar dhan 4 orod tan iyo markii aan go'aansaday inaan joojiyo samaynta - qiyaastii 56 maalmood:

Sprint #1 (March 17th - March 30th) — only measured the coffee I drank. Result: 28 cups.

Sprint #2 (March 31st - April 13th) — only measured the coffee I drank. Result: 26 cups.

Sprint #3 (April 14th - April 27th) - kaliya waxa aan qiyaasay kafeega aan cabbay. Natiijadu: 26 koob iyo madax xanuun aad u weyn maalintii ugu dambaysay ( April 27th ), sababtoo ah waxaan illoobay inaan cabbo qaxwaha. Tani waa markii aan runtii go'aansaday inaan joojiyo.

Sprint #4 (April 28th - May 11th) — added the goal of drinking a maximum of 20 coffees. I was helped by the fact that I visited London between May 1st-May 4th, so I did not really have to wake up to an alarm clock during a few of those days. I ended up getting by on one coffee per day during my London visit, and on 2 daily coffees for most of the other days.

Sprint #5 (May 12th - May 25th) — I realised that my previous goal was too aggressive and highly dependent on context. I decided to improve my previous goal only by a little and set it to a maximum of 17 coffees. In the first week I drank my coffee only during weekdays, and I was struck by a nasty cold in the second week. That prompted me to rest more in order to get through it, and I barely reached my goal. This proved to be context-dependent again.

Sprint #6 (May 26th - June 8th) — changed my goal again to drinking only 14 coffees and I ended drinking only 10. I was away at the seaside with my wife and friends in the June 7th-June 9th period, so that helped a bit with my mental dependency as well. I was very encouraged by the fact that I was managing to be productive during the day even without coffee, as my comment from May 28th reads: "productive workday with 0 coffee. YAY!".

Sprint #7 (June 9th - June 22nd) — during this sprint I drank my last coffee in the first day (June 9th), and decided to go cold turkey at this point. I had gathered enough momentum and I had a very good test coming up in the next week, so I took the plunge. The most difficult part of this sprint was that while at the conference in USA, I was feeling groggy all the time and they only had black tea or green tea at best, which I tried to avoid at all costs. However, I over-compensated for my tiredness (an average of about 4 hours of sleep a night, including sleeping on a plane) with eating a lot of junk food. Even though I successfully reached my coffee goal at the end of the sprint, I did it at the cost of other health-related aspects: gained 2 kg (4.4 lbs) and was unable to find the mental energy to log my food.

Sida Sprint A u Shaqeyso

Marka hore^(First) , waxaan fiiriyaa dashboard-ka sprint-ka (sida caadiga ah Google Spreadsheet ) subax kasta hawl maalmeedkayga. Waxaan ka dhigay xannibaadda gelitaanka runtii hooseysa aniga oo xogtayda galiyay xaashida xaashida, sababtoo ah waxaan ogaa in habsocodkayga subaxnimo ay si fudud u carqaladayn karaan maalmaha fasaxa iyo safarrada. Marka la eego cidda la hiigsanayo iyo horumarka hadda socda, waxa ay iga dhigaysaa in aan ka warqabo inta ka hadhay maalinta waxa ay tahay in aan fiiro gaar ah u yeesho.

Inta aan si tartiib tartiib ah uga soo gudbayo orodka, waxaan dabiiciyan u janjeeraa inaan hami badan yeesho xagga dhamaadka si aan u gaaro yoolkayga. Tani waa meesha ay runtii muhiim tahay in la yeesho yoolal dagaal yar - way sahlanaan doontaa in la isku dayo si loola kulmo, waxaana ay noqon doontaa mid macquul ah in la gaari karo.

Dhamaadka dhamaadka sprint, waxaan bilaabay inaan ka fekero yoolalka kan xiga. Caadi ahaan waxaan lahaa 2-3 gool orodka, badanaana mid iyaga ka mid ah ayaa la xiriiri lahaa miisaanka (maxaa yeelay waxaan luminayay culeyska waqtigaas).

Sprint kasta ka dib waxaan lahaan lahaa sprint yar dib-u-eegis, si aan u fahmo sababta aan u gaaray (ama aan u gaari waayay) yoolalkayga, iyo sida ay tahay in loo wajaho anigoo sii socda.

Waxaan isku dayaa in aan iska ilaaliyo in aan wax ka badan 3 gool u yeesho hal orod, sababtoo ah waxaa igu adag in aan maskaxdayda diiradda saaro natiijooyin badan. Malaha, waxa ugu fiican ayaa ah in la yeesho hal yool, laakiin taasi waxay u baahan tahay dulqaad aan dad badan (ay ku jiraan) haysanin.

Joojinta kafeega miyay hagaajinaysaa ^{(Does Quitting Coffee Improve)}tayada^(Sleep) hurdadaada ?

Aad ayaan ugu farxay inaan xogtayda hurdada ka qodo BodyMedia iyo inaan arko inay jiraan horumar wakhti dheer ah oo tayada hurdada ah ka dib joojinta kafeega. Gabagabadaydu waa inay jiraan, laakiin waxay carqaladeeyeen isbeddellada kale ee muhiimka ah ee nolosha (sida beddelidda waddada shaqada). Sidoo kale, "kaliya" waxaan hayaa ilaa 8 bilood oo xog ah oo ku saabsan naftayda. Taasina waxay u ekaan kartaa wax badan, laakiin markaad isku daydo inaad jajabiso, waxaad ogaan doontaa inaad u baahan tahay wax badan.

Si taas loo gaaro, waxaan nafteyda u hindisay dhibcaha hurdada taasoo ah celceliska 4 mitir ee soo socda, oo aan ugu yeero "dhibcaha hurdada oo isku dhafan":

• Dhibcaha hurdada^(Sleep) habeenkii oo dhan (boqolkiiba wakhtiga sariirta seexday ee aan dhab ahaantii hurday).
• Dhibcaha hurdada^(Sleep) ee saacadda ugu horreysa (tani waa sababta oo ah waxaan la kulmi jiray dhibaatooyin hurdo la'aan ah, waxaan ahay qof firfircoon oo cabbista qaxwaha midkoodna waxba igama tarin).
• Waqtiga la seexdo (tirada daqiiqo waxay qaadanaysaa hurdo). Tani sax maaha sababtoo ah shideeyaha ma kala saari karo aniga oo daawanaya filimka ama aniga oo la halgamaya inaan hurdo. Mustaqbalka, waxaan ka fekeri doonaa qaab aan ku cabbiro taas.
• Tirada^(Number) inta u dhaxaysa hurdo ee ay ogaatay BodyMedia (ama, ereyada hurdada - tirada rogrogmada & leexashada).

Mid kasta oo ka mid ah cabbiradan ayaa caadi laga dhigay 0-100 waana la isku celceliyay. Sidoo kale waxaan ku sameeyay tirada kafeega (oo lagu dhufto 33, sababtoo ah inta aan gooyaynayo ma cabin wax ka badan 3 qaxwo maalintii), waxaanan ku barbar dhigay garaafkan soo socda:

Jaantusku wuxuu muujinayaa kororka tayada hurdada (garaafka cas) illaa Luulyo^(July) iyo bilowga Agoosto^(August) . Waxaa ku xiga hoos u dhac muuqda, sababtoo ah waxaan bedelayay shaqooyinka, taas oo walwal ku ah qof kasta. Sida aad arki karto, hadda dhibcaha hurdadaygu aad bay u xasiloon yihiin waxayna aad iyo aad uga badan tahay 75.

Hurdada, waxaan isticmaalay celceliska dhaqdhaqaaqa dhaqdhaqaaqa (qaab xisaabeed halkaas oo qiyamka hore ay ka yar yihiin qiyamka cusub), sababtoo ah waxaan isku dayay inaan si fiican u arko isbeddellada muddada dheer. Markii hore, waan ka xumahay in aanay jirin horumar cad oo kor u kacaya. Laakiin waxaan filayaa in aan filashadayda ku khaldamay laba siyaabood:

• Dareemuhu ma cabbiri karo sida wanaagsan ee aad u nasatay subaxdii. Tani waa waxa dhab ahaantii soo fiicnaaday ka dib joojinta kafeega. Waxaan ka fikiri doonaa hab lagu cabbiro waxyeelada ka imanaysa taas muddada dheer, si aan u sameeyo tijaabooyin badan.
• Xataa 10% horumarku maaha wax macquul ah; taasi waxay la macno tahay in hal ama laba sano gudahood, la siiyo hami igu filan, waxaan awoodi doonaa inaan gaaro hurdo qumman oo ku dhow.

Tan iyo markii aan lahaa wadar ahaan 7 sprints (qiyaastii 100 maalmood) ka hor intaanan joojin qaxwada, iyo ku saabsan xogta badan ee ku saabsan hurdada ka dib, waxaan go'aansaday inaan barbar dhigo dhibcaha hurdada ee maalinta D iyo maalinta D+100 , garaaf oo uruurso. Tani waxay ii sheegi lahayd haddii aan runtii hurdo hurdo fiican iyo in kale.

Waana kan. Garaafka weyn ee buluuga ah ee aad aragto waa korodhka tayada hurdada ee aan helay muddo 3 bilood ah (mar kasta oo ay ka sarreyso saldhigga, waxay la macno tahay in marka la isku daro aan si ka wanaagsan u seexday muddadii hore).

garaafkani waa mid macquul ah. Waxa aan soo maray wakhti xasiloon isla markiiba ka dib markii aan joojiyay kafeega, halkaas oo aan isku dayay in aan xoogaa nasasho ah helo oo aan ka qaado baytariyadayda. Dhawaan, waxaan bilaabay inaan ka shaqeeyo mashruucyo gaar ah oo runtii aad u daran (ay ku jiraan maqaalladan), taas oo sharxaysa soo noqoshada tayada hurdada. Si kastaba ha ahaatee, waxaa jira laba qodob oo muhiim ah:

• Buurta weyn ee kor u kaca ee dhibcaha hurdo-ururinta waxay la macno tahay in aan si joogto ah u seexday hurdo ka fiican sidii aan hore u heli jiray muddo wanaagsan.
• Xaqiiqda ah in inkasta oo aan soo maray xilli adag, haddana aan hadda ka soo kabanayo waxay muujineysaa in awoodda aan u leeyahay in aan soo maro xilliyo adag aysan isbeddelin sababtoo ah joojinta kafeega. Taas^(Which) oo ah guul weyn lafteeda.

Faa'iidooyinka kale ee Joojinta Kafeega

Marka hore^(First) , waxaan maalintayda si degdeg ah u bilaabayaa. Waxaan helay 5 ilaa 10 daqiiqo oo dheeri ah maalin kasta kuwaas oo galay diyaarinta qaxwada iyo cabista.

Waxaan toosaa nasasho badan, xitaa saacado yar oo hurdo ah ka dib. Oo waxaan u janjeeraa inaan aad u nasto mar kasta oo jidhkaygu ii sheego in la joogo waqtigii. Wax soo saarkaygu si aad ah ayuu u horumaray sababtoo ah tan, waxaanan u badanahay inaan diirada saaro waxa aan qabanayo.

Inaad seexato hadda aad bay u fududahay. Sababtoo ah waxaan sidoo kale ku celceliyaa soonka kala go'a (IF)^{(intermittent fasting (IF))} , saacadaha dambe ee fiidkii runtii aad ayaan u daalanahay oo daqiiqado yar oo aan ku akhriyo Kindle -kayga ayaa igu filan inaan si dhaqso ah oo hufan u seexdo.

Tan ugu muhiimsan, waxaan si fiican u garanayaa jidhkayga. Waan ogahay cuntooyinka sida saxda ah u quudiya, iyo kuwa aan samayn, iyo sida aan saamayn ugu yeelan karo heerarka tamarta. Hadda waan ordi karaa, laakiin ma qarin karo. Ma jiro qaxwo lagu cabudhiyo calaamadaha ay isku dayayso inay ii soo dirto.

Gabagabo

Marka hore^(First) , aad ayay u fiican tahay in kafeega laga saaro nidaamkayga. Laakiin waa caado iyo dhacdo bulsho oo qoto dheer, gaar ahaan shaqooyinka xafiisyada, aad bayna u adagtahay in laga takhaluso. Waxaan u xiisay qaxwaha subaxii xaaskayga, ama asxaabtayda.

Fikradda guulaha korodhka ah ayaa si aad ah loogu guulaystay joojinta kafeega - iyo waxa abaalgudka leh ayaa ahaa inaan abaabulo hawshayda injineer software ahaan (adoo isticmaalaya sprints). Mar kale, waxaa jira caddayn adag oo ah in geeddi-socodka uu ka muhiimsan yahay natiijada.

Aad ayaan ugu farxay markaan arkay in xaaladda hadda taagan tahay laga doodi karo. Runtii ma u baahanahay qaxwo? Malaha maya. miyay ku dhibaysaa? Dhab ahaantii taasi aniga ayay igu dhacday. Ma leedahay sheekooyin la mid ah? Waxaan jeclaan lahaa inaan maqlo kaaga!

Andrei Ismail waa injineer khibrad leh oo software ah oo khibrad bilow ah ku leh suunkiisa iyo shahaado PhD ee sirdoonka macmal. Waxa uu lumiyay 50 rodol 6 bilood gudahood wuxuuna hadda ka shaqaynayaa barnaamijka tababarka jirdhiska ee geeks, oo laga heli karo LULINTA CULUS EE ENGINEERS^{(WEIGHT LOSS FOR ENGINEERS)} .^{(Andrei Ismail is an experienced software engineer with startup experience under his belt and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. He has lost 50 pounds in 6 months and is currently working on a fitness coaching program for geeks, available at WEIGHT LOSS FOR ENGINEERS.)}

A Geek's Quest To Quitting Coffee - How I Managed To Pull It Off

Have you ever found yourself getting through a day with excruciatіng headaches and then remembering that уou forgot to drіnk coffee? You're not the only one. There is a very large number of people trying to quit coffee. A simple Google search yields a comparable number of resultѕ for "quit cоffee", "quit alcohol" and "quit drugs". Impressive, right? Yet, nobоdy really pays attention to this one that much. And while the othеr 2 habitѕ are blamed by society, coffee is actually endorsed. That's why, in this article I am going to describe how I ended up deсiding to quit drinking cоffee, my method for doing it and the impact it had on my sleeр and energy levels. Being a quantified self geek with over 9 monthѕ of detailed data about myself, I am able to correlate a number of vital signs to the experiments that I dо on myself. Let's get started:

My History With Drinking Coffee

I started drinking coffee in the 9th grade. I was taking part in the math olympiads and I was spending a lot of nights trying to research math concepts and solving problems. Why did I do that? For several reasons. First off, I had company: I was not the only one online as a night owl trying to solve complicated math problems. Second, my high school was going through some renovations, and we were scheduled to go to class in the afternoon and in the evening. It was the perfect excuse to stay awake most of the night, right?

Towards the end of my high-school years, things got worse. In the winter of my final year, I was trying to apply to several US universities while keeping everything else together. I ended up doing one whole month of 4-hour nights, and the cherry on the top was a 48-hour marathon to finish everything and have the applications shipped in time.

Then came the University. We would stay up late reading stuff that we were interested in, occasionally partying or trying to cram everything before an exam. You should go and visit our university's classrooms in the nights before the exams. You'll be surprised how many people you will find there sleeping (err.. I meant studying). In those days, I would drink coffee mindlessly without even bothering to count the cups in any way. Besides, coffee is cheap, right? You can get a nice cup of coffee in many places in Bucharest for about 50¢ to $1.

During my university studies, I started to work with an old friend who had just been promoted to team leader in a global company. Naturally, I did this at the toughest moment in the curriculum, the final year, when all other colleagues were quitting their jobs. It was so nice to be a badass, right? I ended up working 90-100 hour workweeks and sometimes not seeing the light of day. Even though the part-time job itself was taking up a small proportion of that.

Then I finished university and I quickly decided to go towards a PhD. I thought to myself that getting paid a little would ensure that I could work on whatever I wanted to, while getting paid. Little did I know! I had to work my ass off to make room for research while performing my other duties (being involved in European projects and teaching). Whenever I felt I could not go on anymore, coffee was always there, close by. A trustworthy friend!

Finally, I got so frustrated with academia, that I joined a tech startup. While initially wanting to drop out of PhD, I decided to finish it and went through 6 months straight of working non-stop, day and night, weekend or weekday. At this point, things were really getting out of control. Drinking 4 cups a day (and people, especially from the US, repeatedly told me how strong Romanian coffee is). And supplementing that with plenty of chocolate.

And it did not get any easier afterwards. As soon as I finished my PhD, we ended up getting acquired and shipping a massive project at the same time. And so on.

At one point I decided that my relationship with coffee had to change.

Motivation - What Triggered My Decision To Quit Drinking Coffee?

There's quite a bunch of us out there who are frustrated with the way coffee took over our lives. Take a look around you, while in the supermarket or in the shopping mall and you'll start realising the size of the coffee industry. Pay close attention to the caffeinated products section in the supermarket, or to the daily routine of your loved ones. How does their day start? With coffee, right?

I decided to quit coffee once I realised the following facts:

• Forgetting about it, or trying not to drink it in a particular day was giving me a really hard time. So it's either I keep this substance in my body all the time or not at all.
• I was using it to silence the signals my body was trying to send me. Whenever it would tell me it's tired, I would shut it up with some coffee (and maybe some chocolate).
• My relationship with coffee had degraded over the years, and did not improve. It did not even remain constant. One or two coffees were required just to "get started" without having any real effect.

Quitting Coffee, Reinvented

I admit, I did not research any methods at the time. Maybe I just had a crazy confidence that I can do it by myself. Looking back, I was naive at best. Because a failed attempt will dramatically decrease your chance of quitting in the future. In terms of food, that translates to: the more failed diets, the more chances of not ever being thin.

All I had in mind is one guiding principle that I apply to most of my life improvements: make small, gradual improvements that are sustainable and measure before acting.

When I had decided to quit coffee completely, I was already cutting down on it. The previous months were filled with Coke and coffee, and I was getting worried. I started measuring first, and discovered that I was drinking about 30 coffees in a 2-weeks interval, and most of them during weekdays. After seeing the numbers, the perspective of getting to zero was pretty daunting.

The key at this point was to regard it as a long term process. A year has 52 weeks. If I found a way to diminish the number of coffees by 1 every 2 weeks, I will be done within a year! Of course, it would take the discipline of entering data myself, because there was no Vessyl back then. However, my personal theory is that given a good enough benefit, people will do the data entry themselves instead of looking for an automated way.

In literature that is related to quitting smoking, what I was trying to do is named "gradual reduction". There are multiple schools of thought, and they are mainly divided among this method (or similar) and quitting altogether abruptly ("cold turkey"). Gradual reduction and its derivatives have proven to be much more effective in trials (by measuring relapse after 6 months or 1 year).

It took me a total of 8 weeks to quit coffee altogether. And at the end I had the ultimate test: travelling to the US and back in 5 days for a conference — and not drinking coffee! I passed this one with flying colors although it was hard and I think I managed to get through jet lag more easily because of the lack of coffee.

My Sprints For Quitting Coffee

I am a software engineer and I approach almost everything with an engineer's perspective. Learning from the agile methodology, I approached quitting coffee in 2-week sprints. Here I will give a short overview of my sprints. It took me a total of 4 sprints from the moment I decided to quit to doing it - about 56 days:

Sprint #1 (March 17th - March 30th) — only measured the coffee I drank. Result: 28 cups.

Sprint #2 (March 31st - April 13th) — only measured the coffee I drank. Result: 26 cups.

Sprint #3 (April 14th - April 27th) — only measured the coffee I drank. Result: 26 cups and a huge headache on the last day (April 27th), because I had forgotten to drink coffee. This is when I really decided to quit.

Sprint #4 (April 28th - May 11th) — added the goal of drinking a maximum of 20 coffees. I was helped by the fact that I visited London between May 1st-May 4th, so I did not really have to wake up to an alarm clock during a few of those days. I ended up getting by on one coffee per day during my London visit, and on 2 daily coffees for most of the other days.

Sprint #5 (May 12th - May 25th) — I realised that my previous goal was too aggressive and highly dependent on context. I decided to improve my previous goal only by a little and set it to a maximum of 17 coffees. In the first week I drank my coffee only during weekdays, and I was struck by a nasty cold in the second week. That prompted me to rest more in order to get through it, and I barely reached my goal. This proved to be context-dependent again.

Sprint #6 (May 26th - June 8th) — changed my goal again to drinking only 14 coffees and I ended drinking only 10. I was away at the seaside with my wife and friends in the June 7th-June 9th period, so that helped a bit with my mental dependency as well. I was very encouraged by the fact that I was managing to be productive during the day even without coffee, as my comment from May 28th reads: "productive workday with 0 coffee. YAY!".

Sprint #7 (June 9th - June 22nd) — during this sprint I drank my last coffee in the first day (June 9th), and decided to go cold turkey at this point. I had gathered enough momentum and I had a very good test coming up in the next week, so I took the plunge. The most difficult part of this sprint was that while at the conference in USA, I was feeling groggy all the time and they only had black tea or green tea at best, which I tried to avoid at all costs. However, I over-compensated for my tiredness (an average of about 4 hours of sleep a night, including sleeping on a plane) with eating a lot of junk food. Even though I successfully reached my coffee goal at the end of the sprint, I did it at the cost of other health-related aspects: gained 2 kg (4.4 lbs) and was unable to find the mental energy to log my food.

How A Sprint Works

First of all, I check my sprint's dashboard (usually a Google Spreadsheet) each morning in my daily routine. I made the entry barrier really low by placing my data in a spreadsheet, because I knew that my morning routine can be disrupted very easily by weekends and trips. Just looking at the target and at the current progress will make me aware for the rest of the day of what I have to pay attention to.

While I gradually progress through the sprint, I naturally tend to become more ambitious towards the end to achieve my goal. This is where it's really important to have less aggressive goals - it will be easier to scramble to meet them and it will be more plausible that they are reachable.

Towards the end of the sprint, I start to think about the goals for the next one. I usually had 2-3 goals for a sprint, and usually one of them would be related to weight (because I was losing weight at that point).

After each sprint I would have a small sprint retrospective, to understand why I achieved (or failed to achieve) my goals, and how they should be approached going further.

I try to avoid having more than 3 goals for one sprint, because I find it difficult to focus my mind on so many results. Probably, what works best is having only one goal, but that takes a degree of patience that a lot of people (including myself) don't have.

Does Quitting Coffee Improve Your Sleep Quality?

I was quite excited to dig up my sleep data from my BodyMedia and to see whether there are any longer term improvements in my sleep quality after quitting coffee. My conclusion is that there are, but they were disrupted by my making other important life changes (like changing the career path). Also, I "only" have about 8 months of data about myself. And that might seem like a lot, but when you will try to crunch it, you will notice that you need much more.

To this end, I invented a sleep score for myself that is the average of the following 4 metrics, that I call "composite sleep score":

• Sleep score for the whole night (percentage of the time lying in bed in which I was actually sleeping).
• Sleep score for the first hour (this is because I used to have problems falling asleep; I am a hyperactive person and drinking coffee did not help either).
• Time to fall asleep (number of minutes it takes to fall asleep). This is not accurate because the sensor cannot distinguish between me watching a movie or me struggling to fall asleep. In the future, I will think of a way to measure that.
• Number of sleep intervals detected by BodyMedia (or, in sleep parlance — the number of toss & turns).

Each of these metrics was normalized to 0-100 and they were averaged. I did the same for the number of coffees (multiplied by 33, because while I was logging them I did not drink more than 3 coffees a day), and I compared them in the following graph:

The graph shows an increase in sleep quality (the red graph) towards July and the beginning of August. It's followed by an obvious plunge, because I was changing jobs, which is stressful for anyone. As you can see, now my sleep score is much more stable and it is more and more often above 75.

For sleep, I used the moving average (a mathematical formula where the older values matter less than the newer values), because I was trying to better see the longer term trends. At first, I was disappointed that there was no clear upwards improvement. But I guess I had set my expectations wrong in 2 ways:

• No sensor can measure how well rested you are in the morning. This is what actually improved after quitting coffee. I will think of a way to measure side effects of that on the longer term, in order to perform more experiments.
• Even a 10% improvement is not that plausible; that would mean that in a year or two, given enough ambition, I will be able to reach a near-perfect sleep.

Since I had a total of 7 sprints (about 100 days) before quitting coffee, and about as much data about sleep afterwards, I decided to compare the sleep score for day D and day D+100, graph it and accumulate it. This would tell me if I was indeed sleeping better or not.

And here it is. The big blue graph you see is the increase in sleep quality that I got over a period of 3 months (whenever it's above the groundline, it means that cumulatively I was sleeping better than the previous period of time).

This graph is quite plausible. I went through a more stable period immediately after quitting coffee, where I tried to get a bit more rest and charge my batteries. And recently, I've started to work on a set of personal projects really intensely (including these articles), which explains the relapse in sleep quality. However, there are two really important points:

• The big upward hill of the cumulative sleep score means that I was constantly getting better sleep than I was getting before for a good period of time.
• The fact that even though I went through a rough period, I am recovering right now shows that my ability to go through rough periods has not changed due to quitting coffee. Which is a major accomplishment in itself.

Other Benefits for Quitting Coffee

First of all, I start my day quicker. I gained 5 to 10 extra minutes each day which went into preparing the coffee and drinking it.

I wake up more rested, even after fewer hours of sleep. And I tend to rest more whenever my body tells me that it's time. My productivity has improved considerably because of this, and I tend to be more focused on what I do.

Going to sleep is much easier now. Because I also practice intermittent fasting (IF), by the late hours of the evening I am really tired and a few minutes of reading on my Kindle is just enough to get me to sleep quickly and efficiently.

Most importantly, I know my body better. I know which foods feed it correctly, and which don't, and how I can influence its energy levels. Now I can run, but I can't hide. There is no coffee to suppress the signals it's trying to send me.

Conclusion

First of all, it feels great to have coffee out of my system. But it's a deeply ingrained habit and social event, especially in office jobs, and it is very hard to get rid of it. I miss my morning coffee with my wife, or with my colleagues.

The concept of incremental gains has proven very successful in quitting coffee - and the rewarding thing was that I could organize my activity as a software engineer (using sprints). Once more, there is solid proof that the process is more important than the result.

I was quite pleased to see that the status quo can be challenged. Do I really need coffee? Maybe not. Does it harm you? That was definitely the case for me. Do you have similar stories? I would love to hear yours!

Andrei Ismail is an experienced software engineer with startup experience under his belt and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. He has lost 50 pounds in 6 months and is currently working on a fitness coaching program for geeks, available at WEIGHT LOSS FOR ENGINEERS.

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