Why do Creatives and Coffee go together?

Coffee has incredible powers. It has the ability to jumpstart our day and spark amazing conversations with people and it may even boost your brainstorm sesh at work.

Every morning I joke saying don’t talk to me before 9:00am (usually after the second cup of coffee) because then the caffeine will have had time wake everything up in my introverted brain. But seriously, I have had coffee as a part of my morning ritual since forever and it has gotten me through many late night projects. And yes, even breakthroughs on projects that have had me stumped! So call it an addiction yes I admit it, but in my life, as a creative, it is a necessity!

Scientists think the stimulation coffee (caffeine) offers is part of the reason creative people so enthusiastically drink it. The jolt that caffeine provides gives the drinker short-term elevated motivation and drive. Their initiative suddenly leaps through the roof, and they’re able to generate a lot of ideas, plans, or complete tasks that normally bore them.

People of all types, all over the world enjoy a good cup of coffee, but maybe none as much as a creative. The free-thinkers, creators, and innovators among us become used to the enticing aroma and flavor of freshly brewed coffee more easily than most. It’s fuel for the day!

Not only does coffee help get you moving, it helps jumpstart your brain so you overcome the first hurdle to unlocking your creative juices. The caffeine triggers something in my brain, and I snap out of it and get to work. Coffee is a stimulant. There is some science to it, but the important thing to note is the caffeine in your coffee blocks the part of your brain that says “I am tired.” Fatigue is the number one killer of focus in the world. Caffeine steaming in your favorite animal print mug postpones fatigue so you can commit to the task at hand. For creatives, this means pushing through the stage of coming up with bad ideas.

Coffee gives you that extra umph or confidence, if you will, to get out of your own way and realize that all those bad ideas (pre-coffee) have somehow morphed into a stellar idea (post-coffee) and here we go, you are off to a great new project!

Creative minds are really messy minds, according to Scientific American’s Scott Kaufman. Creative people do really well with coming up with ideas, putting a project together, and bringing in results, the path to getting there is a quite a messy process! What better way to help us creatives fuel that road to clarity. So grab your favorite cup, drink coffee with all us crazy creatives and get on the road to becoming greater!