Don’t drink coffee after noon

In my job, I spend 8h a day looking at a screen. I have to maintain focus for hours. After a while, I get tired. So, I drink coffee, of course. But what do I do when the coffee ain’t coffeeing anymore?

Correct: I drink another one — duh. After I turned 25, I started having weird adult thoughts like, “It would be great to make it past 60.” Well, If I continue to drink 5+ coffees a day, that’s going to become a bit more difficult.

People underestimate the effect of caffeine. It can stay in your system for up to 12 hours — sometimes even longer. Even if you fall asleep easily after drinking caffeine in the afternoon, the quality of your sleep decreases.

So, I looked for alternative ways to maintain focus for long periods. And found 4 unusual methods:

1. Position your screen slightly above eye level

Most people have their screens below eye level. Here’s why that decreases your long-term focus:

What happens when you get tired? Your eyelids close and your chin moves down. When you’re wide awake, it’s the opposite: Your eyes are wide open and your chin is up. You’re in a state of alertness. In our neural circuits, the states of fatigue and alertness are linked to the positioning of our eyes.

Positioning your screen above eye level forces you to look up a bit and opens your eyes more. Which creates wakefulness and alertness for the work you do. But don’t put it too high because that can have negative effects on your neck. Slightly above eye level should work in most cases.

How can you elevate your screen position?

Buy a laptop stand. They’re cheap. Or do it like me: Steal unused laptop boxes from your colleagues and use them to elevate your laptop/monitor. You could also just ask them cause nobody needs those anyway. But where’s the fun in being polite, am I right?

2. Switch between standing and sitting desk every 10–30 minutes

Many people swear on standing desks. Others prefer the comfort of sitting. Guess what? As with so many things in life: The truth lies between the lines.

“But standing desks cost 100s of dollars!” 

Don’t worry. Since we already incriminated ourselves for hack #1 we might as well steal a couple of more boxes. Who’s counting, anyway? I use a box and put a couple of books on it. That’s it. You just need to move the monitor/laptop every 10–30 minutes.

“What about treadmill and cycling desks?”

It’s worth considering! They can help you focus better and think more clearly. But they can also be bad for your verbal memory. People with active workstations struggle more with remembering things they hear or read. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any tips for a low-budget version — unless you can find a way to steal it from a colleague without them noticing. If you do, please let me know.

3. Use noise to reduce the noise

There are 2 kinds of people:

• People who like to listen to background sounds

• People who like to work in silence

Even if you belong to the 2nd group, silence is not always guaranteed — especially in crowded offices. A very effective background sound for focus & productivity is noise. Work with white, pink, or brown noise in the background for work sessions of up to 45 minutes. They’re easy to find on YouTube or Spotify: Just type in “white noise”, “pink noise,” or “brown noise.”

“Why not use it for the whole day?”

Your brain needs moments of quiet to rest and reset. Constant noise exposure can be tiring over time. Also, the effect fades in time because your brain adapts to the noise. So, use noise strategically:

• During specific tasks or time blocks, when you need a focus boost.

• When you want to pretend to be focused while scrolling through funny memes.

4. The Cathedral Effect

No, it’s not about working in a church — not far off, though! Your thinking becomes “smaller” (a.k.a. focused on analytical tasks and detailed work) in small rooms with low ceilings. Your thinking becomes “bigger” (a.k.a. focused on abstract thoughts and creativity) in big rooms with high ceilings.

Humans are so simple sometimes. Use different locations (rooms, buildings, indoors, or outdoors) to help focus on specific types of work. So, if you want to be creative, a church might actually not be so bad. I would NEVER recommend bringing your work stuff into the Vatican, though — because it’s not allowed. But if you did, I’d ask you to send me pictures of the scene.

Find your way

All these hacks are rules of thumb. Test out

• Different screen heights

• Intervals of standing and sitting

• Background noises

• Locations for your intended purpose to find your perfect trade-off between comfort and focus.

As for me, I prefer:

• Center of monitor slightly above eye level.

• Changing between standing and sitting every 30–45 minutes (sometimes I cheat and make it even a bit longer when I’m in a flow I don’t want to interrupt).

• Brown noise for 1h (after that, I avoid any noise for at least 2 h).

• Cafés or outdoor spots for writing. But for my office jobs, I prefer being in an office environment.

Hacks #1 and #3 are most effective for me, but everyone is different. Experiment a bit to find your preferences and sweet spots.

That’s it for now. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on Instagram @husseinnaji_ or email — my door (aka inbox) is always open. Just reply to this mail☺️

Much love,

Your kiwi-with-the-skin-on-eating friend

Hussein

PS: If you want to see more content, check out my other channels:

• Threads

• Medium

• Bluesky

• LinkedIn