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How Coffee and Beer Make You More Creative

Make-You-More-Creative

Should You Be Drinking Coffee or Beer?

Having a couple beers at 8am might seem like the prescription for a quick trip to Alcoholics Anonymous, but it could be the best way to develop great ideas for your next major project. While many people turn to coffee as a method of being able to wake up, what coffee does is block the adenosine receptors in your brain so that you feel more awake than you really are. Beer, on the other hand, frees up the thinking process and removes restrictions, but eliminates a majority of your working memory.

Beer Fuels the Creative Process

If you need great ideas to spring forth, then it isn’t coffee you should be turning toward in the morning. Of a recent case study done with 18 office participants, one group was allowed to drink beer whenever they wished and get as drunk as they wanted to get. The other group had to stay sober and fuel their passions with coffee. Their project was to come up with new ideas. The group that drank beer whenever they wanted to drink it came up with 80% of the best ideas that both groups presented.

According to researchers, all it takes is two beers to help fuel the creative process. When was the last time you went out and had a couple beers? Would you be willing to have a couple beers at lunch today to have a creative afternoon?

What Really Is Creativity?

What is the creative process? It is the ability for your brain to be able to come up with an original idea based on connections that are made with pre-existing concepts in your mind. If you are musically inclined, for example, you would be able to write a new piece of music that is completely original, but it would be based on the ideas you’ve gathered from other people’s music. The same is true in all fields. This is why some authors sound like other authors or some employees work like other employees. Beer frees up the restrictions we each put in place mentally and that’s why it is more effective in fueling the creative process.

What Prescription Do You Need?

Coffee is being made out as the bad guy here, but coffee has a role to play as well. Whereas beer can help you get new, creative ideas, coffee can help you execute those ideas to their full potential. Which prescription do you need to get work done? The answer lies in whether you need to be creative or you need to execute an idea. If you need to be creative, take two beers and get to work. If you need to finish off a project, take two coffees and get that job done.

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