Six ways your office coffee machine keeps the ideas flowing

Posted by Richard Gray on 28-Feb-2016 01:21:49
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Caffeine’s the buzz that kicks off your day, keeps you focused on the job and keeps up your productivity when energy levels flag. Beethoven, Mahler and Sartre all famously ran on coffee, while JK Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter novel sitting in her favourite coffee shop. Give your staff extra creative flair, with regular access to great coffee.

‘Collisions’ – or chance encounters – are the big thing in office design these days (Steve Jobs was a fan, apparently). And where better to get colleagues colliding than round your office coffee machine? Whether your drinks solution is shared by 5 people or 50, you can actively get the right people talking. Strategicallly sited, you can even get them bonding en route to the machine. Get marketing talking to accounts and R & D talking to HR – and the new ideas will soon follow.

Variety’s the spice of life. You can only achieve so much while sitting in front of a monitor all day. Give yourself a change of scenery, nurse that coffee and get talking. It will clear your head, offer a friendly break and boost your mood ready for the work ahead.

Healthy body, healthy mind – as well as helping you beat the afternoon slump, that walk to the coffee machine will also cut the health risks of sitting for long stretches. Research suggests that regular breaks from your desk reduce the risk to your leg arteries and are good for your waistline and heart. Get your staff up and moving around. Make coffee breaks part of their daily work routine.

Relaxing ritual – there’s nothing more relaxing than the well-rehearsed ritual of breaking for coffee. You’re on auto-pilot, anticipating the comforting warmth of the drink you’re about to consume. As you let go of stress, your mind wanders and opens up to new possibilities.

It’s all in the mind. We’re humans, we need company. Coffee, a good chat and a brainstorming session just seem to fit together. In fact, we’re so used to feeling positive about our coffee break that research shows even the idea of caffeine can improve mood and performance. Researchers secretly switched test subjects to a decaffeinated drink, but they still reported better attention spans and psychomotor speeds. Maybe it’s time to stop overthinking, go with your instinct, head for the coffee corner, and let the ideas flow.

If you're thinking about investing in drinks machines for your office, have a read of our eguide, which sets out the key questions you need to be asking before you get searching:

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Topics: office coffee

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