Caffeine is a tool...it's up to you to use it effectively.
Personally, I find that using it as a daily habit is ineffective. You move your baseline, but all you've really changed is that now your body expects you to supply it with caffeine regularly.
However, after spending too long thinking caffeine was bad for you (it's not) and avoiding it, I eventually realized that it can be incredibly useful in those situations where you're not going to go to bed or nap or whatever, period because you need to get work done (or drive somewhere), etc. I also use it when it's not going to affect my sleep schedule at all, but I want to be especially productive (there is evidence that rather than just restoring you to baseline, caffeine can improve function.) In those cases, caffeine can be incredibly helpful. So my strategy is to use caffeine sparingly so that it remains effective and enables me to be more productive at the schedule I have already chosen, rather than basing my schedule on the expectation that I will need caffeine to complete it.
For me, the best solution was caffeine pills because then I can treat it like what it is: an intentional decision to take a known quantity of a medication that affects me in a predictable way. I typically only find myself using it maybe once a week or so, so it is still very effective. For example, today I needed to get a lot of work done, so I had 100mg (about half of a small Starbucks drip) in the afternoon while I camped in the library. Plus, it's cheaper this way (for the price of a fancy Starbucks drink I can get 30-60 doses) and more portable...you can keep a few tabs in your pocket for an unexpected situation, but a cup of hot water is a bit trickier to have 'always ready.'
