Sleep on it

I’ve found that things work better when I take a pause for important decisions.

Typically this looks like waiting until the next morning, but when I started my coaching business with Small Fish that was a week-long pause. During that time I investigated a few things, but the important part was to let my logical mind sync up with my emotional mind.

Same thing for deciding to propose a job in Australia – that was actually multiple weeks because of how deeply it affected the rest of my family.

This was brought to mind by a recent radio feature which talked about what’s really happening when you sleep. It turns out that your brain is still processing, integrating, evaluating, projecting – even playing.

There is great value in taking advantage of that power. Which is why “let me sleep on it” can be such a great response for important and complicated issues.

Even a shorter pause can help. “I’ll get you an answer by the end of the day” can give you time and space to make a better decision, and not solely rely on an emotional response.

Not for everything, of course. We make hundreds of decisions each day, and most are well served by a quick response. I don’t spend a lot of time figure out whether I want to change how I brush my teeth today.

But for something important or complicated? Take a bit of a pause.