TL;DR: You’re allowed to take your time and sit with something that bothers you before answering.

I often struggle in meetings and other synchronous conversations to form and articulate my thoughts quickly enough to express them coherently before the conversation has moved on.

That’s one of the many reasons that I love distributed work so much; it gives me the time and space that I need to really think through and process a question before giving an answer.

That’s not always possible though, so sometimes I end up feeling like a decision was made without really wrestling with all of the questions, or the nuance of something, because I wasn’t able to bring it to the forefront.

I was reminded of that last night, while listening to an episode of Hurry Slowly. The host was interviewing Mira Jacob, and she said something that I think is really helpful:

I try to tell myself, ‘If you have a funny feeling about it, it’s probably for a reason, so sit with it for a moment before you make any moves. You’re allowed to sit with this, you’re allowed to take your time. You’re allowed to figure out what feels funny, and why.’

Mira Jacob, Timestamp 49:48