Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

When I worked at La Leche League International as the Director of International Relations and Marketing, I often used the phrase “I’ll sleep on it” with my staff. It didn’t mean that I would actually go home, lay down, and spend eight hours in bed. What it did mean was that I would think about it seriously before saying, “Yes” or “No.”

I’ve found sleeping on it is an effective way to allow oneself time to come to a decision, an opinion, or a course of action. In today’s world, with its “I want it all now” approach, instant decisions can sometimes spell disaster. So when I say, “I’ll sleep on it,” what I’m really saying is that I need time, even if it’s just a few minutes, to think about the issue before making a dyed-in-the wool decision.

My La Leche League staff members eventually became comfortable with this approach, because they knew I took their requests seriously and that I would get back to them with an answer when the sleeping period was over. They came to understand it wasn’t a ploy to avoid answering; rather, it was a technique for providing the most thoughtful answer possible.

Today, I’m no longer at work in the nonprofit world, but I still use this technique whenever a difficult issue arises. Ultimately, taking time to analyze a decision one is about to make is time well spent. It’s well worth sleeping on.