Time can be one of our greatest assets.

Rather than firing off an angry response to an email, we’d typically be well-served to cool off first. Give it a few hours, or even a night of sleep, before determining how to respond.

Simple practices like this can go a long way in preventing us from doing things that we’ll later regret.

Similarly, time off is sometimes exactly what we need to come to a solution to a challenging problem. Rather than banging our heads against a wall, we’d often be better off taking a break.

Go for a walk. Hit the gym. Take a shower. Whatever it takes to get your focus off of the task at hand. Sometimes this distance is just what we need to gain a new perspective and connect the dots in a way we hadn’t seen before.

But there’s a difference between using time and space to our advantage, and simply being lazy.

As JFK put it, “We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.”

Putting off a decision just because we’re scared of making the wrong choice isn’t useful for anyone. Just like we don’t do ourselves any good when we say for the hundredth time that we’ll start to get serious about our health “tomorrow” or “next week.”

-Brandon