Guide · after-work · 3 min read
The five minutes after a difficult meeting, in plain terms, before something difficult
Back-to-back meetings leave no room to come down. Five deliberate minutes changes the next hour.
Start here
Every point here is written so that a bad week is still enough to manage it.
It works best in the hour before something difficult.
If you only do one thing from this page, do the first point below. It is first because it removes the most friction for the least effort.
What helps
If you have to send a reply, draft it and wait an hour. Angry emails written in five minutes take weeks to undo.
Do not replay it in your head with better answers. That rehearsal is satisfying and completely useless.
Move: stairs, a corridor, a walk to get water. The physical reset is faster than the mental one.
What to do when it does not work
Do not go straight into the next thing. Even sixty seconds of standing up changes how you carry the last meeting into the next one.
If something was said that stung, note it and decide to deal with it tomorrow. Most things look smaller after a night.
Write down what actually happened, not what you felt about it. The two get mixed up within about ten minutes.
Questions people ask
Should I send a follow-up straight away?
A factual one, yes. An emotional one, no. Write it, then leave it for an hour.
Written for people who want the practical version. No accounts, no tracking, no newsletter wall.