Practical Techniques
Delay and pause strategies that actually help
January 28, 2025
When an urge appears, the goal is not to fight it head-on but to create a small gap between the urge and the action. That gap is where choice lives. Here are practical strategies that many people find useful.
The 10-minute rule
Tell yourself you will wait 10 minutes before doing anything. Use a timer. Often the peak of the urge passes in that window. You are not “forbidding” yourself—you are giving your brain time to shift from impulse to reflection.
Breathing pause
A few slow breaths can lower arousal and create a moment of clarity. You do not need a special technique; even three or four deep inhales and exhales can create enough space to remember what you decided when you were calm.
Environment design
Make the impulsive action slightly harder and the supportive choice easier. That might mean moving tempting apps off the home screen, turning off notifications at certain times, or using a tool that shows a reminder when you open something you chose to avoid—based on your earlier settings, not on the app watching you.
These strategies work best when you set them up in advance. Voluntary tools that remind you of your own decision can support that—without diagnosing or monitoring you.