36 grit on a beater truck saved me hours too

Man, I wrote an apology note to my landlord once and spent 20 minutes trying to decide between "I'm sorry" and "I sincerely apologize" like it was the dang SATs. Here's the thing: the honest one is usually the shorter one, the one that sounds like you actually talk and not like a greeting card. If you had to pick between two, the one you felt weird about sending is probably the real one.

Whoa, Joseph, this is a total 180 for me! I used to roll my eyes at the quiet minute idea because I thought it would kill the energy and make things awkward, but now I'm eating my words. Watching my own group explode with talk once I shut up showed me that silence is not the enemy, it's just room for other people to breathe and form a thought. Dana actually told me she feels weird now because she was so used to reacting to me that she had forgotten how to start from scratch, and that made me realize how much I had trained everyone to wait for my lead. So yeah, I'm now all in on the jot-a-note idea, even just 60 seconds of quiet before anyone talks, because the fast talker might just be nervous, not loud. My plan is to try it at the next meet and see if the jumpy person still jumps or if a few slower folks finally get their turn.