March 27, 2026

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Hey Everyone,

Your worst decisions tend to happen right after your most stressful moments.

On the hardest calls, the ones that need the most time and thought, a cortisol spike cuts accuracy by about 4.5 percentage points and increases the chance of running out of time to decide.

Today, we're sharing what happens in your body during that high-stress window and two breathing resets that can shorten it.

What happens in the hour after a high-stress event

Your body produces two hormones to help you manage stress. The first, adrenaline hits within seconds and fades in 30 to 60 minutes. The second, cortisol peaks about 10 to 20 minutes later and takes over an hour to come back down.

When these hormones are elevated, you're worse at processing and comparing information, and worse at changing your perspective or approach when new information appears. In short, your ability to carefully evaluate situations before making a decision takes a hit.

And if you don’t properly release the build-up of these hormones and the underlying stress, the negative consequences will compound through your day.

For example, by your third back-to-back meeting, you're making tough calls on a brain that hasn't properly recovered and rest from the tough calls in the first meeting.

The thing is, we are capable of handling incredibly stressful situations, and the hard decisions they require, provided we have adequate time to process before acting.

For example, in aviation simulators, when pilots faced an unexpected engine failure, 45.5% crashed or attempted emergency water landings. But when the same failure was briefed in advance, none crashed.

So, if you just came out of a high-stress moment and the next decision can wait 20 minutes, let it wait.

But if it can't, use one of the resets below.

Two resets for when you can't wait

These come from military, police, and surgical research where the stakes are high and time is short.

The quick version (30 to 90 seconds)

If you have less than a few minutes before your next commitment, pick one of these:

Cyclic sighing works well when you can take a visible breath without drawing attention.

• Breathe in deeply through your nose
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• When you reach what feels like the end of your inhale and your breath stops, take another short ‘double-inhale’ at the end to fully fill your lungs
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• Exhale more slowly and completely through your mouth
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• Repeat two or three times, then continue breathing slowly (four seconds in, six seconds out) for the rest of the minute
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A Stanford trial of 108 people tested this technique at 5 minutes per day over 28 days and found it improved daily mood more than mindfulness meditation while lowering resting breathing rate.

Tactical breathing works better when you're still in the room and need something less visible.
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• Inhale for four seconds
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• Hold for four seconds
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• Exhale for four seconds
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• Hold for four seconds
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• Repeat four times
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Police trainees and military officers who used this before high-pressure tasks performed measurably better, even though they didn't feel any calmer. The benefit came from steadier physiology, not reduced perception of stress.

The full version (if you have full 5 minutes between meetings)

When you have a gap between intense blocks, sit somewhere quiet and do five minutes of cyclic sighing.

Double inhale through your nose, long exhale through your mouth, repeated continuously.

This is the exact protocol from the Stanford trial and the version that produced the strongest results.

Over time, a daily five-minute session lowers your resting breathing rate, which means you recover faster after future stress events.

Go deeper

👉 Stanford Medicine: Cyclic sighing can help breathe away anxiety – the 108-person trial explained in plain language, with instructions from the researchers

👉 Huberman Lab: Breathwork Protocols for Health, Focus & Stress – step-by-step instructions for the physiological sigh and box breathing, with the science behind each

👉 Harvard Business Review: Stress Leads to Bad Decisions. Here's How to Avoid Them – practical advice on recognizing when stress is driving your choices

Coming up on Monday

On Monday, we're breaking down a four-step approach to international expansion, starting with how to know if you're actually ready.

That's it for this week! Have a good weekend.

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P.S. We all experience stress, so be sure to share this issue with your leadership team.