Give it one breath before you decide what someone meant. Most wars start in the half second you skipped.

Your first read of a comment arrives before you have thought about it, and it comes with a tone attached that you invented. That half second is where a neutral remark becomes an insult, and once it does, everything you say next is a counterattack to something nobody sent. The breath is not politeness. It is the gap where a second possible meaning can fit.

Make the rule physical. When a message lands wrong, breathe out once before you type. Then ask what a friend on a good day would have meant by exactly those words.