Some knots get tighter the harder you pull. Slow down and loosen first.

Force is the first instinct and the wrong one surprisingly often. With a tangle, pulling locks it, and the way out is slackening the line and finding where it crosses itself, which takes patience you will not feel like spending. Arguments, stuck homework and jammed zips all behave the same way. Speed only shrinks a problem when the problem is distance.

Next time you catch yourself pulling harder, stop for a minute and give the thing some slack. Ask where it is actually caught rather than where it hurts. Then move the one strand that frees the rest.