In an argument, a five-second pause before answering is a superpower. Hot replies age badly.

The first answer out of your mouth in a fight is defence rather than thought. Five seconds is long enough for the heat to drop a degree and for a better sentence to assemble itself, and short enough that nobody experiences it as a stunt. Replies made at full temperature almost never read well the next day.

Count to five before you answer in your next disagreement, even just once. Spend the gap deciding what you actually want out of the conversation rather than what you want to say. Notice how often the other person fills the silence with something more honest than their last line.