Tagproblem solving tactics

Twice in the last couple of days, people have come to me at work to solve a problem. When I was younger, I jumped in with both feet and never stopped to think about how I will do this. What occurred to me this afternoon, is that I now ask this question first of myself. This has become a very effective tool for me to save time in the long-run. It may take ten minutes one time and an hour the next...