Kept burning ten minutes on requirements gathering in system design rounds until I forced myself to timebox it to five

Used to treat the clarifying questions phase as something to get through carefully, which in practice meant careful turned into slow, ten plus minutes before drawing a single box. Started setting a five minute mental timer, forced myself to ask the highest-value questions first and move into the design with reasonable assumptions stated out loud instead of confirmed. Felt uncomfortable at first, like I was skipping a step. Feedback from mocks actually improved, interviewers said it read as more decisive.