The decision journal

How to run it

1. Write the decision and today’s date. Then write a review date at the top, three, six or twelve months out, and put it in a calendar now. The sheet is useless without it.
2. What you decided and why, in the words you would use to someone who disagreed. The options you turned down, in a line each.
3. What you expect to happen, by when, as something you could check later. Then how sure you are, as a number. Circle it. Fifty is a coin toss; ninety-nine is a promise.
4. What would tell you that you were wrong. And how you are today: tired, rushed, angry, well. State leaks into decisions, and you will not remember it later.
5. Put the sheet away and do not reread it. On the review date, before you look at what you wrote, write what actually happened.
6. Then compare. Right about the outcome? Right for the reasons you gave? What you would do differently, and what this says about your judgement on this kind of decision. After a dozen sheets the patterns show, and that is the point.

Where it falls down. Reviewing only the decisions that went well, or quietly rewriting the expectation once you know the outcome. The date at the top and the sheet in a drawer are the defences.