Decision Journal

A system for tracking decisions and improving over time.

Why Keep a Decision Journal

You can't improve what you don't measure. A decision journal:

1. Forces clarity - Writing crystallizes thinking
2. Captures reasoning - Before hindsight bias rewrites history
3. Enables review - Learn from patterns across decisions
4. Improves calibration - Compare predictions to outcomes
5. Reduces regret - You made the best decision with available information

The Decision Journal Entry

When to Journal

Create an entry for:

• Any significant decision (you'll know which ones)
• Decisions you're uncertain about
• Decisions you want to learn from
• Recurring decision types

Entry Template

## Decision: [Short title]

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Category:** Career / Financial / Relationship / Health / Other
**Reversibility:** One-way door / Two-way door
**Time spent deciding:** [hours/days/weeks]

### The Decision
What I'm deciding and what I chose:
[Clear statement of the decision]

### The Options Considered
1. [Option A] - [Brief description]
2. [Option B] - [Brief description]
3. [Option C] - [Brief description]

### Key Factors
What information and considerations drove this decision:
- [Factor 1]
- [Factor 2]
- [Factor 3]

### Expected Outcome
What I expect to happen:
- [Expectation 1]
- [Expectation 2]

**Confidence level:** [50% / 70% / 90%]
**Timeframe for evaluation:** [When will I know if this worked?]

### What Could Change My Mind
Information that would make me reconsider:
- [Trigger 1]
- [Trigger 2]

### Potential Biases
Biases I might be falling prey to:
- [Bias 1 and why]
- [Bias 2 and why]

### Emotional State
How I feel right now about this decision:
[Honest assessment]

---

## Review (added later)

**Review date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Actual outcome:** [What actually happened]
**Was the decision good?** [Yes / No / Mixed]
**Was the process good?** [Yes / No / Mixed]
**What I learned:** [Key insights]
**What I'd do differently:** [If anything]

Example Entry

## Decision: Accept Job Offer at TechCorp

**Date:** 2024-03-15
**Category:** Career
**Reversibility:** Two-way door (can leave if wrong)
**Time spent deciding:** 1 week

### The Decision
Accept the Senior Engineer role at TechCorp at $150k + equity,
turning down the offer from StartupXYZ.

### The Options Considered
1. TechCorp - Larger company, $150k, stable, good benefits
2. StartupXYZ - Early stage, $130k + more equity, higher risk/reward
3. Stay at current job - Known quantity, $125k, comfortable

### Key Factors
- TechCorp's engineering team has strong reputation (talked to 3 employees)
- The manager seems excellent (good Glassdoor, good interview rapport)
- Better work-life balance than startup (I want to start a family)
- Equity at StartupXYZ is risky (most startups fail)
- Current job has limited growth remaining

### Expected Outcome
- Will learn new technologies (cloud, distributed systems)
- Better financial stability for starting family
- Will miss startup energy but gain sustainability

**Confidence level:** 75%
**Timeframe for evaluation:** 12 months

### What Could Change My Mind
- If TechCorp shows signs of layoffs or instability
- If StartupXYZ gets major traction (would feel regret)
- If the team/manager dynamic is toxic (will know in 3 months)

### Potential Biases
- Status quo bias: Am I underweighting StartupXYZ because it's scarier?
- Risk aversion: Am I choosing safety over opportunity because of fear?
- Authority bias: Am I overweighting TechCorp's name recognition?

### Emotional State
Excited but nervous. Feel like I'm making a "grown up" choice.
Slight fear of missing out on startup upside.

---

## Review (added later)

**Review date:** 2025-03-15
**Actual outcome:** Joined TechCorp. Good team, learned a lot.
StartupXYZ raised Series B and is doing well.
**Was the decision good?** Yes - Right for my life stage
**Was the process good?** Yes - Considered options carefully
**What I learned:** Startup FOMO is real but my priorities were right
**What I'd do differently:** Maybe negotiated more on salary

The Review Process

When to Review

• Immediately after outcome - Capture learning while fresh
• Quarterly - Review all decisions from the quarter
• Annually - Look for patterns across the year

Review Questions

For individual decisions:

• What was the outcome?
• Was this a good decision or did I get lucky/unlucky?
• What information did I have that I didn't use well?
• What information did I lack that I could have obtained?
• Did any biases affect my decision?
• What would I do differently?

For patterns across decisions:

• What types of decisions do I make well/poorly?
• Am I consistently overconfident or underconfident?
• Are there situations where I'm biased?
• Am I making the same mistakes repeatedly?
• What's improving over time?

Calibration Tracking

Track your prediction accuracy over time.

Simple Calibration Log

Over time: If your 70% predictions come true 90% of the time, you're underconfident. If they come true 50% of the time, you're overconfident.

Calibration Goals

Most people are overconfident. Their 90% predictions are right 70% of the time.

Practical Implementation

Keep It Simple

A journal you use imperfectly beats a perfect journal you don't use.

Minimum viable entry:

Date: [date]
Decision: [what I decided]
Why: [key reason]
Expected: [what I expect to happen]
Review in: [timeframe]

Where to Keep It

Options:

• Plain text files
• Spreadsheet
• Notes app
• Dedicated journaling app
• Physical notebook

Key: Pick something you'll actually use.

Habit Integration

• End of week: Review decisions made that week
• Monthly: Add reviews to decisions with outcomes
• Quarterly: Look for patterns
• Annually: Major review and goal-setting

Decision Categories to Track

Career

• Job changes
• Project commitments
• Skill investments
• Relationship building
• Leaving decisions

Financial

• Major purchases
• Investments
• Career moves affecting income
• Spending decisions

Relationships

• Commitment decisions
• Boundary setting
• Conflict resolution
• Time allocation

Health

• Lifestyle changes
• Treatment decisions
• Habit changes
• Risk taking

Personal Development

• Learning investments
• Habit formation
• Goal setting
• Priority shifts

Common Journaling Mistakes

1. Only journaling when uncertain Journal confident decisions too. That's where overconfidence hides.

2. Not reviewing The journal's value is in the review. Schedule it.

3. Rewriting history Write the entry BEFORE the outcome. Don't edit after.

4. Being vague "It worked out" isn't useful. Be specific about what happened and why.

5. Only journaling successes Failures teach more. Journal everything.

The Meta-Benefit

The act of knowing you'll journal improves decisions.

When you know you'll write it down:

• You think more carefully
• You consider more options
• You're more honest about reasoning
• You're less likely to rationalize poor decisions

Even if you never review, the act of writing is valuable.

Getting Started

1. Start today - Journal one recent significant decision
2. Set a reminder - Weekly review of decisions made
3. Be honest - The journal is for you, not for show
4. Be patient - Patterns emerge over months and years
5. Keep it sustainable - Better to do it imperfectly than not at all

The compound effect of slightly better decisions, made consistently over time, is enormous. The decision journal is how you achieve that improvement.