One simple way to improve your decision making muscles

What do people like Ray Dalio, Jeff Bezos, and Ben Horowitz have in common?

All of them are proficient at making decisions—even if they are not always perfect—without suffering from analysis paralysis.

More importantly, they are are continuously improving and tuning their decision making processes.

Ray Dalio has shared plenty of his system in Principles: Life and Work, Ben Horowitz in his two books, and Jeff Bezos wrote about how he makes the "highest-stakes decisions."

While all of the above make for a fascinating reading, what would you say if I told you that can start improving your decision making skills right now?

All you need is a notebook. A real, physical one, works best.

Give it a powerful name.

Something like "Bruno's Decision Making Journal."

Feel free to substitute my name with yours.

Next time you are facing a decision that requires a bit of thinking, open your notebook and write the following on the left page:

• Matter at hand.
• Background and context.
• Desired outcome.
• Options evaluation criteria.
• Options considered (including rationale why were some rejected or accepted).
• Expected outcome with selected option(s).

Make sure to leave the right page blank.

Revisit that decision in 3 to 6 months, and write on the right page:

• Actual outcome.
• Reflection (in narrative form).
• Lessons learned (in bullet form).

Flip through your notebook once a quarter, and summarize your most important insights on a single page.

That's all.

Now it's up to you.

Do you have what it takes to get better?