Writing down your reasoning before the outcome is known, reviewing an old decision honestly, and separating the quality of a decision from the luck of its outcome.
Write down why, before you know how it turns out
Lessons
Write down why, while you still do not know — Memory does not store your reasoning; it reconstructs it, and it reconstructs it to fit whatever happened. The only honest record is the one made before the outcome existed. (9 min)
Reading an old entry without rewriting it — The entry is only half the practice. The other half is going back to it later and reading what you actually wrote, rather than what you now wish you had. (11 min)
A good decision can lose, and a bad one can win — Outcomes are made of judgement and luck in unknown proportions. Judging the decision by the result means learning from the luck, which teaches the wrong thing in both directions. (13 min)
The entry itself: eight lines, five minutes — A template short enough that you will actually use it, and specific enough to be worth reading in three years. Write one by the end of this lesson. (8 min)