Source: theodysseyonline.com
A few years ago a friend of mine told me that when he is trying to make an important decision, rather than just thinking about it, he used a clipped piece of paper for it. He wrote down there what where his current thoughts, possible approaches and alternatives towards the end. According to him, this is a very beneficial way of making decisions, as it tends to be a rational one and which is also based on realistic circumstances and surprising obstacles, which are often forgotten when only thinking about them.
If it has happened to you in the past that you said that you would finish something really quickly, but that it turned out to take at least twice as much as you initially thought about it, then chances are that you did not write it prior to make that claim. By writing, I mean, you did not set a realistic plan and also consider having a time spot for plausible fall backs and pitfalls that might appear along the way. When you initially thought about it, you had only been seeing the end and forgot to consider the action plan.
Mind can oversimplify something which in reality is not that simple. We tend to overlook or overemphasize something that might not have such doze of importance. At the same time, we might underestimate something else which might lead our decision making process.
When you write something, you are committing and putting some effort from your side. You are using more mental energy than just thinking about it, as it is highly likely that you are lazy to always write every word or sentence that comes to mind about something that you are trying to take a decision. As you are writing, you should be able to project a timeline of the action steps that you intend to take or milestones that you should achieve to reach a goal. This way you are considering the actionable steps that you must take, which in return might motivate you to put more effort by being very specific and clear about them.
Next time that you want to take an important decision which you are not very sure about, consider writing in a piece of paper about it. At the very least, you might be sure that you have taken into consideration a few extra things that otherwise you would have not even thought about simply by thinking about it.
