Life is made up of difficult decisions.

So how do you decide when there's so much at stake?

For me it often involves tons of research (err, Googling), weighing the pros and cons, and talking to others to gain different perspectives.

It also means spending time reflecting on my own values and gut feelings.

Sometimes, this leads to me changing my mind or taking a different course of action. Other times, it reinforces what's always been in my mind.

Over time, when faced with a difficult decision, I use a thinking pattern that has become second nature to me.

The first step is always looking at the pros and cons. I even bought a large sketchbook just for drawing a pros and cons map like below.

The next step is asking myself a few questions that help me get to the root of the matter. Questions like "How will this decision make me feel about myself?" and "Can I confidently defend this decision?" help me understand the implications involved.

Finally, I take the time to really reflect on my answers and make sure I'm comfortable with my decision.

I do all of these with a good ol' pen and paper or recently, my Remarkable tablet. I always end up with messy scribbles but it helps me organize my thoughts. The act of writing by hand, away from digital distractions, always lets my thoughts flow more fluidly.

Making tough decisions is hard. But writing down my thoughts helps me sort through the facts and come to a decision. Even if the result isn't perfect, it helps me feel more confident about my choice.

This led me to the idea of creating a guided journaling workbook following that process.

It has a visual pros and cons thinking tool and self-reflection prompts to guide you in making decisions you can be confident about.

Originally designed to be taken on e-ink writing tablets like Remarkable and Boox Note, I've recently been playing with mockups and thought I'd share some of the pages here:

Check out my other shots to see how I turned ideas into simple but meaningful illustrated versions.