The Full Stack: On logging decisions

Hi pals! Welcome to The Full Stack, where we design a purposeful life through one proven concept each week, along with a practical experiment to bring it to life.

💬 Quote

🧠 Concept

One of the best decisions I made this year… was to start a decision log.

I know, that sounds a bit too meta, but it’s been a serious game changer for me.

This year, I’ve made several big decisions (capital B big) — from career pivots, financial actions, health commitments to mindset shifts. Instead of spiraling into second-guessing or regret, the log allows me the assurance that yes, Past Jalyn thought this through.

By documenting these choices in a structured way, the decision log has become a personal data bank, and helps me focus on:

1. The why — The context, reasons, and alternatives explored

2. The how — What I’ll do to set the ball rolling, in a stated timeframe

3. The expected outcome — What I hope will happen as a result

Of course, I’m not talking about decisions like “skim milk or whole milk?” (though I will admit that this specific question has tripped me up in the past). The decision log is for the ones that have a significant impact on the bigger picture.

Here are specific examples in my past few months:

• Opting out of contributing to a tax-advantaged investment account, because I’m prioritizing liquidity right now

• Adding cardio into my mornings, and detailing how I’m shifting things in my schedule to do that

• Choosing to leap into writing — this very newsletter you’re reading ☺️

Having this snapshot of my thinking process provides clarity when I need to reinforce or revisit my decisions — especially when I’m tempted to second-guess or lose my resolve.

The benefits

• Transparency: It makes my reasoning visible to my future self (who can’t argue with sound logic)

• Accountability: Keeps me from rewriting history when under pressure from others, or from time itself

• Understanding my mind: Builds a dataset of how I make decisions, reveal my motivations, and identify my blindspots over time

• Slowing impulses down: Forces me to pause, write it down, and resist the urge to YOLO on things that might backfire in haste

🧪 Experiment

The best part? You don’t need fancy tools — paper and pen works, or your note-taking app of choice.

👉 Here is my Notion template so you can see it in action.

Give it a try — documenting your decisions might take the pressure off and make it feel a lot less overwhelming. I’d love to hear if it’s helped you in any way!

Thank you for reading — if you found this helpful, could you help me out and share it with a friend who might too?

Cheers,
Jalyn