Improve Your Critical Thinking With These Effective Steps

BY- JAYA CHOUDHARY

Every day, we are faced with an ocean of choices. Others are minor and non-essential, while some have a significant effect on our lives. For instance, what kind of milk should I drink? Should I try the new fashion trend? What about the chicken and egg dilemma? We are inundated with choices, and it is difficult to make the right decision every time. But there are few things we can do to boost our odds, and critical thinking is one of them. Critical reasoning assists us in identifying the shortcomings in our decision-making process and helps us in achieving a positive result by removing those flaws.

Being one of the most underused skills among human beings, a few minutes of critical thinking can make our decision more concrete and focused. An individual who uses logical thinking examines all possible alternatives with skepticism rather than taking an answer because it sounds correct. There are many approaches to critical thinking, but here are five steps that can assist us in solving a variety of issues.

Prepare your questions

The first step in critical thinking is to know exactly what we want. However, this isn't quite as simple as it sounds. If we're considering whether to purchase a laptop or a smartphone, for example, the reasons for doing so must be straightforward. A good picture of what we're trying to get out of the device, whether it's casual searching, watching videos, or for official reasons, will help us sift through all of this data, locate what we're searching for, and determine which of the two options is best for us. So, question yourself, "What am I looking for?" What do I want to get from this?

Collect information

Since there is so much material available, getting a good idea of our query can assist us in determining what is important. For example- If we're looking for a skincare regimen to help us get rid of acne, we can consult an expert or look for testimonials from others. Gathering information will assist us in weighing your choices. One approach is to make a list of all the advantages and disadvantages of each solution that comes to mind.

To make the strategy work, we must write down all of the positives and negatives with complete integrity, without favoring one option over another. We will make a far more sound decision if we ask ourselves to consider every possible positive outcome as well as every possible negative outcome.

Consider if you could do it better

Take every big part of your life that you're currently working on. We may wish to advance our career at work, strengthen our relationship with our wives, expand our companies, or begin a healthier lifestyle. Consider if we can make a change that can help us get closer to our target. Don't just concentrate on big, game-changing concepts. In the long term, minor changes add up to exponential returns.

For example, if we're thinking about being a healthier person, don't just concentrate on massive weight training programs. Instead, consider making small changes like walking some kilometers every day or lowering junk from our diet. They can seem to be minor adjustments, but when we make many of them on a daily basis, the effects overshadow a single main concept.

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Reverse thinking

Another interesting and useful approach is to think backward, particularly when we're stuck trying to solve a complicated problem. The concept is to turn what you believe you know it inside out. Although a reversed challenge can seem strange and illogical at times, it often leads to even more inventive solutions. So, if we assume it's self-evident that X causes Y, consider this: "But what if Y caused Z?" This is the framework of the well-known chicken-and-egg scenario.

Since the egg must be laid by the chicken, you initially believe the chicken is the one that arrives first. However, when we know that the chicken had to come from somewhere, it's no longer seems so obvious. We would be prompted to look at the situation differently if you rearrange the terms in the problem description.