7 published lessons with this tag.
You can examine your own mental models and evaluate whether they serve you.
Recording contradictions you encounter builds a dataset for pattern recognition. The act of writing a contradiction down — both sides, the tension between them, the context in which each side holds — transforms a vague cognitive discomfort into a structured observation you can analyze over time. A single contradiction is a puzzle. A journal full of contradictions is a map of where your thinking is ready to grow.
Writing about how different parts of your knowledge connect promotes integration. The act of articulating connections between ideas you already hold — in writing, where the structure must be made explicit — forces your cognitive system to do the linking work that passive familiarity never demands. Integration does not happen by having many schemas. It happens by writing the sentences that explain how they relate.
Set aside time specifically to look for connections between your schemas. Integration does not happen automatically — the connections between what you know in one domain and what you know in another remain invisible until you deliberately sit down and look for them. A periodic integration review is a scheduled appointment with your own knowledge system, dedicated not to learning anything new but to finding the links, tensions, and structural parallels between what you already know.
Record decisions, their reasoning, and their outcomes to improve future decision-making.
Reviewing what happened after completing a task surfaces errors for future correction.
Written reflection is the oldest and most versatile form of self-monitoring.