3 Simple Habits To Improve Your Critical Thinking

    What is Critical Thinking

Before explaining more about 3 simple habits to improve critical thinking, let's describe what is critical thinking. Critical thinking has many different explanations for some people but certainly contains the same point, the first explanation of critical thinking is that critical thinking is an intellectual discipline process that aims actively and skillfully to conceptualize, apply, analyze and or evaluate information that has been collected or generated from observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide for beliefs and action. 

In that form, there are exemplary things that are based on universal intellectual values ​​that go beyond the division of subject matter such as clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reason, depth, breadth, and fairness. The next explanation says that critical thinking is something that refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and then make reasonable judgments, this means it involves evaluating sources, such as data, facts, observable phenomena, and research findings. A good critical thinker can draw reasonable conclusions from the set of information that has been obtained and able to distinguish between useful and less useful details for solving problems or making decisions. So it can be concluded that critical thinking is a process of intellectual discipline or the ability to analyze or evaluate information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, and then make reasonable judgments.

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Why is critical thinking important? In life, there must be many choices that make us have to make decisions and the decisions you make will definitely affects the quality of your life in the future, and if you want to make sure that the choice you choose is the best then you have to make a conscious choice. It can be done with a simple thing, one of them is by having a critical thinking. Here are some key points that reflect on critical thinking importance:

1. Some professions need it

For career success, in several professions such as; law, education, research, medical, finance, and many other career fields, it is imperative to demonstrate critical thinking skills. This is an important aspect of any profession where the goal is to infer information objectively without bias, analyze the context, solve creative problems and come up with realistic solutions.

2. Decision-making

Applying critical thinking will help you make decisions that require a lot of thought. Big, life-changing decisions, such as making the choice to focus on a career move in one field or another. Critical thinking will encourage you to research or support objective logic rather than your initial emotional response.

3. Critical thinkers are happier

Critical thinking can help people to be better at understanding themselves, their motivations, and their lives. You can also find information to find something important and apply it in your life and you can change your situation and promote overall growth and happiness too by applying this skill.

4. It encourages self-reflection

Critical thinkers usually have an inherent ability to see challenges from several perspectives. Rather than focusing on defending their personal beliefs, critical thinkers are more self-reflective and can change their thoughts and opinions based on new information, or we usually call it by "open minded."

How to improve our critical thinking?

Previously we already discussed what is critical thinking and why critical thinking is important for us, now the core of our discussion is about how simple habits that we could apply in daily life which helps us improve our critical thinking skill, these are 3 simple habits to improve our critical thinking:

1. Questioning Assumptions

The first thing that can be done to improve critical thinking is to assume questions. The first step in questioning assumptions is figuring out when to question the assumptions.

So, if you're having a discussion about a topic, for example a long-term corporate strategy on which to base your efforts and expenses for years, be sure to ask a basic question about your beliefs, such as: How do you know that business will improve? What does the research says about your expectations or about the future of the market? Have you taken the time to step into your customer's figurative shoes as a "secret shopper"?

Another way to question your assumptions that could be an alternatives you may ask: What if the client changes his/her mind or choice on our company? What if our supplier goes out of business? These kind of questions can help you gain new and important perspectives that can help you sharpen your way of thinking.

2. Reasoning Through Logic

The second simple thing to improve our critical thinking is by reasoning, but logically, we may ask ourselves by these questions: are our arguments supported by evidence on each point? Does all the available evidence relate to each other and lead to reasonable conclusions?

By being aware of the general can also support you to think more logically. For example, people often engage in what is known as "post hoc" thinking. In this case, one does not believe that "since event Y follows event X, event Y must be caused by event X."

So, let's say a manager believes their sales agents make more in the spring because they're excited about expressing the motivations offered at the annual sales conference in February — but until that assumption is tested, there is no way managers can tell if their beliefs are true.

3. Seek Out Diversity of Thoughts and Collaborate

It's natural for people to group themselves according to people who also think or act like them. This is often the case especially online, where it is very easy to find a particular cultural nice. Social media algorithms can narrow our perspective even further, presenting only news that fits our individual beliefs.

This is a problem. Because if everyone in our social circle thought as we do, we would become more rigid in our thinking, and less likely to change our beliefs if new information came up. In fact, the more people listen to people who share their views, research shows the more polarized their views become.

It is very important to get out of your comfort zone. You can start small, for example: if you work in accounting, make friends with people in marketing. If you always go to lunch with senior staff, go to a ball game with your junior teammates. Training yourself in this way will help you break out of mundane thinking and gain richer insights

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Writer: Balqis Kazama Kinari

Editor: Dianisha Syahputri