5 tips to improve your critical thinking - Samantha Agoos

Every day, a sea of decisions stretches before us.

Some are small and unimportant, but others have a larger impact on our lives. For example:

• Which politician should I vote for?

• Should I try the latest diet craze?

• Or will email make me a millionaire?

We're bombarded with so many decisions that it's impossible to make a perfect choice every time. But there are many ways to improve our chances, and one particularly effective technique is critical thinking.

This is a way of approaching a question that allows us to carefully deconstruct a situation, reveal its hidden issues—such as bias and manipulation—and make the best decision.

If the critical part sounds negative, that's because, in a way, it is. Rather than choosing an answer because it feels right, a person who uses critical thinking subjects all available options to scrutiny and skepticism.

Using the tools at their disposal, they'll eliminate everything but the most useful and reliable information.

There are many different ways of approaching critical thinking, but here's one five-step process that may help you solve any number of problems.

One: Formulate Your Question

In other words, know what you're looking for.

This isn't always as straightforward as it sounds. For example, if you're deciding whether to try out the newest diet craze, your reasons for doing so may be obscured by other factors, like claims that you'll see results in just two weeks.

But if you approach the situation with a clear view of what you're actually trying to accomplish by dieting—whether that's weight loss, better nutrition, or having more energy—that'll equip you to sift through this information critically, find what you're looking for, and decide whether the new fad really suits your needs.

Two: Gather Your Information

There's lots of it out there, so having a clear idea of your question will help you determine what's relevant.

If you're trying to decide on a diet to improve your nutrition, you may ask an expert for their advice or seek other people's testimonies.

Information gathering helps you weigh different options, moving you closer to a decision that meets your goal.

Three: Apply the Information

This is something you do by asking critical questions.

Facing a decision, ask yourself:

• What concepts are at work?

• What assumptions exist?

• Is my interpretation of the information logically sound?

For example, in an email that promises you millions, you should consider:

• What is shaping my approach to this situation?

• Do I assume the sender is telling the truth?

• Based on the evidence, is it logical to assume I'll win any money?

Four: Consider the Implications

Imagine it's election time, and you've selected a political candidate based on their promise to make it cheaper for drivers to fill up on gas.

At first glance, that seems great. But what about the long-term environmental effects?

If gasoline use is less restricted by cost, this could also cause a huge surge in air pollution—an unintended consequence that's important to think about.

Five: Explore Other Points of View

Ask yourself why so many people are drawn to the policies of the opposing political candidate.

Even if you disagree with everything that candidate says, exploring the full spectrum of viewpoints might explain why some policies that don't seem valid to you appeal to others.

This will allow you to explore alternatives, evaluate your own choices, and ultimately help you make more informed decisions.

Conclusion

This five-step process is just one tool, and it certainly won't eradicate difficult decisions from our lives.

But it can help us increase the number of positive choices we make.

Critical thinking can give us the tools to sift through a sea of information and find what we're looking for.

And if enough of us use it, it has the power to make the world a more reasonable place.

Video

Vocabulary

Why Sleep Is the Next Feminist Frontier

Two and a half years ago, media entrepreneur Arianna Huffington collapsed from exhaustion, fracturing her cheekbone on her desk and needing five stitches. The accident forced her to confront something she had ignored for most of her career: sleep deprivation was not a badge of productivity, but a quiet drain on judgment, creativity, and joy.

In the talk that followed her recovery, Huffington argues that the simplest way to unlock the "billions of big ideas" dormant in people is also the most overlooked: getting enough rest. She points out that exhaustion has become, for many ambitious professionals, a strange kind of status symbol — a way of signaling how busy and important one is. Bragging about four hours of sleep, or scheduling a breakfast meeting before dawn because there's "still time for tennis and a few calls," has become shorthand for relentless dedication. In reality, she suggests, it is often a sign of poor judgment rather than superior drive.

That judgment gap, she warns, has real consequences. A high IQ does not guarantee good leadership, because leadership depends on the ability to spot the iceberg before it sinks the ship — and in recent years, exhausted leaders in business, finance, and politics have missed warning sign after warning sign. Huffington offers a provocative thought experiment: had Lehman Brothers had more well-rested decision-makers in the room, would the financial crisis have unfolded the same way?

Her larger point is that personal well-being and global problem-solving are not in conflict. The conditions that make us happier, more grateful, and more effective as individuals — adequate rest chief among them — are the same conditions that produce clearer thinking on the larger crises the world faces. Closing our eyes, in her framing, is not a retreat from ambition but a path toward it.

The talk closes with a simple invitation: shut down the engines for a few hours, and discover what the mind can do when it isn't running on empty.

Based on a TED talk by Arianna Huffington.

Vocabulary

1. This commute is a drain on my energy. (Este viaje me agota la energía)
2. She has a dormant talent for painting. (Ella tiene un talento latente para la pintura)
3. Don't let small details be overlooked. (No dejes que los pequeños detalles se pasen por alto)
4. He's always bragging about his new car. (Siempre está alardeando de su carro nuevo.)
5. We woke up before dawn to catch the flight. (Nos despertamos antes del amanecer para alcanzar el vuelo.)
6. He pursued his goals with relentless determination. (Persiguió sus metas con una determinación incansable.)
7. Can you spot the difference between these two photos? (¿Puedes notar la diferencia entre estas dos fotos?)
8. The story unfolded slowly over several chapters. (La historia se desarrolló lentamente a lo largo de varios capítulos.)
9. Cost was the chief reason we chose this option. (El costo fue la razón principal por la que elegimos esta opción.)
10. The army's retreat surprised everyone. (La retirada del ejército sorprendió a todos.)

Try something new for 30 days - Matt Cutts

What I Learned From Trying Something New for 30 Days

A few years ago, I felt stuck in a rut. So I decided to run an experiment: pick something I'd always wanted to do and commit to it for the next 30 days.

The idea is simple. Think of something you'd like to add to your life — or subtract, like watching the news — and try it for a month. It turns out 30 days is just about the right amount of time to pick up a new habit or drop an old one. Here's what the experiment taught me.

Time Becomes Memorable

For one of the challenges, I took a picture every single day for a month. The strange part is that, instead of the weeks blurring together and slipping away forgotten, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on each of those days. The months stopped vanishing without a trace.

Confidence Grows With Every Challenge

As the challenges got bigger and harder, my self-confidence grew right along with them. I went from a desk-dwelling computer nerd to the kind of guy who bikes to work for fun. I even ended up hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Before I started these challenges, I never would have been that adventurous.

If You Want It Badly Enough, You Can Do Almost Anything

Every November, tens of thousands of people try to write a 50,000-word novel from scratch in 30 days. The math is simple: 1,667 words a day for a month. So I did it. The trick is not to go to sleep until you've hit your word count for the day — you might end up sleep-deprived, but you'll finish your novel.

Is my book the next great American novel? Not even close. I wrote it in a month, and it's awful. But now, if I want to, I can call myself a novelist.

Small Changes Are the Ones That Stick

The most valuable lesson came at the end: when I made small, sustainable changes — things I could actually keep doing — they were far more likely to stick. Big, crazy challenges are a ton of fun, but they're also harder to sustain. When I gave up sugar for 30 days, day 31 looked a lot like going right back to it.

So What Are You Waiting For?

Here's the thing I can guarantee: the next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not. So the question writes itself. Why not think of something you've always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next month?

Vocabulary

• I felt like I was stuck in a rut.
• I decided to follow in the footsteps of my father and become a teacher.
• It turns out that I was wrong. 
• Why don't you give it a shot?
• you might be sleep deprived

Advertising

Advertising is everywhere. On your phone, on TV, on the street, even inside your favorite apps. Let’s explore this topic together and use it to build your vocabulary and speaking skills.

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🔥 Warm-Up

Take a moment to think about this:

Do you think you're influenced by advertising? Why or why not?

Be honest with yourself. Even small things—like choosing one brand over another—can be influenced by ads.

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🧠 Vocabulary Challenge

Try to guess the words before looking at the answers.

• n b a r d = A type of product from a certain company with a certain name.

• e i c o m c m l r a = What you see on TV during breaks.

• c i u n e f e l n r = Someone with a lot of social media followers.

• c m u e s t r o = Someone who buys something or uses a service.

• t g a t r e = To go after, or aim for something.

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💬 Idioms and Phrases

Complete the sentences using these expressions:

• go viral

• across the board

• sold on (something)

• deliver the goods

• price yourself out of the market

1. If you don't _____, you'll be out of a job.

2. Have you seen the latest video? It will _____, I think.

3. I'm not _____ this colour. What do you think?

4. Be careful. You might _____ if you go too high.

5. It's rare that we agree on a decision _____ at our company.

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✅ Answers

Vocabulary Challenge:
brand, commercial, influencer, customer, target

Idioms and Phrases:
deliver the goods, go viral, sold on, price yourself out of the market, across the board

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🗣 Let’s Talk

Here are some discussion questions you can use in class, with friends, or for writing practice:

• Name at least 5 different advertising methods.

• What are some of your favourite brands?

• If you need a new pair of shoes, what influences your decision?

• Have you seen any shocking or memorable commercials?

• What makes an ad memorable?

• Do celebrity or influencer ads make you want to buy something?

• Are you easily influenced by advertising?

• What do you think about companies that target children?

• Do you check customer reviews before buying something?

• Should political parties advertise before elections?

• Should pharmaceutical companies advertise their drugs?

• Would you rather pay for a streaming subscription than watch ads?

• What are the negative effects of advertising?

• Do you buy “store brand” products at the grocery store?

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✍️ Writing Prompts

Use these ideas to practice writing a short essay or paragraph:

1. Is there enough protection against false advertising in your country?

2. Which products depend most on advertising? Which have strong brand loyalty?

3. Do you think advertising is a form of art?

4. Practice Tough Love

The golden thread of a highly successful and meaningful life is self-discipline. Discipline allows you to do all those things you know in your heart you should do but never feel like doing. Without self-discipline, you will not set clear goals, manage your time effectively, treat people well, persist through the tough times, care for your health or think positive thoughts.

I call the habit of self-discipline “Tough Love” because getting tough with yourself is actually a very loving gesture. By being stricter with yourself, you will begin to live life more deliberately, on your own terms rather than simply reacting to life the way a leaf floating in a stream drifts according to the flow of the current on a particular day. As I teach in one of my seminars, the tougher you are on yourself, the easier life will be on you. The quality of your life ultimately is shaped by the quality of your choices and decisions, ones that range from the career you choose to pursue to the books you read, the time that you wake up every morning and the thoughts you think during the hours of your days. When you consistently flex your willpower by making those choices that you know are the right ones (rather than the easy ones), you take back control of your life. Effective, fulfilled people do not spend their time doing what is most convenient and comfortable. They have the courage to listen to their hearts and to do the wise thing. This habit is what makes them great.

“The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do,” remarked essayist and thinker E. M. Gray. “They don’t like doing them either, necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.” The nineteenth-century English writer Thomas Henry Huxley arrived at a similar conclusion, noting: “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” And Aristotle made this point of wisdom in yet another way: “Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it: men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players, by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we come to be brave.”

3. Maintain Your Perspective

2. Every Day, Be Kind to a Stranger

On his deathbed, Aldous Huxley reflected on his entire life’s learning and then summed it up in seven simple words: “Let us be kinder to one another.” All too often, we believe that in order to live a truly fulfilling life we must achieve some great act or grand feat that will put us on the front covers of magazines and newspapers. Nothing could be further from the truth. A meaningful life is made up of a series of daily acts of decency and kindness, which, ironically, add up to something truly great over the course of a lifetime.

Everyone who enters your life has a lesson to teach and a story to tell. Every person you pass during the moments that make up your days represents an opportunity to show a little more of the compassion and courtesy that define your humanity. Why not start being more of the person you truly are during your days and doing what you can to enrich the world around you? In my mind, if you make even one person smile during your day or brighten the mood of even one stranger, your day has been a worthwhile one. Kindness, quite simply, is the rent we must pay for the space we occupy on this planet.

Become more creative in the ways you show compassion to strangers. Paying the toll for the person in the car behind you, offering your seat on the subway to someone in need and being the first to say hello are great places to start. Recently, I received a letter from a reader of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari who lives in Washington State. In it she wrote: “I have a practice of tithing to people who have helped me along my spiritual path. Please accept the enclosed check of $100 with my blessing and gratitude.” I quickly responded to her generous act by sending one of my audiotape programs in return so she received value for the gift she sent me. Her gesture was a great lesson in the importance of giving sincerely and from the heart.