
Solo entrepreneurs face countless decisions every day. A system to reflect on those choices—and their outcomes—can deepen your connection with your business and completely change what's possible.
Here’s how I know:
I had that system. And then I quit it.
Let me explain...the last episode published to my Aligned Action podcast was ten months ago - the March 2024 Alignment Report. For years, I put out an episode each month in a format that went through three categories: aligned, not aligned, and my most meaningful actions. I essentially talked through the personal thoughts behind my best and worst decisions on air for everyone to hear.
Unbeknownst to me, these Alignment Reports had been functioning as a sort of Decision Diary, and without them - I lost out on noticing patterns and seeing insights. Without that regular accountability to myself and my listeners, I wasn’t looking closely at my decisions anymore, so I couldn’t learn from them. Although I could have kept doing it on my own after the desire to broadcast faded, I didn’t.
And so the Careful Calibration Effect - when I learned what did and didn’t work and made my next decisions accordingly - went away. When I stopped (publicly) analyzing my decisions through the lens of alignment, I didn’t replace it with another routine for self-reflection.
I hate to think that I missed opportunities for growth in a year (thanks, 2024) when I could have truly benefited from them. It wasn’t that I was moving so fast that I didn’t stop to notice what was and wasn’t effective, it’s more that I gave into a blah feeling that bent my perception of time so that time was moving quickly, but I wasn’t. Little forward progress happened with the loss of this system.
The Careful Calibration Effect is like compound interest, but for decisions.
Investing time and intention early and consistently pays off incrementally at the beginning - one decision is better for it - it eventually pays off exponentially - all your decisions are better for it.
Unfortunately, forgetting to do the things that are good for me can sometimes be my thing. (As a fellow human, maybe this has happened to you once or twice, too.) If you’re not checking in with yourself regularly, it’s easy to go on autopilot, falling into decisions based on your Instagram algorithm rather than intentionality.
Are you ever unsure if you’re making progress or just letting old patterns dictate your future?
Do you ever feel like your business decisions are no better than a guess, with no clear sense of your own evolution?
Have you found yourself wishing you could track the ripple effects of your decisions instead of just hoping for the best?
Do you ever feel like you’re losing sight of the “why” behind your choices, focusing only on the “what”?
Have you ever felt disconnected from your business decisions - unable to pinpoint what’s actually driving results or holding you back?
A system for tracking decisions, the emotions you’re holding around them, and their outcomes isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessary part of intentional entrepreneurship.
Though I didn’t realize it when I stuffed my mic into a lower cabinet and forgot about it for the better part of a year, the absence of this practice taught me that a Decision Diary accelerates meaningful progress in your business.
So what exactly is a Decision Diary? It’s a simple, structured way to track the choices you make in your business, reflect on how they feel, and evaluate their outcomes. It doesn’t have to be fancy—mine started as ramblings on a podcast and is now growing into something more personal and yet widely usable for my students, readers, and clients.
Eventually, the plan is to have a Decision Diary edition of the Aligned Action book series - a how-to guide that teaches you the step by step of self-reflection. But for now, my current experiment asks the question: which decision details are most important to keep track of in order to learn from our biggest wins and what we perceive as our worst mistakes?
Would you want to join me at this stage of the experiment?
Not everyone needs to plug in their mic and press record to get the benefits of reflecting on their decisions. Your Decision Diary can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be. It could live in:
a pinned doc at the top of your Notes app;
your Business Binder;
an easy-to-update Asana task; or
that new notebook you’ve been afraid to mess up (finally, it has a purpose!)
The point isn’t where you track your decisions—it’s how.
My working document has 3 starting sections:
1. What felt aligned – the decisions that felt good, clear, and true to my values - and often the ones whose results I liked the most.
2. What didn’t feel aligned – these might be decisions that seemed fine at first but revealed misalignment over time or needed more awareness. (Full-on mistakes fit in here, too.)
3. Most meaningful actions – the decisions I acted on that had the greatest impact, for better or worse.
And under those sections, I note the background of decisions I’ve made with any details that might be important for future me to read and know.
Of course, it can be scary to look back at the choices you’ve made and the patterns they reveal. It’s not easy to see where you went off course or to confront the times you stayed stuck instead of taking a step forward. And yet, that’s exactly why a Decision Diary matters.
When the past choices you’ve made include mistakes - and they will, because perfection isn’t realistic for anyone - the patterns may reveal something about yourself that you don’t want to confront. But here's the thing: those stirred-up feelings of regret or self-doubt, those moments of discomfort? Think of them not as the end of a potential something, but rather the opening of a new range of possibilities.
Seeing the truth of a pattern makes it enter your conscious awareness, giving you a new perspective that shapes your choices moving forward.
Some Decision Diary Examples
Let’s check in with the Clear Quartz Creative cast of characters. First, we have Zarya. (This is not a real Zarya, but rather a fictional client avatar who helps us explore examples together.) Reading through this example will show how she might feel upon noticing a pattern and what she's telling herself, how she works through the pattern to make different decisions, and the evolution of her self-talk.

Zarya (WorkWell Physio)
Context: Zarya is a physiotherapist who works with remote workers suffering from postural issues, helping them integrate better movement practices into their daily routines.
Example: Zarya notices that she has often focused too heavily on trendy social media posts and videos to attract clients, rather than building authentic relationships or creating content that truly speaks to her audience’s needs. Looking back at the past year of client intake, she sees that most of her clients came through word-of-mouth referrals rather than from social media, even though she thought she had to invest so much time and energy into promoting her services online.
As she notices the pattern, Zarya’s self-talk sounds like: “Ugh, I spent all that time lining up the audio in those reels. I thought it would help me grow my business but it didn't work out that way at all.”
Zarya might be feeling mild guilt and frustration.
Facing the Pattern: The wiser version of Zarya would recognize that she might have been prioritizing visibility and vanity over depth in client attraction. It can be uncomfortable to realize that social media strategies weren’t working as well as she thought and facing the idea that her time spent is “lost”. But through careful reflection, she can find an opportunity to shift her focus toward nurturing relationships and deepening the trust she’s built with existing clients—building a more organic, word-of-mouth driven practice rather than trying to build popularity online.
After she’s had time to reflect on the pattern, Zarya’s self-talk shifts to: “Okay, I can see now that word-of-mouth is a better use of my energy. I don't need to spend as much time on social anymore, I need to get in conversations with actual people who work from home.”
Zarya is now perhaps feeling optimistic, clear, and hopeful.

Grace (Haven Furniture)
Context: Grace’s business delivers high-end, custom furniture transformations and DIY upholstery kits.
Example: Grace has noticed that, in her desire to be seen as the go-to expert in custom furniture, she has often said “yes” to more projects than she can handle. In reflecting on the past year, she realizes that some of her best work was buried in a sea of smaller, rushed projects that didn’t give her the satisfaction or sense of mastery she’s known for.
At this point, Grace may feel conflicted and burdened.
Upon noticing this pattern, Grace might be thinking: “I really should have said no to those projects. But I didn’t want to turn anyone away, especially when I could be making extra money.”
Facing the Pattern: The wiser Grace recognizes that saying “yes” to everything doesn’t serve her brand’s value of intentional craftsmanship and personal touch. It’s a hard realization because it means scaling back or turning down clients who might seem to need her. But by confronting the mistake of overcommitting, Grace understands that focusing on fewer, higher-quality projects would reinforce her brand, connect better to her values of precision and quality, and align her prices with the value she provides.
After she’s sat with the pattern for a while and thought through the path forward, her self-talk may sound like this instead: "I get it now. Saying ‘yes’ to everything just waters down my work and takes energy away from the high-quality projects that light me up and make my brand stronger.”
Grace could now be experiencing emotions like agency and newfound freedom.

Imani (Breathe and Bond Lactation Support)
Context: Imani provides mobile lactation consultancy services, helping new parents navigate breastfeeding challenges.
Example: In reflecting on her Decision Diary from the past year, Imani realizes that she’s been offering free consultations and resources more often than she originally planned. While her intention is to support as many people as possible, she’s noticed that this approach attracts clients who aren’t prepared to make a long-term investment in her services. This pattern shows that she spends so much time on these freebies that there’s less time to focus on the clients who pay for her services readily.
Imani might now feel overextended, dissatisfied, and under-rewarded for her efforts.
This pattern may make Imani think: “I want to help everyone, but these free consultations are just draining me. Why isn’t anyone booking my paid services?”
Facing the Pattern: The wiser Imani understands that while offering free resources and consultations is well-meaning, it can sometimes attract the wrong type of client. It’s a difficult realization because she wants to help as many parents as possible, but by confronting the pattern of giving too much away for free, she sees an opportunity to create a membership service that offers ongoing support at a lesser price than her one-on-one work, allowing her to serve more people at once without the huge impact on her time.
Once she’s noticed the pattern, Imani’s self-talk can shift to: “Offering free stuff is great in theory, but it’s attracting the wrong people. I get why that’s been happening now and I want to choose something different. A membership could be a win-win—it lets me help more people without burning out."
Imani’s been able to create a new emotional state of creativity and a flutter of excitement, stemming from her sense of closure.
When my clients want to skip the Decision Diary process (either in tracking their decisions or reviewing them for patterns) it’s likely that they’re in a space of distraction, reluctance, or fear.
They might need to approach it on a better energy-level day, or they may need support to dig deeper. Working though the Decision Diary together as part of my Conscious Partnership services makes the process feel less intimidating and more motivating, because a second set of eyes tends to look at a situation more kindly than if we’re the only one examining our own actions.
Whether tackling it alone or working through it together, the way my clients talk about themselves and their business quickly begins to shift from “I made a mistake” to “This is what I learned” type of thinking. They’re more engaged, more present, more willing to experiment and more creative in their thinking. They also experience a sense of closure that frees them from overthinking around the negative, and makes space for thinking about what’s positive.
When you take the time to reflect—even when it’s uncomfortable—you give yourself space to find growth, you create a habit of learning, and patterns that might have been holding you back become visible. For those wondering if it’s too late to start...trust me, it’s not. I’m proof that picking it back up after a break or starting fresh for the first time is absolutely worth it.
To get started yourself…
Think of one decision for each of these categories and do a 2-minute voice recording or 2-minute free write—no self-editing needed—and you’ll have the whole first entry of your Decision Diary built out this afternoon.
ps. I’m toying with bringing Alignment Reports back and/or expanding the series to include guest episodes that dive into other entrepreneurs’ Decision Diaries. Please feel free to tell me if you would enjoy listening to those - and report back which details you put in your doc and how it’s working . . . I’d love to hear from you and get some new ideas!