Writing for Clarity

Skilful writing is indistinguishable from critical thinking as it forces you to clarify and reorganise your thoughts

Imagine trying to solve a massive jigsaw puzzle in your head. Not gonna happen, right? You need all the pieces laid out in front of you so you can move them around and see how they fit together. That’s exactly how writing for clarity feels. You start with jumbled thoughts that barely make sense, but as you write, new ideas emerge and connections become clearer. Before you know it, you’ve got a complete picture – and a much clearer understanding of your own thinking.

The more I use writing to clear my head, the more it becomes second nature. Whenever I’m dealing with a tough problem or a decision with lots of moving parts, I feel an instinctive urge to start writing.

Writing has helped me see the difference between fuzzy thinking and clear thinking. Before I started writing things down, my thoughts were almost always muddled and jumbled. There were kernels of good ideas and thoughts there, but they were underdeveloped, and not really thought through. I didn’t even realise it because I didn’t know any better. If you’ve never tried using writing to solve problems, there’s a good chance your thinking is stuck in the “fuzzy zone” too.

A mistake that some people make is that they write things down in a note like format. They lay down all the pieces, but don’t do the work of organising them. You need to treat this as if you’re going to publish it in a big magazine, like it’s something really important. All the magic is in that process. Because thats when you’ll see which ideas don’t fit, or which ones are completely flawed and need to be thrown out.

Now, I feel way more confident tackling even the toughest problems. When an issue pops up, whether in my personal life or at work, I usually give it a few days to simmer. But if it starts feeling more complicated than I first thought, I know that writing it out will help me find the best solution.

Honestly, it feels like a superpower! My core problem-solving skills haven’t changed, but simply writing things down and exploring different scenarios in written format leads to way better outcomes. Writing is a multiplier on your core problem solving ability.

Writing also helps me put all those fancy frameworks I’ve learned from books into practice. Trying to run through a checklist, apply different frameworks, and then make a decision – all in my head – is just too hard. Writing allows for that kind of deliberate, step-by-step thinking. When the problem and its potential consequences are laid out in front of you, it’s easier to see the big picture and think several steps ahead. You can be as thorough as you need to be, and your mind has all the context it needs to crack the problem wide open.