Write your first Decision note

"My judgment cannot be written down"

Nobody can write down judgment in general. You can answer one question at a time, out loud, and say why. Do that for the calls in your Question Log and the pattern of your judgment is on the page, with the reasons attached.

The six questions

Take the decision at the top of your list. Record a voice memo answering these, then type it up or have an AI turn the transcript into the Decision template:

1. What is the decision? Write it as the question your team asks.
2. What is the rule most of the time?
3. Where does the line sit? The amount, the date, the size where your answer changes.
4. What are the exceptions?
5. Why? The reason is what lets someone handle the case you did not think of.
6. Who may decide without asking you, and when should they still escalate?

What one looks like

An invented example, not from a client. Decision: do we refund a client who cancels inside the 30-day window? Rule: yes, pro-rata for unused weeks, if no deliverable has been approved. Where the line sits: up to $5,000 the account lead decides; over $5,000, the owner decides. Exceptions: retainers signed under the old terms get one month’s credit instead. Why: the refund costs less than the referral we lose when a client leaves angry, and over $5,000 it changes the month’s cash. Escalate when: the client mentions legal action, or approved work is disputed.

Notice what an SOP would have left out: the reason, the line, and who is allowed to decide. Those three are why the question kept coming to you.

Sign it off, and give it a date

Read it back and fix what is wrong. Only you mark a Decision note checked. Give it a review date six months out, so it cannot quietly go out of date. Then the next time someone asks that question, send them the note instead of the answer. Answer it once, and nobody asks you again.