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- Choose a decision you need to make.
- Consult the completed example to see how the fields work.
- Complete your own blank Decision Brief with short answers.
The free PDF contains what you need for this exercise. It is printable, not fillable. You can use it without buying anything or joining the marketing list.
Get help with the decisions after this one
Your free Decision Brief is reusable. Use it when priorities compete, a colleague challenges your recommendation, or encouraging results leave important questions unanswered. Maya’s completed example shows one application.
Use the Complete Stoic Strategist Decision Toolkit to prepare a recommendation that explains your reasoning: what you know, what you would change, whose approval you need, and what should happen next. Return to the resources when you encounter a different situation or need practice with one part of the decision.
One-time payment: $49 USD, including applicable tax.
Get the complete toolkit for $4930-day refund period. Request a full refund, including tax, if it is not right for you. You do not need to complete the workbook or explain why. Read the refund policy.
See what a completed recommendation looks like
In the fictional Overloaded Team example, Maya has 64 project hours available. Existing commitments use all 64; a new analysis needs an estimated 20 more. Option B would move the internal report and leave 60 estimated hours of work this week.
From Maya’s completed Decision Brief:
“Recommend B because it can fit this week's estimate while protecting the client commitment. Acceptance remains conditional on a workable report date and approval.”
Maya states the tradeoff and her reason, then identifies what must happen before she can commit. She checks report users’ needs and next week’s capacity and asks the director to approve the change. You can use the same fields to prepare your recommendation.
This is a fictional teaching example, not a customer result.
Actual entries from the fictional Overloaded Team brief, presented here for easy reading.
Main benefit: Protects current commitments
Main risk or tradeoff: Planning meeting lacks the requested analysis
Main benefit: Estimated demand becomes 60 hours
Main risk or tradeoff: Report users wait; next week’s workload must fit
Main benefit: May preserve all deadlines
Main risk or tradeoff: Scope, staffing, and handoff costs are unconfirmed
Compare what each option achieves with what it costs. The preferred option still depends on checks and approval.
What you receive in the complete toolkit
The Stoic Strategist book
Explore Stoic judgment, evidence analysis, strategic options, pressure, conflict, and review. Use the book when you want to understand the reasoning behind an exercise: how to distinguish an observation from an interpretation, challenge an assumption, or assess an option against your principles and constraints.
Bring those questions back to your current decision. You do not need to read the book from beginning to end before using the brief.
A workbook with 38 practice drills
Choose a drill for the difficulty you face. Known vs Unknown Separation helps you record what you know and what remains uncertain. Assumption Stress Test prompts you to challenge an assumption before relying on it.
Use Conflict Framing Protocol to examine a disagreement and Priority Hierarchy to state what takes precedence when priorities compete. Write your answers, then use what you learned in your recommendation. Complete the relevant practice; all 38 drills are available when you need them.
Three worked examples with completed briefs
Read The Overloaded Team for a capacity tradeoff, A Disputed Decision for a challenged account and proportionate response, and A Promising Pilot for encouraging results that do not yet establish the case for expansion.
Each uses the same Decision Brief. Compare how the facts, options, approval requirements, and review triggers change with the situation. All three are fictional teaching scenarios. Use them as demonstrations of reasoning, not proof of a guaranteed result.
Quick Start and Tool Selector
Open Quick Start to begin with one decision. Follow the steps from defining the question through recording your next action and review point.
Use the Tool Selector when you get stuck. Find relevant practice for your situation instead of working through the whole workbook in order. Your first task is to choose a decision and the help you need to examine it.
Reusable Decision Brief
Record the decision, facts, assumptions, and limits. Compare realistic options, test your preferred choice, identify who must approve or act, and set a review point.
Use the completed brief as a reference when you explain a recommendation or ask for approval. Keep a copy so you can revisit what you knew and why you chose that option.
Reusable Decision Review
After acting or receiving new evidence, examine your original reasoning, what happened during execution, and developments outside your control. Record what to keep, change, or investigate next.
Use the review after a favorable or disappointing outcome. A result alone does not tell you whether your reasoning was sound. Compare it with the information available when you chose.
Get the complete toolkit for $49 USD once, including applicable tax.
Get the complete toolkit for $49Choose the help your decision needs
The free brief can help you work through a decision independently, including decisions beyond workload. Choose the complete toolkit when you want additional examples, instruction, targeted practice with a difficult step, or tools to review a decision after acting.
You might use one uncertainty drill this week, a conflict example next month, and the review sheet after a project ends. Keep the resources and return to the parts that fit your work.
About Jason Conley
Jason Conley is an intelligence analyst with more than three decades of experience across military, government, and private-sector settings. He has advised decision-makers at tactical, operational, and strategic levels, drawing on critical thinking, structured analysis, and strategic planning.
In The Stoic Strategist, he brings that experience together with Stoic philosophy to help readers examine evidence, weigh alternatives, and prepare decisions under pressure.
Start with one decision
Do I need to read everything or know Stoicism? No. Start with Quick Start, choose the closest example, and complete your own brief. Use the book and relevant drills as needed. Prior knowledge of Stoic philosophy is not required.
Can I type into the files? The workbook is printable. The reusable Decision Brief and Decision Review include printable PDFs, separate fillable PDFs, and editable Markdown versions. Reopen a saved fillable sheet to check that your PDF reader retained your entries.
How will I receive the toolkit? After successful payment, you receive toolkit access instructions. Keep your purchase email so you can return to the download.
Can I use it independently? Yes. You can work privately with your own decisions or the supplied cases. This purchase does not include recorded lessons, coaching, or instructor assessment.
Get the complete Decision Toolkit
$49 USD once, including applicable tax. No subscription.
Get the complete toolkit for $49If the toolkit is not right for you, email jason@thestoicstrategist.com within 30 days of purchase to request a full refund, including tax. You do not need to complete the workbook or explain why. Refund policy · Purchase terms.
Download or purchase questions? Contact jason@thestoicstrategist.com.