How to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills
Ways to change your perception of the world and think more deeply
Recently, many things we think about are less direct than we see. We have set only one statement about the situation, person, or event.
We see the world through our eyes and don’t ask any further questions. For us, it’s fine to say that the sky is blue, the cake is sweet, robbers are evil, and so on.
Socratic Method
Socrat, one of the most famous Greek philosophers, won’t agree. Any statement you would say he won’t approve or deny. Otherwise, he would like to ask you additional questions.
For example, you said that all liars are bad people. For this, he would ask you, will it be a wrong action if the army deceives their enemies to save their army?
Then the person might say that deceiving is terrible only for close people. Then, Socrat will ask you if the general will give the wrong information to his troops to improve their mood and desire for victory. Will it be a wrong action?
One short video in a cartoon changed my perception of the thinking process. If you want to enjoy this story, watch the video below.
I recently thought that many of our assumptions are wrong, especially about people. We often think that we know what people want, what makes them feel sad and angry.
But usually, it needs to be corrected. We can be pretty close, but the truth is inside each head, and often, we can change it.
So, as a researcher on this topic, I continued looking for more information about it.
Write More to Improve Your Critical Thinking
I saw a lecture with Jordan Peterson in one of the YouTube videos. He discussed the topic of critical thinking with his students.
One of the best ways to improve it through his words was to improve your writing skills. He gave the following reasons why it should be accurate. While writing articles, we improve:
- our empathy for other people
- we think about how people might think
- feedback gives us additional thoughts
- more writing gives us more opportunity to think
- selecting material and working on it polish our minds
You can watch this video below if you want. Additionally, Jordan Peterson is a very educated person in human psychology. He gives excellent advice about thinking, acting, and improving lifestyle.
By the way, from my experience, if you are writing, for example, on the Medium platform and create big articles, do some research, then you do the following good things, at least for yourself:
- learn things you are interested in
- Deep dive into topics that matter to you
- learn how to teach people and organize information
- improving your brain work
Writing is not just a content creation. If you create on Instagram or YouTube, you take all creativity about visuals. In the writing, you work on your readers’ structure and emotional side.
You are not just giving information. You are working on storytelling. Different stories can provide the same information, but some are interesting to listen to, and some could be more exciting.
That’s why you should take writing as a unique tool that allows you to grow as a person, student, and teacher.
Read More to Improve Your Critical Thinking
In this part, we again go to empathy. This quality is part of each method, and it’s great. Without empathy, you are closed in your box and don’t see the world.
If you have some empathy, you start understanding people around you. We live in societies, and engaging with other people is necessary.
Your income depends on engaging with others; your happiness, knowledge, and wellness depend on this.
Every time you read a book or an article, you listen to the author. The story you read gives you the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of the one person who wants to share all this with you.
With each book, your knowledge grows, and your worldview changes in a better direction. We must learn new things, and books give us the best opportunity.
Recently, I wrote an article about tips that allow you to start reading and even read more. If you wish to make a good habit of this, read the second article below.
With these two guides, you can achieve good long-term results and improve your skills and the world’s quality.
I must tell you that I read approximately 30 books per year, and some of them improved the following things in my life:
- income
- relationships
- health
- friendship
- worldview
Some small articles may bring great answers to your questions. These reasons are enough for you to start reading more.
4 Methods to Improve Critical Thinking
Increase Self-Awareness
With understanding yourself, it’s easier to understand the world. You are better prepared for social interaction if you see how you think.
People love those who see the whole picture. You need to understand other beliefs and see the situation from your side and the eyes of people around you.
Meditation and breathing can become your best tools for staying in the current moment and understanding what’s happening.
Worries, anxiety, and sadness won’t help you in any possible situation. A calm and fresh mind can bring you the right words, actions, and solutions.
Ask Questions
Before accepting or denying any statement, immerse yourself in the situation. You need to understand the context to debate different fields with your companion.
Try understanding another person’s viewpoint instead of judging, disputing, and showing your picture of the world.
Don’t just accept or deny it. Try to understand. Work through every possible case, situation, and possible results that contradict the statement of your interlocutor and ask questions about what he thinks about it.
Keep asking questions until you both see the same picture.
Practice Active Listening
Often, we don’t want to agree with other people. We wish to dispute that everything is wrong from the first words.
Before doing this, it’s better to say as little as possible and listen with both ears.
You can apply the same technique as before by asking questions without telling your viewpoint. Listen and ask until you understand why this person thinks so.
If you still need help understanding this view, continue moving in the same direction with questions and good listening. Usually, it may solve most disputes.
Understand Your Mental Process
You need to be aware of things that make you angry. You have to learn to control your actions and words.
Before entering any dispute, you need to understand how your brain works. It may take a long time, even years. But the practice should be consistent.
Listen to your inner voice and make a positive internal dialogue. Teach yourself to control your emotions and respect other people’s opinions, and then everybody around you will respect you.
The following article can give you more information about methods to improve your critical thinking.
5 Types of Critical Thinking Skills
Analytical thinking
This type allows people to rely on information but not on the emotions. You will only agree or disagree with something if you have enough information.
Usually, asking additional questions to get the complete picture and understand everything you should know is a perfect practice.
For example, if you are selecting a food for your cat, you should know what elements are included in it, if it is healthy enough, and if there are a lot of chemical additives.
Also, it’s good to know the reviews of other people who have already bought it. Maybe their pets feel bad after it or don’t eat this food at all.
That’s why gathering as much information as possible is so important.
Open-mindedness
You shouldn’t be attached to only one point of view. It doesn’t matter if it’s yours, your friends, or your parents.
Even if you think you are right (more than 70% of people usually think so in many conversations), it’s good to know what other people think and why they think so.
Let me tell you why.
For example, you want to open a restaurant with seafood. You understand that it’s healthy and tasty and people will love it.
But after opening, you see that people in this area prefer Italian food, pizza, and good service more than a tasty fish with shrimp.
That’s why it’s always important to hear other people and work on understanding why they think so.
Problem-solving
Almost every day, we have new problems. We have them in different situations:
- at work
- at home
- on vacation
- with friends
- with family
- with pets
- in the shop
- in the restaurant
- etc
Everywhere and anytime, we encounter new problems. And it’s good to learn problem-solving skills.
It’s now about a fast way to find and apply a solution. But we need to consider all possible solutions and pick the best.
That’s what should have a real problem solver.
Self-regulation
Starting from your thoughts and ending with your actions, you need to control everything.
Proper inner dialogue with yourself may become the only tool to bring you to the life you want to be.
Don’t think that only actions matter. If you constantly feel angry, envy people, and believe you deserve more than others, your actions will be the same.
Start from the beginning. Ask yourself where your thoughts and feelings come from. It’s essential because your thoughts and feelings push you forward and make you do things you do.
Remember that there is the following direction:
- Thoughts
- Emotions
- Actions
If you want to take the right actions, you must work on your emotions. If you’re going to get good feelings, work on your thoughts.
It would help if you learned how to control all these items.
Observation
Be in the current moment. We must always look for inspiration, especially in the creative world.
You should know that most innovations and masterpieces people build from already existing things.
That’s why it’s so important to see what’s around you. Look at everything, like buildings, nature, people, etc.
With all these materials and ideas in your head, you can bring your innovation into this world.
To learn more about critical thinking, read this article below. It has some additional information about it.
7 Steps to Solve Any Problem with Critical Thinking
1. Identify the problem
Before doing any work, start by defining your problem. Does it exist? Can you describe it in several sentences?
Start working on your problem description. Gather all possible inputs you have.
Make anybody who reads your problem understand what it’s about. If it still needs to be clarified, then work on the correct definition.
2. Research
Do a good research. Find any information that could be helpful. Start from the Internet, you can search on Google, YouTube, Medium, Quora, Reddit, etc.
Then, if it’s a local problem, in your family or at work, you can go to your friend, relative, or coworkers and talk to them. It’s fine to ask questions.
Go forward until you find everything that can help you. You need to get all the essential information before you move forward.
The more you know, the more chances you have to avoid mistakes and do the right job.
3. Determine data relevance
The next step is sorting and filtering all the data you gathered before. Some may need consistency with other data if you need more information.
You need to select several sources of truth and take data from them. If you have any concerns, try to validate your data. If it’s wrong, then remove this data from your list.
Sometimes, some data can bring more confusion than clarity.
4. Ask questions
Be open to questioning. It’s fine not to know everything. That’s why a group has more chances to solve the problem than one person.
For example, you will find a designer, developer, product manager, and quality assurance specialist in any IT company.
Together, they can create and publish a big product to the world. But only one person can’t do the same amount of work, especially with the same level of quality and in time.
5. Identify the best solution.
You may build several possible solutions after getting all the necessary information and even more. Could you make a list of them?
With each item, you should write the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. It would help if you considered which one suits the best for you.
Filter all of them until you have only 2–3 items. And then take that one that is fine with your resources and expectations.
6. Present your solution
After you have picked the solution, you need to apply it. If we are talking about some company or group of people that should take action, then you need to discuss it with others first.
Some may not like your idea, some may have concerns about it, and others may have other ideas. Listen to others and use the Socratic Method to identify whether the solution is better than yours.
With such an approach, you will find the best solution, and if yours is the best, you can tell everybody why you selected it.
7. Analyze your decision
After all the work you’ve finished, make the last step. Analyze your results. You have done a tremendous amount of work, and now you need to take a look at what you got.
Talk to people, ask questions, and take the same tiny steps to gather information and qualify your decision.
You start learning from your mistakes, failures, and successes and making the right decisions.
I hope this article became a good source of information for you. Correct thinking is essential, while many think it’s perfect in our heads by default. But we still need to work on it.
“Being a student is easy. Learning requires actual work.” — William Crawford
