The Decision Log: Record What Was Decided, Why, By Whom, and When It Must Be Reopened

A meeting ends. A chat says "approved." An AI summary says a decision was made. Months later, nobody can tell whether the conclusion was a recommendation, an authorized answer, or simply the last thing someone said.

The Decision Log teaches the record that should exist between discussion and action. It isn't a meeting-notes system, and it doesn't assume that a complete form makes a choice correct. It shows how to preserve an authorized answer in a form that another person can inspect later.

You'll learn how to decide which choices deserve a record and which belong in a task list, policy, contract, case file, or ordinary correspondence. You'll write the question before the answer, record the evidence that was actually available on the date, separate facts from assumptions and unknowns, compare real alternatives, and state the consequences accepted with the choice.

The method also requires the decision maker and the source of that person's authority. A job title isn't treated as proof. Material dissent is preserved without rebuilding the whole meeting. Every lasting decision receives a date or observable condition that requires review. Old entries aren't silently rewritten. Later decisions reaffirm, amend, withdraw, expire, or supersede them.

The book keeps decision records separate from action records and outcome records. It explains how to connect them through stable references, verify that an authorized choice reached the people and systems it affected, and review the original reasoning without pretending that a good outcome proves a good process.

AI is limited to bounded help with extraction, comparison, drafting, and checking. It doesn't get to invent evidence, infer authority, or turn a discussion into a final decision. The book shows what a person must verify, which records must remain visible, and when AI should be removed from the process.

Included are a minimum record, a full record, a decision-or-not test, an evidence and alternatives worksheet, a dissent and review worksheet, a reopening worksheet, plain-text and spreadsheet setups, AI prompts and controls, a 30-day installation, a reconstruction worksheet for older decisions, and a record quality and retrieval test.

This book is for small-business operators, project leads, independent builders, technically curious generalists, and workers who already know that the written procedure isn't always the work people actually do. You don't need a new platform. You need a limited practice that can be inspected, corrected, exported, maintained, or stopped when it creates more work or risk than value.