Good chess players think three moves ahead. Most bad decisions only think about one.

The trouble is rarely the first move, it is the reply you never pictured. A decision looks fine when you stop the film right after your own action and never run the part where other people respond. Thinking ahead is less intelligence than the habit of asking what happens next, and then again after that.

For one real decision this week, write down the move, the likely response, and what you would do then. Three lines is enough. Most of what goes wrong was visible at line two.