Metacognition: 6 Actions to Think More Clearly in the Fog

Metacognition is not intellectual gymnastics reserved for experts. It is a discipline of clarity: the ability to observe how you think while you are thinking. This shift is a major entry point for regaining agency over your thoughts, becoming less subject to automatic responses, and navigating uncertainty more effectively.

Based on

The Uncertainty Toolkit, by Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar Lewis, (Pan Macmillan 2026).

1. Notice your hasty conclusions

The first reflex to adopt: when you feel you “know” very quickly, slow down. In a foggy situation, the brain hates a vacuum. It fills gaps, applies familiar patterns to new situations, and readily jumps to a reassuring conclusion. So the problem is not only a lack of information. It is believing too early that you have understood. Under pressure, we become more closed-minded, more short-sighted, and less open to new ideas.

Concrete action :

When you feel certainty rising too quickly, ask yourself three simple questions:

What do I really know?

What am I assuming?

What am I filling in?

This micro-pause prevents a first interpretation from becoming a final truth. It does not slow you down unnecessarily. It mostly prevents you from rushing in the wrong direction.

Published by Françoise Tollet

She spent 12 years in industry, working for Bolloré Technologies, among others. She co-founded Business Digest in 1992 and has been running the company since 1998. And she took the Internet plunge in 1996, even before coming on board as part of the BD team. 