What is Logical Thinking and How Can You Improve It?

When we refer to something as logical, we actually mean that it makes sense. Thinking logically is an essential skill that helps rationalize your thoughts and create positive outcomes. Today, employers place a high value on employees who display strong logical thinking skills. Why? Because they make their decisions based on factual data instead of making decisions influenced by their emotions.

But what is logical thinking, and why is it important? Let’s find out.

What Is Logical Thinking?

Logical thinking analyses a situation, applies a chain of reasoning, and comes up with sensible solutions. It uses reasoning skills to study a problem in detail and make rational decisions to overcome the problem. A person who uses logical thinking can justify their decisions and strategies based on the gathered facts.

Logical thinkers do not develop a strategy based on their “gut feeling” or because “it feels right.” Moreover, it steers clear of any personal biases or assumptions. Logical thinking skills play an extremely important role in your career. How? By helping you generate creative ideas, setting goals, solving problems, and making reason-based decisions.

What Is Deductive Reasoning?

Deductive reasoning is one of the types of logical reasoning, which refers to your ability to reason deductively. It starts with a general idea or hypothesis believed to be true. The hypothesis is then used to reach a specific, logical conclusion. A common example of deductive logical thinking: If A=B and B=C, we can conclude that A=C.

Deductive logical thinking is an essential skill, especially when applying for jobs, as it allows you to use logic to justify decisions. Even if the decision doesn’t work out, you can justify why you made the particular decision. Other types of logical thinking include inductive or abductive reasoning, which uses specific theories or events to explain conclusions.

How Can You Improve Logical Thinking Skills?

There are several ways to improve logical thinking in your daily work. Methods for improving your logical thinking skills include:-

1. Participate in Creative Activities

Engaging in creative outlets like drawing, playing music, writing, and painting can energize the brain and promote logical thinking. Thinking creatively, in a way, can naturally develop problem-solving abilities and help you become a better performer in the workplace. In addition, creative activities are extremely effective in reducing stress. When your stress levels are controllable, you can better focus your time on making logical decisions.

2. Ask Questions

Another way to improve your skills includes questioning things that you generally accept as fact. Questioning can lead to discoveries you did not consider before, encouraging you to explore the topic further. It can help you gain a more thorough perspective, enabling you to approach problems more creatively and logically.

3. Socialize With People

By socializing and meeting new people, you can learn new things and broaden your perspective. This gives you more opportunities to improve your logical thinking. When you get to know different people’s perspectives of approaching problems, it helps you develop different ways of solving a problem at the workplace. You can build relationships in several ways, ranging from having lunch with others or meeting them regularly over coffee.

4. Learn a New Skill

Learning a new skill, creative or not, can also help you sharpen your logical thinking skills. The more you take the opportunity to learn a new skill, the more you will be able to think strategically and logically. Practicing a new skill every day will make you logically approach problems at work and help you advance your career.

5. Solve Mysteries

Reading detective novels or crime stories requires logical reasoning from the reader. You can even watch crime movies or TV shows to enhance your logical thinking skills. Try and solve the mystery or crime before the author or the hero gives it away. Deciphering codes is another great way to improve logical thinking.

6. Make Logical Conclusions

Try to think of everyday situations in conditional sentences and find causes and conclusions of insignificant facts. For instance, if I do not eat, I will be hungry. Similarly, when you identify a solution to a problem in the workplace, try to think about what the outcome will be. The closer you pay attention to the long-term results of your decision, the easier the logical thinking process will become.

Examples of Logical Thinking

There are several situations at your workplace that require you to use logical reasoning to come up with a sensible solution. Some logical thinking examples in the workplace where you use facts instead of emotions include:-

Analyzing reviews by students before structuring training protocols for teachers.
Interviewing employees to understand the reasons for unwanted turnover.
Conducting market research to evaluate customer reaction to the new product before developing a marketing and advertising strategy.
Asking employees about their employee benefit preferences before finalizing deals with the vendors.
Developing recruiting profile for a new marketing executive based on the qualities of the company’s most efficient and productive marketing executives.
Deciding the team leader for the next project, based on the past data for leadership behavior by the potential candidates.

There are several other logical thinking examples that you experience at your workplace daily. Being able to demonstrate logic in your solutions is necessary for all workplaces. But how can you demonstrate logical thinking?

Delving deeper.

How to Demonstrate Logical Thinking as a Working Professional?

Logical thinking is an essential high-value skill that employers search for in their employees. Thinking logically refers to focusing on a task and finding correlations between pieces of data. Why? Because these correlations can help you come to viable solutions. Thinking logically in the workplace can take many forms, all of which are important to becoming a great employee.

1. Maintain Resilience

Sometimes your work can be extremely stressful, especially if you have a fast-paced job subject to constant changes. A high-paced work environment can result in several complex challenges that require your attention. Applying logical thinking skills to such situations is a good approach to solving complex problems and addressing challenges by breaking them down into logical components.

2. Ensure Accuracy

Accuracy in tasks is essential in all workplaces to help you avoid mistakes in the work you produce. How can you ensure accuracy? By using logical thinking! When you think logically, you can connect the work components in a reason-based manner. This way, you can individually assess each part of the problem and solve it accurately before moving on to the next part.

3. Avoid Bias

When you use logic, you become unbiased. Why? Because you do not let your emotions, such as ego, impact your decisions. Instead, you use logical facts to justify your decisions. In a workplace, employers value employees who use logical facts to demonstrate that you keep the company’s interests at the forefront rather than your own. Moreover, it can also help you avoid conflicts within the workplace.

4. Improve Effectiveness

Employing logic in your everyday tasks at work can help you become more effective by avoiding mistakes and ensuring the use of the most effective strategies. When you apply logic, you can quickly assess the information relevant to completing the task at hand. As a result, you reduce wasted time at work, making you a more valuable employee in the company.

5. Better Communicate

Effective communications are necessary for all workplaces, which requires empathy, respect, and careful consideration. When you communicate effectively, you and your team members understand each other well, helping you complete work with a higher quality standard. Logical thinking can help you keep an open mind and understand others’ points of view. This, in turn, helps you approach tasks in an improved manner.

Why is Logical Thinking Critical in Public Speaking?

Have you ever listened to a child learning to read? They can read all the words, but there is no continuity or flow to them and their meanings. It’s because they don’t know yet how words go together to make sentences. A similar thing happens when a speaker has over-learned their lines.

Even if you have a balanced and sincere speech with perfectly written words, you can still make it a monotonous experience for the audience if you rely too much on your notes. And why do you rely on your notes? Because you are afraid of forgetting the words. Logic can help you remember your lines and speak them with power. Here’s how logical thinking plays a vital role in public speaking:-

Include Logical Progression

While writing your speech for public speaking, logical thinking skills are essential to connect your stories, ideas, facts, and figures in a manner that makes sense. Make sure that the progression of your speech is logical instead of absurd. Ask yourself these questions while writing the content of the speech:-

What is the aim of my speech?
Is my aim clear to the audience?
Do I have logical evidence to support my thoughts and ideas?
Can I connect each section of the speech logically?

Develop Logical Memory

Develop a logical memory of your content. Logical memory refers to memorizing logical sequences of your ideas instead of figures or words. If you string your speech with logic, you won’t need to memorize the words of the content. Instead of rote learning, think:-

If I am at point A, what follows naturally?
Are there any places in the speech where my logic is weak?
How naturally do these logical connections come to my mind when under pressure?

You are more likely to forget the points where the logic doesn’t apply to your speech. Therefore, you should include logical connections in advance to avoid the moment of panic.

It Helps the Audience Remember Too

Logical thinking in public speaking is your approach to making your arguments logical and helping the audience understand how you came to your conclusions. Great public speakers appeal to their audience by making points based on analysis and logic. If your argument seems logical to the audience, they are more likely to spread the message further.

How Can You Teach Logical Thinking to Your Children?

For some kids, logical thinking comes more naturally than for others. While teaching logical reasoning may seem like a daunting task, you should cultivate logical thinking skills in your kid from an early age. The following are some activities you can engage your child in to develop different types of logical reasoning:-

1. Asking Questions

To help your child develop logical thinking, get them used to the question “Why?” For instance, you can ask them questions like, “Why is the answer 20?” or “Why can’t a giraffe sit in a small chair?” Answering the “Why?” questions will help your kid think through the logic or reason they used to arrive at the said conclusion. The kids should become used to justifying their solutions so that the next time they solve a problem, they think through the logic on their own.

2. Sorting Shapes

You can teach your kid logical thinking by asking them to put shapes in the shape sorter. Suppose your child has a rectangle and tries to push it into the circle cavity. You can ask the kid why the rectangle is not fitting in the cavity, which will make them think and apply logic.

3. Sequencing Games

Sequencing and pattern exercises can help build logical thinking skills. Give your kids blocks of different colors, shapes, and sizes, and ask them to arrange them in patterns. For instance, you can create a shape pattern (triangle block, square block, triangle block, square block) and ask them to place the next block.

4. Sorting and Categorizing

Sorting can help improve logical thinking skills. Give your kid various objects or toys of different shapes, sizes, and colors, and ask them to sort those objects. Sorting can be done in any way, for instance, all blue objects in one pile or all animal toys in another. Once they are done sorting, ask them why they decided to categorize the objects the way they did.

5. Using Picture Cards

In this game, you can use pictures to ask situation-based questions to your kid. For instance, if you have pictures of a car and an elephant, you can ask your child questions like, “Can this elephant fit in this car?” If not, “Why can’t it fit?” This can make them think of logical reasons to find the solutions to these situations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does logical thinking mean?

Logical thinking means analyzing situations, reactions, and feedback before coming up with a sensible solution. It helps a person focus on the presented task by relating one statement or thought to another.

Why is logical thinking important?

Logical thinking is an important skill that can be helpful in all kinds of daily activities. It helps people provide viable solutions based on facts rather than emotions. Furthermore, it helps come up with new ideas, discern the truth, set goals, solve problems, and develop solutions.

Is logical thinking good?

Yes, logical thinning is a highly-valued skill. It helps you reason through important decisions at your workplace, generate creative ideas, and solve problems - everything essential for developing your career.

How is critical thinking different from logical thinking?

Often, people use critical and logical thinking interchangeably. However, they are not the same. While logical thinking involves evaluating facts to arrive at a valid conclusion, critical thinking involves questioning the answers and solutions that you get. However, logical thinking skills can help in critical reasoning.

What does it mean to be a logical person?

A logical person has to ability to reason clearly and consistently. A person who thinks logically can justify their decisions, actions, and strategies based on the facts they gather. Furthermore, a logical person:-