I thought about the situation and concluded...
Concluded seems too strong for the situation I am using this in. In particular, in view of the hierarchy between me and my conversation partner.
What is a good synonym to tone this down?
The word I would like to use is "think" but I have used that already in the sentence. Other synonyms "decide, establish, determine" are all not weaker than conclude. It need not be a single word solution.
