Eleven Tips For Making A Great Decision

u ever found yourself faced with a decision butone of the coolers and choose from that. It
feeling unable to make it?doesn’t matter which cooler. We know
Decision-making is about choosing among availablewe’re going to get something good
options. It is a process of selecting or rejecting.(it’s ice cream, after all!) but we’ve
In his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More isnarrowed our options by two-thirds. We still have
Less, author Barry Schwartz makes the33 flavours from which to choose.
argument that having more choices renders us4. Gather information about each alternative.
less able to make a decision and, if and when weWhat do you need to know in order to make an
manage to make a decision, we feel less sureinformed decision? Narrow down the variables
that we’ve made the right decision.that are important to you and devote your
Take, for instance, buying a car. There are sodecision-making time to those. In choosing a new
many different options to consider. What variablescar, price, service and safety features are my
are important to me? Will I base my decision onmost important variables and those are the things
safety ratings, performance ratings, price, size,I need to know the most about.
colour, my neighbour’s opinion? Do I want5. Know when to stop gathering information. No
keyless entry, heated seats, cruise control, adecision is ever the perfect one. Analysis paralysis
spoiler, a blue or purple paint job or aluminum-alloyis that phenomenon where there’s a
wheels?decision to be made or a project to be done but
I don’t even know what aluminum-alloywe get caught up in the process of meeting,
wheels are. How am I supposed to make andiscussing, brainstorming, and tweaking. There are
informed decision about them?always more studies to be conducted, more
You can see where after a while your head mightreports to be written and read and more
be spinning and you wish for a simpler time whenstatistics to be collected and reviewed. At some
your choices were limited to Model T and black.point you have to stop.
Part of the reason for the difficulty in making a6. Make a list of pros and cons. What are the
decision is that we feel that if we choose anreasons for and against each alternative?
option, we’re rejecting all the other options.7. Assign a value to the pros and cons. Certain
Tips for Making a Good Decisionvariables will be more important than others. Going
1. Get clear on the number of alternatives youback to the new car example, the pro of having
have. Is this a yes/no decision or are thererear side air bags as a safety feature has more
multiple outcomes (like buying a new car orvalue for me than the con of not being able to
choosing a place to live)?get the car in the colour I want.
2. How long will this decision affect your life?8. Set deadlines. Assign a timeline to making the
Buying a new car is a decision that you may needdecision. This way you have a framework for the
to live with for the next 10 years or so. Youamount of time a decision should take and you
should take more time to make a good decisionreduce the chances that days, weeks and months
than you would if the decision won’t affectwill pass without some action.
you for as long. There is a stunning array of9. What does your intuition say? Are you leaning
choices when renting a movie for the evening buttowards or away from one option even though
the outcome only lasts as long as the show.you can’t quite put your finger on why?
3. Narrow your options. In our area we have anPay attention to that feeling.
ice cream store that boasts three display coolers10. Discuss the decision with a neutral party.
full of ice cream from which to choose. There areSomeone who doesn’t have a stake in the
over 100 different flavours. You could be there alldecision.
day. One trick our family uses is to look at only