Simple Decision Making

You may know about the following method to help you to do or not to do something. You need to have a sheet of paper, or an appropriate electronic tool to write down the benefits and disadvantages of doing this thing. Even in this very simple way it can be very helpful for decisions which require some analysis. Sometimes simple heuristics can’t help you or you may want to check the results of using heuristics with another tool.

First of all this method can help you to look for alternative advantages and disadvantages. When you write down things you know already, you can focus on looking for other things you haven’t thought about. You can get a more comprehensive list in this way.

When you have enough advantages and disadvantages you can also rate them. It can help to highlight more important things from the list. You can also find less important things, so they wouldn’t affect your final decision.

Looking for advantages and disadvantages can help to understand your problem better. You may find alternative solutions or split your problem into smaller ones. You can find some clues in your analysis that your problems can be split or that there are alternative solutions.

When you have the list you created it would be easier to ask other people for help. Others can see a structured analysis, so you can discuss each item separately. Without the list you have to discuss the same items holding the whole analysis in your head. Some people can do that, but having a list would help you and your advisors focus on a current topic.

This method can be extended with more than one alternative option. You can also do a more complicated utility analysis to compare aspects of different options. It is a topic of a separate note, but if you haven’t heard about this kind of analysis you can look for information yourself. Or you can try this simple method next time you need to make a decision.