General Question

nikipedia's avatar

How do you make tough decisions?

Asked by nikipedia (28072points) October 13th, 2008

Go with your instinct? Pros and cons lists? Consult with friends? Procrastinate until the decision is made for you one way or another?

I am a big fan of color-coded spreadsheets. Unfortunately, the utility of this method is limited.

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19 Answers

AstroChuck's avatar

Sheep entrails.

jlm11f's avatar

Most of the time, it’s a mix of instincts and consulting people for me. If it’s a tough and important decision, I would definitely not make it before discussing with a few people. These could be my parents, sibling, friends, teachers, etc depending on the situation and the expertise needed.

I might make a pro and cons list if I am having trouble leaning towards either side. But usually, while discussing it with people, I end up telling them why I would make the decision one way over another. So it’s still a verbal pro and con list. I haven’t really used spreadsheets to help make my decision quite yet. But that might be because of my laziness more than anything else. though i doubt i would bother with color coding ;)

Everything okay with you? the tags have me worried

Edit – i forgot to mention that i have been forced to accept decisions made thanks to procrastination more than a couple of times.

Nimis's avatar

The methods vary according to mood and decision to be made.
I’m just greatly amused that I’m not the only person
who uses colour-coded spreadsheets for this!
Seriously. What are the chances that a third person on Fluther does this?

nocountry2's avatar

Isn’t your first reaction usually the right one?

Lightlyseared's avatar

The same way I make all my decisions, by the roll of the dice. Once you’ve given your life over to the dice there’s no going back.

cookieman's avatar

You are not alone. I adore color-coded spreadsheets.

I will mull on it privately, weighing the pros and cons, then present it to my wife for final feedback. She’s VERY wise.

I never ask other people because the endless volley of back and forth opinions confuses me further. My wife’s opinion is the only one I care to trust.

jrpowell's avatar

Beer + pills + profanity + cell phone = no need to use rational thought to make decisions

ninjaxmarc's avatar

think, plan, weigh, go.

Bri_L's avatar

analyze, pros, cons. Best and worst case scenario.

buster's avatar

Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, catch a tiger by the toe.

mea05key's avatar

Pros and Cons for the win. LIke just i was deciding whether to join the badminton club which cost me 110 pounds for 6 months with 2 hours session per week ( estimate playing time probably 40mins). Pros i get to mix around more which is good. Cons big money for me, need to buy badminton gears, need to walk for an hour in total to the sports centre after walking for nearly 2 hours to work, i get home by 11pm when the match ends and the list goes on. The tricky part is the the pro point although its only one in this case weighs a lot. Its a bit hard to decide really even though the cons dominates. Important decision of course requires dicussion with reliable and capable people that you think can help. No points asking people who cant help which eventually makes things worse. Beware of bias towards certain points. It always discrupts the decision making process.PLenty of ways to decide a certain thing in reality. Dun wanna go further it’s gonna takes ages to jot everything down but u know what i mean lol

deaddolly's avatar

weigh pros and cons. then go with my gut.

mea05key's avatar

Follow the nerd

Cardinal's avatar

Go to some dive and look for you and how you are scratching your way to a decesion and do the opposite.

bea2345's avatar

reluctantly

whyj's avatar

Becoming as tough as possible to deal with it

bea2345's avatar

Very reluctantly. If circumstances permit, I study all the angles before making a decision – sometimes a tough decision has to be made in a hurry: that’s seldom good.

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