In life you have to make a decision in many situations. And probably you can do that easily in most cases. But perhaps you may also know situations where you think through the same decision question over and over again without being able to come up with a decision. Or you have actually decided on something, but you do not implement this decision because you are not sure whether you really have made the right decision. Perhaps you know the fable of the donkey standing right in the middle between two equally large haystacks, and as a result die of starvation because it cannot decide, of which haystack it shall eat.

Decision making is part of the general problem-solving and action plan part and belong to the most important tools for successful self-management. The "tool" for weighing decisions can help in making right decisions.

Decision making is similar to the problem solving, a process that can be divided into several steps:

1. Get clear about what exactly you really need to decide. This is what we call decision question or decision problem.


2. Consider then, the different kind of possibilities or options you have. There should be at least two different options to decide on, otherwise there would be nothing to decide on. Sometimes the two possibilities entail doing something specific, or simply doing nothing. If you find it difficult, for example, to do all the house chores yourself, one possibility could be that you organize a house help and the second option could be that you do not change anything but continue doing everything yourself. But you might also think about further possible solutions:
   1. You continue to do everything by yourself.
   2. You organize a house help for all pending chores.
   3. You get a help for occasional, particularly exhausting and time-consuming work such as window cleaning. .
   4. You relieve yourself from certain types of work such as ironing out to a service as for instance a laundry.
   Try to consider all possible options that come to mind.


3. There are probably a lot of arguments for and against the various options. Consider for each of your options, arguments for this option (these are your "pro-arguments") and arguments against this option (these are your "cons"). Try also to gather as much pro- and contra- arguments here. And please do not forget that even feelings such as "I do not like that" or "this make me feel uncomfortable" or "this would be fun" are important arguments. Social aspects such as "my daughter would approve of it" or "then I would have regular contact with someone" may be important arguments.


4. After all, you should think about how important each pro- and con-argument is. Assign each argument, pro or con, a point value from 1 to 5, whereby 1 means "very unimportant" and 5 "very important".


5. If you use our tool „weighing decisions ", the points that speak for or against the various options, will automatically be added together when you save your data. You can then see at a glance which option would be most favorable according to your data and your ratings..


6. Briefly sit back for a moment and listen to your "gut feeling" whether that decision might be right or wrong. If yes, then adhere to your decision and implement it. If not, then reconsider whether you really have considered all options, whether you really have considered all the pros and cons and whether you have properly assessed the importance of your arguments. Complete and improve your deliberations until you’re feeling tells you that the most favorable decision could also be right. Then you only need to implement your decision. Concerning this a concrete action plan might be helpful as well.

We would like to invite you to simply try out the tool "weighing decisions" and we wish you every success at that.