10 ways to make a decision if you can't make up your mind

1. Coin method

A simple and straightforward way: you take two options for the development of events, assign each side of the coin to each, and then toss it. The outcome depends on whether heads or tails are on top.

It seems that making a decision with a coin is to completely surrender to chance. So maybe if you really don't care what to choose. But the bonus of the method is that, by tossing a coin, people usually begin to hope for some specific result. That is, within himself, a person has already made a choice and will consider the alternatives suboptimal.

If you do not have a coin, but some gadget is at hand, then Lifehacker has service "Decide for me." Enter up to six options for the development of events and wait for the result.

2. Two chairs

This method is quite successfully used in psychology. For example, he was advised by an expert in material about readiness for the birth of a child.

You need to sit in the first chair and pretend you made one of the decisions. Think about how events will develop further and how you feel at the same time. Do you feel comfortable, do you feel happy? Then the same thing must be repeated with a second chair and a different choice.

It is as if you are making two mini-trips to the future. It is clear that they do not construct real events and are only intended to help you understand yourself. But this is what is needed.

3. Balance sheet

To list the pros and cons, and then compare, which is more, Plato suggested in Protagoras.

To use the method, you need to split the sheet into two columns. In one write down the benefits, advantages, pluses of the solution that can be derived from it now and in future, in the other - cons, disadvantages, losses. It remains to see which is more and choose.

4. Descartes square

The method is similar to the previous one, but allows you to look at the problem more closely and from different angles. In this case, the sheet is divided into four parts. Each of them contains the answers to the following questions:

• What if this happens?
• What will happen if this does not happen?
• What will not happen if this happens?
• What will not happen if this does not happen?

For example, you might be thinking about buying some chips. Therefore, we use Descartes' square.

• What if this happens? You will get short-term pleasure and satisfy your hunger.
• What will happen if this does not happen? You will have to search another snackif you don't have it.
• What will not happen if this happens? Healthy eating.
• What will not happen if this does not happen? In the long run - extra centimeters at the waist if you overuse chips.

It remains to choose what is more important for you - a regimen and a healthy diet or the pleasure of chips. In general, this alternative was understandable even without Descartes' square, but a visual explanation was obtained.

5. 10/10/10 rule

The method helps to assess the consequences of the decision in the future. To do this, you need to ask three questions:

• How will I feel or what will happen in 10 minutes.
• And in 10 months?
• And in 10 years?

For example, the head of a department cannot decide on a tough conversation. about dismissal with a subordinate who has ceased to work effectively. The boss suffers and agonizes, postponing the conversation. But he can use the 10/10/10 rule:

• 10 minutes after the conversation, he will feel both relief and pride that he has made up his mind talk, but at the same time, some anxiety, because the employee will now have to look work.
• After 10 months, the manager will not remember this, because there are still effective employees in the department, and the work is in full swing.
• After 10 years, he will already have such an experience of difficult conversations that he will remember that conversation only with gratitude - each such incident makes him learn something.

6. Eisenhower Matrix

It will come in handy if you have to make several decisions, but it’s too hard to think about them at once, you’re ready to go around. The Eisenhower Matrix helps prioritize tasks by dividing them into four groups.

• urgent and important (you need to decide urgently);
• important, but not urgent (you can postpone the decision);
• urgent, but not important (can be delegated);
• not urgent and not important (you can let it go).

The Eisenhower Matrix does not help find answers to questions. But, at least, it gives you the opportunity to free your brain a little to think about urgent tasks, postponing non-urgent ones.

7. Brainstorm

This collective decision-making method can be adapted to personal needs as well. He is close to asking people for advice, but at the same time he is radically different. Since it is not necessary to ask for advice, but an opinion - what a person thinks about the situation, how he would act in this place.

The method does not provide ready-made solutions, it allows you to collect a variety of views on the problem. Among them there may be some very non-standard ones. People in general tend to more rational talk about problems that do not concern them directly.

At the same time, you need to understand that you should not blindly follow the advice. The opinions collected must be analyzed and compared with your situation. This will help in the future to avoid the temptation to shift responsibility: “I did what you said, and now everything is bad. It's all your fault. " The final decision and responsibility for it is always on the person who is directly affected by the problem.

8. SWOT analysis

This method of business planning helps you evaluate a particular decision. To do this, you need to analyze it in four points:

• S - Strengths - strengths.
• W - Weaknesses - weaknesses.
• O - Opportunities - opportunities.
• T - Threats - threats.

Moreover, SWOT-analysis will help to match the imperfect solution to the optimal one. Let's go back to our chips example:

• S - they quickly satisfy hunger, are inexpensive, easy to buy.
• W - Chips are difficult to classify as a healthy, balanced meal.
• O - you can eat them on the way and be in time everywhere.
• T - In the long run, overuse of chips can lead to health problems.

The solution is imperfect, and we can see its weaknesses. But there is nothing critical. The prospect of having a quick bite to eat and being in time everywhere looks tempting. And to minimize the damage, it is enough to keep the rest of the meals healthy.

9. Leonardo da Vinci's method

It is impossible to say whether the method is really associated with a painter and inventor. But it is precisely this method that Michael Gelb describes in his book Learn to Think and Draw Like Leonardo Da Vinci. Technique helps to complete brainstorm by oneself. To do this, you need to follow the following algorithm:

• Formulate the problem.
• Ask 100 questions that you have about it. It is important here not to break away and formulate in the form of questions all the thoughts that come - at least 100.
• Group them into categories of about 10 each. The numbers can be any, but the main thing is not to be too small.
• For all groups, you need to come up with a question that capaciously reflects all of their content. As a result, you will receive 10 questions, the answers to which will fully reflect the situation.
• Answer them and analyze the acquired information. As usual, no one but you will take the final decision.

10. Mendeleev's method

The method is also reflected in the folk wisdom "the morning is wiser than the evening." According to legend, chemist Dmitry Mendeleev invented the periodic table of chemical elements in a dream. This is a myth, which, however, does not refute the idea that in a dream we may unexpectedly come solutions the most difficult tasks.