These Apps Will Help You Make Any Difficult Decision
From choosing between two restaurants to choosing between two job offers, there is no single reliable approach to decision making . We’ve covered quite a few decision hacks in the past: there’s a 37% rule to simplify your intuition, or create a decision matrix to prioritize what you need to do. But sometimes what you really need is an unbiased third party to tell you what to do.
Well, maybe “tell you what to do” is an oversimplification. Fortunately, there are a number of decision-making apps available to help you organize and clarify your own reasoning. The following apps are great tools to help you make decisions in a variety of situations. However, they may not give you the solution you want to see. But if you disagree with the choice presented by any of these apps, well, maybe that very disagreement reveals your true choice.
When you need to spin the wheel
Random Decision Maker (Android) / Tiny Decisions (iOS)
As the names of these apps suggest, this decision-making style is basically a fancy coin toss. These are great tools to make it easier to decide between two shirts or what you and your partner should have for dinner. You can enter options to create your own wheel, generate random numbers, and a range of other tools to let chance decide your fate.
Download Random Decision Maker on Google Play here. Download Tiny Decisions from the App Store here .
When you need to organize high-level solutions
Protagonist: Decision Making (iOS)
This decision-making application resembles a project management tool, and it was clearly built with complex decisions in mind (like hiring an employee or buying a car).
The framework allows you to enter different levels of criteria and then ensure that each factor is given due weight by visualizing it. Visualization is by far the best feature as it helps you refine and prioritize when you are juggling a bunch of different factors in one solution. Another benefit is that you can share and include others in your process (again – it’s like a project management tool).
Download Protagonist from the App Store here or use the web version here . (Note: There is a slight downside in that you need to create a free account in order to use Protagonist.)
When you are overwhelmed by too many criteria
Decision Making (Android) / Final Choice (iOS)
Sometimes the most difficult aspect of making a decision is analyzing all the possible pros and cons. It’s the style of the app that’s best for helping you organize your thinking as you try to look objectively at a number of different factors.
Once you have added as many options and criteria as you like, you can assign a numerical rating to those factors. When you’re ready, the app will calculate for you and suggest a solution based on your scores.
You can download Decision Crafting on Google Play here . Download Definitive Choice from the App Store here.
When you need to weigh the pros and cons
Pros and Cons (Android) / Pros and Cons (iOS)
Who doesn’t love a clear list of pros and cons? It is a simple and straightforward decision weighting tool (easier than the multi-criteria applications listed in the section above). You can assign a numerical value to various advantages and disadvantages so that applications can help you visualize whether the pros outweigh the cons. Pen and paper get dirty, so these tools will help you weigh all the right things more clearly in your decision-making struggle.
Download Pro & Cons on Google Play here . Download Pros-Cons from the App Store here.