Making a Decision Plan
In a given day, we all make an infinite number of choices. You probably use a combination of strategies for all the kinds of decisions you make. You might use impulsive decision making to choose which pastry you want for breakfast, planning decision making to choose which project at work to start on, and intuitive decision making to direct your evening plans.
When faced with big decisions that can be life changing, it’s easy to end up caught in a cycle of avoidant or agonizing decision making styles. To learn more about the many different styles and their impacts, check out this article.
Big decisions take a lot of time and thought. With clients who are struggling about whether to buy a house, where to go to graduate school, or what jobs to apply for, we will work together to make a decision plan. This is something we literally writer down together.
So grab a pen and paper— here’s how it works!
1. Define the decision
Let’s write the decision down in maximum two sentences. It should be clear, action oriented, and demonstrate one step at a time.
Ex: Which graduate schools do I want to apply to? Here, the person has already made the important decision to go to graduate school. This decision represents the next step.
2. Pick a deadline
This is the deadline to have made your decision, that’s all. If there are real world deadlines like a date the job application will close, work backwards to determine how much time you need to complete the application and how much time you need to work on your decision.
Ex: Deadline for picking graduate schools is July of this year. Most graduate school programs have application deadlines in December and January. This person is planning to give themselves 5 months or so to complete the applications once the schools are picked.
3. Identify distractions to the decision
This is one of the hardest steps in a decision making plan. It is about determining what is a genuine part of the decision and what is not. Distractions are worries that get in the way of logical decision making. If something is taking you on a tangent from your concise definition from Step 1, it’s a distraction. If something is more about anxiety than about the choice you need to make, it’s a distraction. Common distractions include worries about what other people will think or over fixation on minor factors.
Ex: My distractions are: worries about my schools not being seen as elite, whether or not there’s a climbing gym on campus, the schools my friends applied to. For some people, these would not be distractions. There are fields in which elite schools make a big difference or access to a climbing gym on campus is important. Your distractions are unique to you.
4. Set Decision Making Dates
With big decisions it’s easy to avoid thinking about it or to think about it all the time. Setting aside time (or “dates” with yourself) specifically for working on the decision can help you avoid these two pitfalls. If the decision deadline is far off, maybe you only need “dates” a couple of times a month. If the deadline is very close, you might need to set aside time every day. These “dates” are designated, scheduled times during which you can do the rest of the steps on this list. It could mean researching, writing pros and cons lists, calling/ emailing contacts, and more. Depending on what you need to do you could set aside 20 minutes to a couple hours at a time.
Ex: I will spend 1 hour every week reading about schools, researching programs in my study area, and talking to professors. As the person gains more knowledge, they will adjust what it is they use that time for.
5. Find your resources
It can be hard to walk the line between not enough and too much information. That’s why identifying the resources you use before you start to research can be important. Who in your life will have applicable experiences to share? What books or articles will give sound information? What other tools are at your disposal?
Ex: I will ask around and try to talk to friends of friends who have attended the schools I’m looking at. I can talk to the mentor at work who is doing the kind of job I want after I graduate. My aunt is great at editing and can help me with my application essays. While their friends and family may all have great ideas for them, the client is focusing on people with direct ways of supporting rather than possibly conflicting opinions.
6. Focus on the facts and also listen to your gut
During your “decision dates” you can spend time looking over the facts of the situation. You might make a pros and cons list, develop a table to compare statistics of different options, etc. Focusing on the facts is an important part of the process. You want to make sure the car you buy will be safe and long lasting or that the jobs you apply to meets what you want in your career. There’s also something to be said of listening to your gut. Part of “decision dates” might be imagining yourself in different scenarios and noticing what it feels like for you. You could also spend some time thinking through the emotional impact of your choices.
Ex: It’s important to me that I pick a graduate school that specializes in my area of study. I also had a really good gut reaction to talking to the professor at a specific school. It felt like she would be a positive mentor if I went there.
7. Share your plans
Lastly, once you’ve made a decision, share your plans. Those who will be directly impacted have probably been a part of the decision making process already. This could be a time to fill them in on all the facts you’ve gathered and get their feedback one more time. It can also be important to celebrate your decision making process with friends and family. The difference here is that you are not sharing with others for their opinions but announcing the decision you have made with pride.
Ex: Where I got to school impacts both me and my partner. Once I have a list of possible schools, we will look through them together and see if there’s anywhere they really don’t want to live. But, I’ll wait until I’ve decided to share the list with friends and family.
I hope that you find this process helpful. It’s not going to give you an answer, but it may reduce the obstacles to finding what you want.
