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Decision-making Tool (cost-benefit analysis)

What’s in it for you and is it worth it?

Oftentimes, when we make decisions, there are a lot of things that can cloud our better judgment. Your emotions, personal bias or the situation you’re in can cause you to make a decision that isn’t actually in your best interest.

Instead of realising you’ve made a bad decision after the fact, you can use a more objective process to determine if a decision is beneficial to you before deciding to go through with it.

This decision-making tool helps you to do a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) on a decision you're contemplating. For more guidance, check out my blog post: The Formula for Good Decision-making.

This tool should be used to inform your decision; do not use it to make the decision for you alone.

This form does not collect any information you share.

What decision are you considering?

Benefits

List the potential benefits of this decision and determine how much each one means to you by giving it a weight (significance). (1 = lightest, 10 = heaviest).

You need to enter at least two benefits to proceed.

Benefit 1

Weight

Benefit 2

Weight

Costs

List the potential costs or downsides of this decision and determine how much each one means to you by giving it a weight (significance). (1 = lightest, 10 = heaviest).

You need to enter at least two costs to proceed.

Cost 1

Weight

Cost 2

Weight

Results

Based on the factors you included and the weight you assigned them, here is how the benefits and costs weigh up for this decision.

For your decision on , your balance score is:

The costs and benefits are evenly balanced. Although in theory this decision is neutral, in reality, it will likely be slightly beneficial or harmful to you. I'd encourage further contemplation on this decision and gathering any extra information that can help you to decide which way to go. If you have an intuitive feeling about how to decide, follow that.

If you're still struggling to decide what to do, pretend that a friend or family member is in your situation. What would you advise them to do?

Thanks for using this decision-making tool. I hope it was helpful!

If you have any feedback on this tool, please email thoughtfulbeanblog@gmail.com

How your result is determined:

weight of benefits - weight of costs = your balance score

If your score is greater than 0, the benefits outweigh the costs.

If your score is less than 0, the costs outweigh the benefits.

If your is score is 0, then the costs and benefits are balanced.