Building Your Pathway To Decision Making

How? Well, we (ODE) wouldn’t venture far enough to say we have all the answers to happiness! In fact, it’s quite a freeing place to know that. But, we can certainly give you insight into how you can best position yourself to make sound, well thought out choices, which, hopefully, put you exactly where you should be: happy!

So, without further wasted space, we’ve decided to write the steps with some details; when you’re going through choices, or using our app, you can fall back on these short but insightful notes to guide you.

Disclaimer: you can happily find this support in our app! Great self promotion huh?! ? But, good things take time, and we are currently in Beta. if you’d like to be a Beta tester, say hi 

1. What’s Next?!

We know 77.2% of people we surveyed postponed decisions at least once, and the majority also agreed it cost them time & money (among other factors). It can be all too easy to avoid making a choice. 

There’s a theory: to find motivation you must create momentum; want to clean your apartment? Put dishes in the dishwasher, then wipe the bench-top, next put random items back in their homes’ and so on. Apply this principle to decisions in your life, create momentum through small but valuable steps.   

So, with this spirit, what’s the decision or problem you’re facing?! Turn it into a question and let’s go for it! ?

My Decision: Should my family get a dog?!

2. Brainstorm 

 Here we start to brainstorm criteria… cool? Okay, onto the next!

Joking. You’re probably thinking “brainstorm criteria”? What is even criteria REALLY?! 

Let loose, write any-and-all important factors which influence this decision for you. There are no wrong answers here. If you’re entrenched in corporate culture; think of it as the stakeholders to your project. This will take some time and require you to reflect on what has influence over your choice - just like when you're cooking; what are the ingredients I need to make this dish "fab"?!

My example: 

• Cost of pet
• Cost of food
• Known health issues?
• Apartment friendly
• Allergy free for girldfriend? 
• Cuteness?!
• Eye colour (always wanted a dog with blue eyes!)
• Family members like the look of the dog?

3. Organise

Okay, so we have all the important criteria storming the page via your beautiful brain. Now we need to group the criteria. This will help us set out key groups of information. 

Why do this? Because we know people decide more effectively if presented related information in an arranged way. 

If you have criteria relating to money, you may want to group them under “finance” or “budget”. Similarly, if you want a university (1) close to home, (2) in a CBD and (3) close to an airport; you may want to group this under “location”. 

Think of them as your sub headers, splitting the page up for you, applying context. 

My example:

• Finance
• Fits ‘needs’
• Fits ‘wants’

4. Prioritize 

Quite straightforward! Take your groups and prioritise them. Once done, zoom in a “notch” and prioritise the criteria within each group. 

When using the app, you will find a straightforward drag and drop system to help you with this!

Example of my groups and criteria prioritised:

• Finance
  • Cost of pet
  • Cost of food
• Fits ‘needs’
  • Allergy free for partner?
  • Apartment friendly?
  • Family members like the Dog?
  • Known health issues?
• Fits ‘wants’
  • Cuteness?!
  • Eye colour (always wanted a dog with blue eyes!)

5. Possible Alternatives (find your options)

We have our criteria set into groups and prioritised! Good stuff!

Now, we all have enough possible answers for our choice running through our mind; after all, that’s what got us here in the first place. Time to “jot” them all down: write any choices which you think could be possible. 

My example:

Axel, Daisy & Greg :) 

 Easy!

6. Assess

Time to assign value. One of the hardest parts of a decision can be trying to figure out what means more to you and how much that really matters. So, we suggest giving your grouped criteria values so you can easily calculate what they mean to you.

If you’re doing this on paper, try to give everything nice round values so it’s easy to calculate. Ultimately here, you are weighing your grouped criteria for each possible alternative choice created in step 5. 

For our app, this is where you really get to gain an objective view. This step will allow you to input value systematically, with preset weighting devices. 

7. Decide Better!

You’ve made it! 

If you’re using the app; press ‘next’ icon when finished with step 6 and enjoy the results :)

Here’s how it looks in ODE:

Looks like Daisy will be coming home! 

We hope this finds you well & you have enjoyed the article! Let us know your thoughts on how you run through your choices, challenges you often face in decision making, and anything else tickling your brainwaves.

With love & respect, 

The Team at ODE ❤️