The Four Questions

When you enter a decision in DecisionPlanner you are immediately shown these four questions:

• Why is this decision important?
• What are the rewards for making a good decision?
• What are the consequences of a bad decision?
• By when do you need to make this decision?

You should take the time to think about and answer these questions. Some decisions that appear to be obvious are not. It is important you understand exactly what you are trying to decide.

For example, my wife and I moved to a different state this summer. We figured we had to decide which house to buy. Then the subject of renting came up. Then the subject of buying an RV came up. So, the decision had changed. We thought it was a relatively “simple” matter of choosing a house and it changed into a discussion about lifestyle. Now the decision had broadened considerably.

Perhaps you think you have to decide which college to attend. Are you sure college is the only option? Perhaps a trade school might be more suitable, or enlisting in the military.

Take your time with these four very important questions. It is the foundation for everything else in the process. The rest of the work on your decision will be built on a solid understanding, which is essential to getting to the right conclusion.

Would you like some help with decision making? Try DecisionPlanner at www.yoopersoft.com.

Decision Making and Stress

Innate human approaches toward decision making and danger come from thousands of years of accumulated conditioning.

Psychologists tell us that stress is a problem in modern times due to our innate “fight or flight” approach to perceived danger. Adrenalin courses through our bodies as we prepare to do battle or run for our lives. The problem is that the dangers most of us face today are not “fight or flight” events. And for some, the “fight or flight” response is almost continuous. The almost constant adrenalin rush that modern life puts us through is not the way our bodies are supposed to work. The “fight or flight” response was supposed to be a relatively rare event, not a constant condition. The solution, according to the psychologists, is to “re-program” our reaction to perceived danger.

Similarly, our approach to decision making is based on the need to decide quickly and do something to avoid danger. Our ancestors made decisions quickly, with little information, to avoid great danger. It was a survival skill. However, today most of the significant decisions we face are not related to survival and are not served well by our innate “gut instinct” style of decision making. The solution is to use a thorough, structured process toward decision making that allows us to digest the enormous amount of information available to us in the modern age.

Would you like some help with decision making? Try DecisionPlanner at www.yoopersoft.com.

Making Decisions

Yoopersoft and DecisionPlanner exist because we want to help people make better decisions.

What makes it so difficult to make a good decision? One of the reasons is that we were never really taught how to make a good decision. Decision making and problem solving processes are not directly addressed in most schools.

Our culture values decisive and fast decision making. Make a decision with your gut and do it quickly. The media portrayal of decision making shows people making decisions on the fly – with no apparent analysis or time taken to ponder the various alternatives. This is not how effective people make good decisions.

A structured and thorough process (available from DecisionPlanner) is very valuable for the more important and significant decisions you face. It doesn’t have to be long and tedious – it can still be a quick process, but taking the time to use a structured approach will result in better decisions.

Would you like some help with decision making? Try DecisionPlanner at www.yoopersoft.com.