Use a pros and cons list to feel good about your decisions

Decision-making happens every day. Some decisions are simple, like whether to have coffee or tea with breakfast. Others are more complex, such as declining a job offer to follow a different career path or taking a promotion offer. 

Each of those choices has different stakes. Some are easier to make because the consequences don’t seem as dire. But for important decisions, the effects can be life-changing. Maybe you should have accepted that job offer.

Humans make more than 35,000 decisions in a day, and understanding the best methods for weighing your options could be the difference between the right or wrong choice. 

One of the most effective ways to make an informed decision is to create a pros and cons list. Writing down potential benefits and outcomes can help you make more conscious choices — and ease the decision fatigue that comes with those 35,000 decisions.

What’s a pros and cons list?

A pros and cons list is a decision-making method that organizes the benefits and consequences of a single choice into a chart, visualizing your options. Put simply, pros are good outcomes, and cons are bad. You then assign each pro and con a value and add them together, letting you quantify the best course of action. If you have more pros with higher values, chances are it’s the right choice.

The method takes an objective approach to decision-making, bringing you out of your mind and onto the page. You’ll examine every possibility in one place and quantify each effect to arrive at a balanced, informed decision. 

Pros and cons are particularly effective for team decisions (whether work-related or not) because they give you space to write down and consider everyone’s perspective. Together, you can see both sides of an argument, allowing teammates to debate and build consensus in support of the eventual choice — an important element of democratic leadership.

Listing pros and cons is one of the earliest documented ways to weigh options. Benjamin Franklin first referenced the technique in a 1772 letter to his friend, Joseph Priestly. In it, he advised Priestly to divide a paper into two columns: one titled “Pro” and the other “Con.” Under each header, Franklin suggested writing the reasons to move forward with a decision or not and narrowing them down to decide which side is stronger.

The pro and con template has remained largely unchanged to this day, as has its use. Like Franklin, most people find this method handy for quick choices. But for more complex ones, like with multiple alternatives and outcomes, consider leveraging a more robust decision-making model. A pros and cons list might not be able to fit every point you have.

The pros and cons of pros and cons lists

In a high-stakes situation, the pros and cons framework can be useful as a preliminary critical thinking tool, helping you grasp the consequences of your choice. But for critical decisions, you need to consider your emotions and the effects of bias on your judgment and choose a method that addresses those concerns.

Before deciding whether a pro and con framework suits the decision at hand, think about the method’s benefits and downsides. 

Upsides

The benefits of a pros and cons list include:

Simplicity

Creating a list is a relatively straightforward process. You only need a piece of paper (or your phone ) — no special skills or expertise required.

Rigor

Taking time to think through a decision’s effects and outcomes might reduce your chances of missing crucial factors. And counting and quantifying those effects encourages in-depth consideration, which could lead you to the best choice. 

Objectivity

Conducting an analysis can help you remove strong feelings and emotions from the equation. Taking time for mindful consideration can calm strong feelings and help you recover from distress more quickly, steering you toward more rational choices. 

The step-by-step nature of making a pros and cons list can create a self-distanced perspective, letting you approach problems more rationally and with your best interests in mind. You can look at your list from an outsider’s view and curb emotional biases.

Downsides

The disadvantages of a pros and cons list might be:

Prejudgment

Determining whether an effect is a pro or con relies on your perception of desirability. As a result, the process is susceptible to cognitive bias, including:

• Framing effect: Viewing potential outcomes of a choice as either positive or negative can lead you towards what appears to be the more attractive option, even if the results are the same.

• Overconfidence effect: People tend to overestimate the reliability of their judgment and the accuracy of their assessments.

• Control: When faced with a decision, visualizing potential outcomes can lead you to believe you have more control over the result than you actually do.

Analytical emphasis

Occasionally, deliberating a decision based exclusively on data is the wrong approach. Sometimes the intuitive choice — trusting your gut — results in taking the right path. 

How to make a pros and cons list

One of the advantages of creating a pros and cons chart is that you can do it quickly on your own or by collaborating with others in real-time. If you work remotely and need to decide with a team, a shared document is a great way to give everyone access. But if you’re trying to make a choice alone or with someone in your life, writing down your list on paper works just as well. 

Here’s how to make a pros and cons list:

1. Create a chart

Start by creating a pros and cons table. Make a two-column chart in your document or draw a “T” shape onto a sheet of paper or whiteboard. Title it with the decision you need to make, like “Should I get a master’s degree?” or “Should I stay at my company?” Label the left column “Pros” and the right “Cons.”

2. Brainstorm the pro side

Under the “Pros” list, write all the possible positive consequences of the decision, no matter how inconsequential. Some of the possibilities may come easily. Others may require more thought. If you’re stuck, try asking yourself or the team:

• What are the advantages of this choice?
• What benefits will it generate?
• What will this decision accomplish?
• Will this option help me/us reach my/our long-term goals?

3. Brainstorm the con side

Once you complete your brainstorming session for the positive side, start listing all the potential negative outcomes under “Cons.” Take your time. Some adverse effects may come to you quickly, and some may require more analysis. Questions to assist your evaluations include:

• Are there risks that come with this course of action?
• What might I/we be sacrificing?
• Can I/we imagine regretting this decision? Why?
• Would making this choice affect my/our ability to meet team goals?

4. Add third-party pros and cons

Now that you’ve thought about how the choice will impact you, think about its effects on others. If you’re life planning, your course of action might affect your spouse and children. If this is a professional situation, it could affect your team or even other departments. These pros and cons are important to consider, too.

Try asking someone else to assess your list and add anything you might have missed. This person could be a total outsider or someone the decision will impact. They might find vital points you forgot to consider. You could add their notes to your original list or create new columns so you remember the difference between your ideas and theirs.

5. Assign values

After finalizing your list of pros and cons, review each point and, as objectively as possible, assign each a positive or negative value according to its weight. For example, you could score a highly positive outcome +5 and a largely unfavorable one -5. If there’s debate about a possibility’s weight among contributors, you could calculate the average and assign that as its value.

6. Calculate scores

Now that every point has a value, it’s time to do the math. Add your pros together and subtract the sum of your cons. You’ll end up with a positive number for pros (like +15) and a negative number for cons (-18). If the positive score is higher than the negative, you should go ahead and implement that decision.

If the negative sum is greater (like it is in this case), scrap that choice and consider other options. And if they’re tied, you might have to take another look at your list or ask someone to help you decide.

7. Reflect

Once you add everything up, you might feel disappointed in your score. Maybe an outcome you preferred isn’t topping the list. In that case, your gut might be telling you something: you know what choice you want to make, even if it isn’t the “best” on paper. Remember that a pros and cons list is a tool, not a decision-maker. You still have the power to pursue the path you want.

Pros and cons examples: Real-life lists

Here are a few real-life examples of pros and cons lists to help you.

Should I go back to school?

Should the company change suppliers?

Feel good about your decisions

Making a big decision can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re on the fence about the right thing to do. That’s when a pros and cons list can help.

This simple technique can help you weigh the potential benefits and drawbacks against each other and provide a clearer picture of which path you should take. Not every decision will be perfect, but you’ll be more decisive and have the peace of mind that you made every effort to make the right choice.