There are different ways to make decisions.
To arrive at a thorough, well-thought-out choice—especially when you’re bombarded with a ton of options, someone is trying to influence the outcome of your choice, or it is a matter that will affect your whole life—you need to forego subjective methods such as listening to your gut or following your emotions.
Instead, it is best to use a tried-and-tested decision-making technique. There are two main techniques to help you make the best choices about practically anything.
The Two Major Decision-Making Techniques
The first is the Eisenhower Matrix.
This technique uses a quadrant to help determine what’s urgent and important on your daily to-do list and what tasks you can delegate or postpone for another day.
Another technique is known as the Weighted Decision Matrix. It presents you with the best option after analyzing a set of choices against certain criteria that must be taken into consideration.
Today, we’re sharing a collection of free decision matrix template examples that help you make better decisions by quantifying choices and assessing the best options.
Several of these templates are variations of the two major techniques discussed above, designed to yield results for specific purposes.
Using a decision matrix is advantageous for several reasons. Let’s check out some of these advantages.
The Advantages of Using a Decision Matrix
With a decision matrix, you’ll be able to:
Read on to check out the templates we’ve handpicked for this article, which can help you make the best life choices.
1. Someka Decision Matrix
Do you always struggle when making a decision, especially when there are others whose opinions are influencing your ability to choose?
With the help of this template, you list down the choices and indicate the criteria needed to come up with the best selection. The template automatically provides rates and coefficients, along with the results of its calculations on a dashboard.
A chart at the bottom of the dashboard provides a visual representation of the results.
This template is the perfect tool for arriving at the right decision every time, no matter how many choices are available or who is trying to influence your choice.
2. Weighted Decision Matrix
Decision-making made simple—that’s the promise of this template. It eliminates the subjective nature of our emotions and gets right down to numerical results to help you make the best choices every time.
The template has sections for:
The results provided by this template can aid in your decision-making. Furthermore, if someone questions the validity of your choice, these results provide incontestable proof of the soundness of your decision.
3. Decision Matrix Spreadsheet
As mentioned earlier, results shown in numerical format are often the best way to arrive at a final decision.
This template provides that numerical result. It only requires you to input decision factors with their respective ratings (from 0 to 5, with 5 being the best).
With the decision factors entered into their corresponding columns, this Excel-based template can automatically provide the results you need. It helps determine the best decision or course of action to take.
4. Decision Tree Template
Need a decision-making method that allows you to fully analyze the consequences and/or possible outcomes of your decision? Look no further than this decision tree!
This tool, when laid out on paper or screen, is a tree-shaped matrix that provides an unbiased look at the potential rewards and risks associated with a certain choice.
The matrix has three major elements:
This matrix is ideal in situations where those who are making the decision have an idea of the choices available, as well as the potential consequences of choosing a particular idea.
5. Pros and Cons List Template
If you’re having a hard time deciding between two specific scenarios (e.g., whether or not to accept a job offer that is based overseas), you can use this matrix to determine the best decision.
In this template, you are asked to enumerate the pros and cons of a possible decision. Next, the value of the items in your pros and cons list needs to be calculated.
To do this, each of the items in the pros and cons list needs to be rated on a scale of 1–10. Based on the rating you’ve given, the template calculates the scores of the pros and cons.
Usually, the simple process of listing down the pros and cons and rating each of the items gives you an idea of what decision to take even before seeing the respective scores generated by the template.
6. Decision Matrix Table
It can be quite challenging to make the best choice when you have a lot of options to choose from. Even when several criteria are given prior to the presentation of the options available, you can easily lose track of these criteria while in the midst of the decision-making process.
A reliable tool for decision making, such as this template, can help you arrive at the best choice without being influenced by behavioral biases.
Using this decision matrix, which is also known as the Pugh matrix or the grid analysis, provides a couple of distinct advantages:
This template is downloadable as a .xls file.
7. Priority Matrix
If you need help boosting productivity and determining which tasks take priority, this matrix is the right tool for the job.
A scoring system helps determine whether the task at hand is of high or low doability (depending on the resources required) and whether it’s high or low impact (depending on the amount of resources saved, risks avoided, and increase in profit). This can help you decide the next course of action.
Moreover, by using this matrix, you will know at a glance whether the task belongs to any of the following categories:
8. Considering the Consequences
Young people and children can also benefit from a system that helps them make sound decisions by considering the consequences of the actions they take.
This template provides reflection prompts and spaces for writing answers about the positive and negative consequences of a particular action or decision. It highlights the importance of making decisions that lead to positive outcomes.
9. Pros and Cons Worksheet
Sometimes, there are instances in our lives when making a good decision can be challenging. Often, our own biases and emotional investment prevents us from clearly seeing the direction we need to take.
The template provides prompts and ratings to help you evaluate the options to see which one will work best for you. This tool allows you to analyze the merits of every option in an objective way, thereby eliminating personal biases and emotional influences.
10. Indecision Worksheet
Although its name might seem counterintuitive, this template is designed to help you become unstuck when it comes to decision-making.
The template features writing prompts to help explore what’s preventing you from making decisions. It encourages you to reflect deeply on what you need to do and the decision(s) you need to make in order to achieve what you truly desire.
Below every guide question is enough space to write down your reflections. This template guarantees that the life-changing decisions you make are always aligned with your life goals.
Final Thoughts
Setting priorities and making decisions can often be difficult when there are too many potential choices, or when one allows their emotions to influence their decisions.
A well-designed decision matrix template can eliminate these issues. This is essential when you’re making important, life-changing choices.
If you’re interested in more resources about decision-making and critical thinking, the following posts are worth checking out:
Finally, if you want to level up your productivity and time management skills, then watch this free video about the 9 productivity habits you can build at work.
