A slew of apps are aimed at helping users make decisions. Some help users weigh pros and cons and others are more of a social polling type app. Some are even more like a coin flip or Magic 8
ball. I wrote recently about using a spreadsheet to help you make better decisions faster. But what if you don’t love spreadsheets? Are there other tools to help you make decisions? Sometimes it feels like life would be easier if it were on more of a straight path, but that’s just not reality. Decisions are part of life. But you can make decisions a little more productive and interesting with apps.
Random can be good. If you don’t have a coin handy, use JustFlipACoin on your desktop browser to decide. But remember to yell Heads! or Tails! out loud so there’s no cheating. 🙂
I’ve used Random.org more times than I can count (pun intended) to choose a number that represents a choice. Have your contestants (kids?) choose a number between two points, and the winner is the one closest to the number that Random.org chooses.
Ask your social media peeps. I’m not advocating to let peer pressure run your life, but sometimes hearing other voices outside your head is a good thing. This one doesn’t require a specialized app. Just ask your community of Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn users to weigh in on a decision you are making. I’ve done this when it comes to choosing books covers and class titles. Sometimes the feedback is worth everything. I don’t think that personal Facebook profiles have this option, but business Facebook pages have a polling function built right in.
Decision roulette to choose from among several options? Yep, that’s an app you can search for on your mobile device.
Should I? helps you make decisions with responses from popular clips from shows and movies. Basically it’s a bag full of memes randomized against your real questions. It’s free, and I’m pretty sure you’ll get what you pay for, but at least you’ll be lol-ing while you do.
There are plenty of “make your decision in three steps” kind of apps available. Do you need an app, a graph, a color wheel to decide what’s for dinner or whether to do your laundry this week? Probably not, but maybe you know a young person who struggles with good choices. It can’t hurt to give them one more tool as they grow up in this tech-driven world. It’s what they relate to, so give them an option. What it really comes down to is having a little more comfort that you’ve framed your decisions well and getting another party to help, even if that party is artificial intelligence.
The process of organizing your stuff, time and information is basically the process of making one decision after the other. If you think you struggle with decisions, you might want to read more about emotional strategies for dealing with clutter part 1 and part 2.
Read about three easy ways to use spreadsheets to help you make decisions.
Are you using decision making apps to help you with small or large decisions? Please comment below.