Decision Analysis is a powerful tool used in business, that can be applied to any decision you are faced with in any part of your personal life. Applying Decision Analysis to your health is one the best ways I’ve found to help make big decisions easy.
This page goes through an example of how this robust tool can be applied to any decision you make related to your health. Decision analysis applied to health, or anything big relating to your health will make you much more confident and comfortable with your choices. The tool systematically identifies your needs, and ensures that you cover all your bases before arriving at the best overall option for you. After applying this technique, you will know that you made the best decision possible for you, in your circumstances, and that time.
So, here’s how it works. List your requirements in rows on the left. Determine a rating system that will help you rate each of the options against your requirements. Apply a weighting to each of the requirements, (if it is more important to you then give it a higher weighting). List all of the alternative options along the top row of the table. Now rank each alternative option for each requirement – this step can take some time. It’s best if you take your time here to make sure that you understand how each option satisfies each requirement. Ask yourself if there are any requirements you missed, if so, then add them in and rate each option accordingly. Finally, for every option multiply the score by the weighting for that requirement. Sum all weighted scores for each requirement, this will give you the score for that alternative option. Repeat for each option, and then compare scores. The option with the highest score is the one that best meets all your needs (requirements), and is probably the best option for you. This process is often an iterative approach, where you may need to adjust the weightings and scores, based on the learnings from the research you’ve conducted.
This technique will help you to arrive at the best decisions for you no matter what the situation. It can be applied to your health, fitness, financial, working, and personal life. You should experience less regret, and be more sure of every decision that you make.
I’d love to hear how you’ve used applied decision analysis to improve your health!