From Stella, your emotional wellness AI
Write both sides, weigh each reason, read the heavy ones first.
Nothing here yet.
Nothing here yet.
Leave out names, numbers and anything you wouldn't want to share.
Add a pro or a con, then press Read it back.
A pros and cons list puts the reasons for a choice in one column and the reasons against it in another, so you can see them side by side instead of going around them in your head. Here you can also mark how much each reason weighs, because one big reason can matter more than five small ones. The list maker is at the top of this page, and it prints as a blank template too.
One line at the top, such as “Take the new job”, keeps the list about one choice. It's optional, and you can leave out names.
Add each reason to Pros or Cons, then mark it a little, some or a lot. Every reason starts at some, so you only change the ones that feel lighter or heavier.
The card shows the heaviest reasons on each side first. It adds nothing up and picks no side. Copy it, print the whole list or share it.
Press Print a blank template under the list maker and you get one page: a line for what you're deciding, two columns of ten lines each, and three small circles beside every line for a little, some or a lot. It prints without your list on it. Some people call this a pros and cons chart. It's the same two columns.
Once you've filled the list in here, Print on the card prints your own list the same way: two columns, every reason with its weight.
Two lists as the card reads them back, heaviest reasons first. Neither card says which side won.
Example written for this page
More money every month (a lot)
A shorter commute (some)
A team that seemed kind (some)
Leaving people I like (a lot)
A six-month trial period (some)
New software to learn (a little)
Three reasons a side, and one heavy reason on each. The useful question isn't which column is longer. It's which of the two heavy reasons you'd regret ignoring.
Example written for this page
We already spend most nights together (a lot)
Splitting rent (some)
I'm not sure we've had a real argument yet (a lot)
Breaking my lease early (a little)
Less time on my own (some)
My stuff won't fit (a little)
The cons column is longer, and that settles nothing. Two of its four reasons are light. The heavy one is a question worth asking out loud.
A plain list counts every reason as one point, so the longer column looks like the answer. Real reasons aren't equal: “more money every month” and “the office has a nice kitchen” don't belong on the same scale.
A weighted pros and cons list fixes that by letting each reason carry a weight. Here the weight is a word, not a number, because numbers invite you to add them up. The card reads the heaviest reasons first, and those are the ones to think about.
In a 1772 letter to his friend Joseph Priestley, Benjamin Franklin described his method: draw a line down half a sheet of paper, write Pro over one column and Con over the other, and add reasons over three or four days as they come to mind.
Then he weighed them. Where a reason on one side seemed equal to one on the other, he struck both out. Where one reason equaled two on the other side, he struck out all three. What was left showed him where the balance lay. He called it moral or prudential algebra.
Source: Franklin's letter to Joseph Priestley, September 19, 1772, Founders Online, National Archives.
If both sides look about the same, you've learned something: either choice is livable. The decision may come down to one heavy reason, or to how you feel when you imagine having chosen. Read the heavy ones on each side out loud and notice which one you argue with.
A list can also get in the way. In a 1991 study, people who were asked to analyze their reasons before choosing ended up with choices that matched expert opinion less closely than people who simply chose. The researchers' explanation was that listing reasons can turn your attention to details that don't matter much. If your list says one thing and your gut keeps saying another, ask what the list left out.
Source: study on how analyzing reasons can change what people choose, Timothy D. Wilson and Jonathan W. Schooler, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1991.
A pros and cons list lays the reasons out where you can see them. It can't ask why one reason keeps pulling at you, or help you say the choice out loud to the person it affects.
When a decision keeps going around, saying it to someone can show you which reason is really in charge. Stella is your emotional wellness AI. Tell her what you're weighing, by voice or text, and she tells you straight but kindly. The choice stays yours.
Write the decision at the top. List every reason for it in one column and every reason against it in the other, one short line each. Then mark how much each reason weighs, and read the heaviest ones on both sides before you look at which column is longer.
It's a pros and cons list where each reason carries a weight, so one big reason isn't drowned out by several small ones. Some versions use numbers and add them up. This one uses three words: a little, some and a lot. It reads the heaviest reasons back first and adds nothing up.
No. A longer column only means you found more reasons on that side, and small reasons are easy to find. One heavy reason, like being near family or a pay cut you can't absorb, can outweigh five light ones. That's why the card puts the heaviest reasons first and never counts the columns.
Yes. Press Print a blank template under the list maker. You get one page with a line for the decision, two columns of ten lines and a place to mark each reason a little, some or a lot. Your own filled list prints the same way from the card.
When the choice is mostly about a feeling, a list can pull you toward the reasons that are easy to write down. If the list says one thing and your gut keeps saying another, ask what the list left out. Choices about health, money or safety also need real information and someone who knows the area.
