How do you decide when both options are bad?
By No Rush · Updated November 4, 2026
The short answer
Write down the worst thing that could realistically happen with each option, and pick the one whose worst case you could live with. Amos Tversky and Eldar Shafir found that people put a choice off more often when the options pull against each other. Waiting can cost you as much as a wrong pick. Set a date by which you decide.
What's it called when both options are bad?
People often call it a lose-lose choice, or choosing the lesser of two evils. It feels different from a choice between two good things. With two good options you gain either way. With two bad ones, each choice costs you something, and that makes it tempting to choose neither and wait.
Why do I keep putting the choice off?
Because conflict makes waiting attractive. Amos Tversky and Eldar Shafir ran several studies in which people could pick an option or put the choice off. When the options pulled against each other, more people put it off or looked for something else. But not choosing is also a choice: the situation goes on while you wait.
How to make a decision between two options?
Take a sheet of paper and write both options at the top. Under each, list what could go wrong in the next six months if you chose it. Circle the item that worries you most on each side, and ask which of the two circled things you could deal with. That's usually your answer. Pick a day to decide, and tell a friend the date.
Should I keep the option to change my mind?
It sounds safe, but it may make you less happy with what you chose. Daniel Gilbert and Jane Ebert let people choose a photo they could either swap later or not. People who could still swap liked their photo less afterwards. A choice you settle on gives you room to make the best of it. You can still agree with yourself to look again after three months.
Does flipping a coin help?
Sometimes. Economist Steven Levitt ran a website where people who couldn't make up their mind flipped a coin, and thousands took part. When the choice was big, like quitting a job, people who changed something after the coin told them to were happier six months later than people who stayed where they were. Levitt says himself that this is a hint, not proof.
In the No Rush app
The app has a list called Directions, with things people do when they feel stuck. Each one shows its downside and a first step you can take.
No Rush app
An iPhone app for people who feel stuck. It sets out one small next step at a time and tells you why that one. It is not therapy.
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Sources
- Tversky & Shafir (1992). Choice under conflict: The dynamics of deferred decision. Psychological Science, 3(6), 358-361. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00047.x
- Gilbert & Ebert (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affective forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(4), 503-514. doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.4.503
- Levitt (2021). Heads or tails: The impact of a coin toss on major life decisions and subsequent happiness. The Review of Economic Studies, 88(1), 378-405. doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaa016
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