How do I compare options properly instead of going round in circles?

Comparing two options directly is a trap, because every option is better than every other option at something. A washing machine with a bigger drum, a car with lower mileage, a phone with a better camera — each comparison hands the lead back and forth, and there is no point at which you have finished. The way out is to stop comparing options with each other and start comparing every option with a fixed standard you wrote down first.

Step by step

1. Write the job down before the options.One sentence: what does this thing have to do, for whom, how often, for how long? "A machine that washes for two adults and a baby, four loads a week, in a kitchen 600mm wide, for at least eight years." Everything downstream comes from this sentence.
2. Turn that into criteria, and mark each must or nice.A must-have is something that makes the option useless if it fails — the width, the deadline, the number of seats. A nice-to-have is something you would pay a bit more for. Most people write eight criteria and can only defend three as musts.
3. Set your limit now, before you see any prices.Decide the number while you are still thinking about what you need rather than what you want. A limit set after browsing is a limit set by the options.
4. Screen on the must-haves, ruthlessly and quickly.Take each candidate and check only the musts. Anything that fails one is out, immediately, however attractive it is elsewhere. This is the step people avoid, because it usually eliminates the option they liked.
5. Compare only the survivors, only on the nice-to-haves.You now have a short list of options that all do the job. The remaining decision is genuinely about preference and price, which is a much smaller question and one you can actually finish.
6. Compare on total cost, not on the ticket.Add running costs, consumables, delivery, installation, insurance and disposal over the years you will keep it. Two options with the same price frequently differ substantially once the whole life is counted.
7. Record the decision and the reason, then stop looking.Two lines in a note: what you chose, and which criterion decided it. That note is what stops you reopening the whole thing in a fortnight when an advert shows you something shinier.

Tips

• If two options both pass every must-have and you cannot separate them, that is information: the decision does not matter much, so take the cheaper or the more available one and move on.
• Beware criteria invented after you saw an option. If a feature only became important once you found something that had it, it is a justification, not a criterion.
• Five criteria is usually the practical ceiling. Beyond that people start scoring things they cannot actually judge.

Common mistakes

• Reading reviews before deciding what you need — Reviews are written against the reviewer's criteria, not yours. Reading them first quietly replaces your requirements with theirs.
• Treating every criterion as equally important — It produces a tie between things that are not close, because a small win on something trivial cancels a large win on something that matters.
• Letting the shortlist grow while you research — Adding options resets the comparison. Once the shortlist is set, new candidates only get considered if they beat a survivor on a must-have.

Questions people ask