Pros & Cons List Templates

Everywhere we turn in life there seems to be decisions that need to be made. Some are small and mostly inconsequential, and some are important or life-altering decisions. And then there are many that fall somewhere in between. Some bigger decisions may involve whether or not you think you should start or stay in a relationship, what higher education or technical training you should pursue if any, or if you should accept a particular job offer.

Sometimes it helps to clear your head just by listing off all the pros and cons so you can see everything visually. Then you can step back and look at everything and it is very obvious what your choice should be. Other times, you need a “scoring” or “ranking” system: some pros outweigh the rest and some cons are weightier than the others. If this is what you need then we also have 6 “scoring” templates for you to use as you weigh your decision. After writing out all your pros and cons, assign a score to each to help make your choice. There are a number of ways you can do this but here are three ways that might help:

1. High score wins – This is where you give the most important aspect of your decision making the highest number. If you have a list of 10 pros and cons you would give your most critical reason a ranking of 10. The second most relevant point would get a ranking of 9, etc. This should weigh your pros and cons in a way that allows you to determine whether the pros outweigh the cons or vice versa.

2. Low score wins – This is the opposite of #1. You would basically rank each reason in order starting with 1 being the most significant, and continue ranking until you get to the end of your bullet points. The column (pros or cons) with the smallest total number or score wins.

3. Important/Neutral/Not Important – In this method, you number each bullet point with a 1, 2, or 3. The most important pros/cons get a 1, neutrals get a 2, and unimportant ones get a 3. Using this method you can use the low score wins method as an initial way to make the decision if you so desire (doing it by 1, 2, and 3 allows for you to score your pros and cons that are very similar in an equal way) and then look for which grouping (pros or cons) has more “1s” (or maybe simply avoid the one with all the 3s) as a more granular way to ascertain you make a sound choice. 

While these three methods are far from the only way to do it they should add a few simple ways to help you make even the hardest of decisions. 

We can make one decision in your life really simple – should you print out these Free Printable Pros and Cons List Templates? The answer is YES! There are lots of pros: they’re free to download and print, you can print from the comfort and convenience of your own home, there are great designs to choose from, and there are no catches (we don’t force you to sign up for emails…though you’re welcome to if you’d like!). As for cons…there aren’t any! All you have to do is click on the image of the Pros and Cons List you’d like to use from the options below, download the PDF file to your computer, and print!