Hard or Wrong
The test
Draw a card
A decision test by Terry Rice

Some things are hard because they're worth it.
Some are hard because they're wrong.

They feel identical from the inside. That's why capable people grind on work that was never going to pay off, and walk away from work that would have.

This settles it with evidence instead of feeling. Nothing to type. Say it out loud or think it to yourself. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere.

3 questionsAbout 2 minutesNothing to typeNothing stored
Enter to start
On-ramp

What's the decision that you're circling?

Say it out loud or think it to yourself. Nothing is stored.

Enter to continue
Question one

What are you actually trying to achieve?

Not what you want to stop feeling. What you want to be true when this is over. Say it out loud or think it to yourself.

A feeling is not a goal. "Less stressed" is the fight, not the finish line. A real goal has a number and a date, something you could point at afterwards and say you got there. If you cannot finish the sentence out loud, that is already the first answer.
If both of your options get you this, you're choosing, not deciding, and this test has nothing to add. Pick either one today. Come back if you're still deciding next week, because then it was never about the two options.
Enter to continue
Question two

Is this hard, or is it wrong?

Settled by evidence, never by feeling. Which of these is actually true right now?

Question three

What's the move?

Four outcomes. Only one of them is yours.

One more

Which kind of hard?

"Just hard and mine" forks three ways, and each one has a different move. Be honest, this is the one people fudge.

This path ends here, on purpose

You don't need question three

Most people never get this far. They keep turning the decision over instead of naming what is actually in the way. You just named it.

Enter to continue
Before the verdict

Here's what you're deciding

Read it back once. If something is off, fix it now.

Your decision
Your goal
Enter to reveal
The verdict
Enter to continue
After the verdict · 1 of 3

One person to tell

A decision with a witness gets made. A decision nobody knows about gets quietly revisited until it goes away. Pick the person this actually affects and tell them the move and the date.

The buttons below open your own messaging app with a script. Fill in the blanks there, in your words. This page never sees it.

Text them Email them
After the verdict · 2 of 3

Or say it where people can see it

Say it out loud in public and it gets harder to quietly drop. Three lines, fill in your own, because a post everyone copies word for word is a post nobody believes.


        

          
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After the verdict · 3 of 3

        
What now

        
The move is on the card. Do that first, this week, before it turns
          back into a thing you're thinking about. Then, if you want more reps:

        
    
          
  • 
            Better Problems
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  • 
            A decision you can't call alone
            Bring it and we'll run it together, on a call.
            Book a call
          
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  • 
            Your team keeps getting stuck in the same place
            They call it a roadmap problem. It usually isn't. Terry is a keynote speaker and
              the creator of the Hard or Wrong decision framework, and he teaches rooms to run it
              without him.
            Email me about it
          
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Want the version you can keep? The one-page test is this whole thing on
          paper, free.
          Get it here.