My regret is simply not having been able to have all the info to make the best choice - part of that was me just having had such massively blurry visioni for so long I really had no idea how much of that was cataract, how much astigmatism, how much was myopia.  I knew so little I didnt know even what questions to ask.   This whole question of whether to get toric or not - Dr. for whatever reason said "oh, you dont need it" when in fact it turns out I could have benefitted.  I think she thought because I was interested in near and because would need glasses for distance, I would just rely on glasses to correct the astigmatism that way when I actually wanted my close range vision without glasses to be as good as possible. 

This illustrates the benefit of talking to more than one Dr. - they all will have different communication style and will come at things from different angles.    I was so uniformed I thought you only had three choices with monofocal - near, intermediate and far LOLOL.  So I chose near only to find its quite limited - sharpness only in the 10-14 inch range, a little bit of clarity beyond that but not much.  My second eye will have a range of maybe 14-20 so Im hoping that that will be enough of an improvement so I can be at peace with it finally. Cos Im not now. 

If I had it to do over - I would measure exactly what distances I would want my close or nearish intermediate to be and have the word "mini-monovision" in my vocabulary.

If I had it to do over - in addition to better understanding benefits and limitations oft "near" vision,  I would also strongly consider what some others above have suggested - have one or maybe both eyes set slightly myopic so you have decent distance vision - maybe 20/40 or 20/30 - while still being able to see dashboard, computer, larger or average size text.  And then a pair of magnifier glasses for the teeny tiny stuff + maybe distance glasses that darken for keeping in the car. 

 Finally I would test out various ranges with contact lenses although because o f cataract and because the disposable lenses are soft (ie not as sharp/clear) youre not gooing to get exact replica of what an IOL will do.  Still, that would tell you right away what the benefits/limitations are.  This again points to the value of seeing more than one Dr.  I did ask Dr. who did my right eye if I could test out the distances somehow and she said No.  Dr. # 2  who will do my left eye - he said sure and provided me with some at no charge.

What Im proposing is far more complicated than just seeing the Dr. once and picking Door No. 1, 2 or 3 and being surprised by what you get.  But this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get something really great vs. just ok.  Still no guarantees (and you will sign all kinds of disclaimers saying that) but still I think your odds are better when you have a truer understanding of what the choices are and have some basic language to talk to the Dr.  (e.g. "diopters" "min i monovision" etc.)  Best wishes!