A decision wheel for when you can’t choose
“What should I eat?” is a question that can take longer than cooking the meal. This decision wheel answers it with one spin. It comes filled with eight food ideas: Pizza, Sushi, Tacos, Burgers, Pasta, Salad, Curry and Ramen. Spin, and dinner is decided. You can also replace the list with anything else you need to pick: a movie, a chore, a weekend plan. It is free, needs no account, and works in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer.
How the wheel decides
Next to the wheel is a box with your options, one per line. Each line becomes a slice. Edit the list as much as you like. It is saved in your browser, so your options are still there next time.
- Spin. Tap the wheel, tap the round Spin button in its center, or press Space. You can also flick the wheel with a finger or the mouse to spin it in that direction, or tap the microphone button in the header and say “spin”.
- Watch it land. The wheel slows down over a few seconds, ticking as each slice passes the pointer on the right.
- Decide. A pop-up shows the result. Press Spin again, or Remove to drop that option and spin among the rest.
The bottom bar can Shuffle the list, Sort it from A to Z, show your Results so far (with Clear), and turn the Sound on or off. Full screen makes the wheel bigger, and the round button at the bottom right changes the color.
What should I eat? Spin the random food wheel
The default list mixes comfort food, lighter meals and takeout favorites. A few ways to make it your own:
- Make it local. Replace the food types with the restaurants near you, or the dishes you can actually make at home tonight.
- Use your fridge. List the meals you can cook with what you have. The wheel helps use up ingredients before they go bad.
- Plan the week. Spin once per day for dinners Monday to Friday, removing each winner so you do not eat curry five nights in a row.
- Order for a group. Let everyone add one option, then spin. Nobody has to be the one who chose.
Other things to decide with a wheel
- Movie night. Put the shortlist on the wheel and stop scrolling.
- Chores. List the jobs and let each person spin for theirs.
- Weekend plans. Hike, museum, movies, a day at home. Spin and go.
- Restaurant choice. When three friends each have a favorite, add all three and let the wheel pick.
- Tie-breaks. Two options left and a split vote? Put both on the wheel.
For a quick yes or no, the yes or no wheel is set up for that. To pick a name from a group, use the main wheel of names.
Tips: give an option more weight
The winner is drawn with your browser's cryptographic random generator before the wheel moves, and every slice has the same chance. With the eight default foods, each one has a one in eight chance.
To make an option more likely, enter it twice. It gets two slices, so it has twice the chance of the others. The odds always follow the number of slices.
| Your list | Chance for Pizza | Chance for each other food |
|---|---|---|
| 8 foods, each once | 1 in 8 (12.5%) | 1 in 8 (12.5%) |
| Pizza twice, 7 others once | 2 in 9 (about 22%) | 1 in 9 (about 11%) |
| Pizza 3 times, 7 others once | 3 in 10 (30%) | 1 in 10 (10%) |
A few more tips. Remove options you would truly hate, because the wheel will pick them sooner or later. Keep the list short when you are hungry: five to eight choices is plenty. And if you feel let down by the result, that tells you what you really wanted. Spin again, or just go with your gut.
Why small choices feel so tiring
Most people know the feeling. After a long day full of choices, even picking dinner feels like too much. People often call this decision fatigue. Small choices can pile up, and the last ones of the day tend to feel the hardest, especially when the options are all fine and none of them stands out.
A random pick takes the pressure off. When every option on the list is good enough, there is no wrong answer, and handing the choice to a wheel lets everyone move on. It also keeps things fair in a group, since nobody has to take the blame for a bad pick.
If you need several ideas in a random order, for a weekly meal plan for example, try the list randomizer. Your list stays only in your own browser, nothing is sent to a server, and the wheel works offline once the page has loaded.