When I Got Tired of Small Decisions, I Built a Very Small Tool
The reason I wrote this is pretty simple.
One day, I noticed that what interrupted my day the most wasn’t big or complex problems.
It was small decisions that didn’t really deserve much thought:
- Which task should I start with?
- What should I eat for lunch?
- If there are a few options, which one do I pick first?
Each one feels small on its own.
But when they keep showing up throughout the day, they break your focus again and again.
What really drains you is usually not big decisions, but these small moments that feel unimportant—yet still make you stop and think.
I Tried Fixing This with Tools
At first, I tried to solve this with different tools.
But something ironic happened:
To avoid overthinking, I ended up spending more time on the tools themselves.
Logging in.
Setting things up.
Figuring out how they work.
Getting shown more things I “might want to try.”
Instead of helping me get started, the tools became another distraction.
That’s when I realized I wasn’t looking for a smarter system.
I was looking for something quieter.
A Tool That Stays Out of the Way
That’s how WheelPage started.
It’s not a productivity system, and it doesn’t try to help you make better decisions.
It only does one thing:
When you don’t want to think anymore, it gives you a quick, neutral result.
The first thing I built was a simple decision wheel.
You type in your options, spin it, and get a result.
Later, I noticed something interesting.
Most people don’t really care which option the wheel lands on.
What matters is that, when the result shows up, they can finally move on.
Sometimes you’re just sitting in front of the screen, not sure where to begin.
That single result is often enough to get you started.
Over time, people started using the wheel in ways I didn’t expect:
- To break a deadlock in a team
- For classroom activities
- To give themselves a random starting point when they’re stuck
- Or just to help them do something first
If you want to see this basic feature, it’s here: Spin the Wheel
Why I Added a Coin Flip
One piece of feedback kept coming up:
“Most of the time, I’m just choosing between two things.”
So I added an even simpler tool: Coin Flip.
There’s nothing to set up.
No instructions.
You open it and flip.
Heads or tails.
What surprised me was what people told me afterward.
Many said they didn’t fully let the coin decide for them.
Instead, the moment the coin landed, they suddenly realized which side they were hoping for.
That moment is small, but it matters.
If you’re curious, you can try it here: Flip a Coin
A Few Things I Chose Not to Do
While building WheelPage, there were a few things I avoided on purpose.
No accounts
Because using something once shouldn’t require signing up.
No piling on features
Every time I think about adding something, I ask myself:
Is this actually helping someone,
or am I just making it feel more like a “real product”?
No trying to keep you around
The ideal experience is simple:
use it, then leave.
I think of WheelPage as a small thing in a drawer,
not something that asks for your attention all the time.
In the End
WheelPage isn’t meant for big life decisions.
It exists for something much smaller:
helping you stop spending attention on tiny choices.
Sometimes, a random and emotionless result helps you move forward faster.
And sometimes, it even helps you notice what you wanted all along.
If you run into the same kind of friction, this little tool might save you a bit of attention.
It’s there when you need it.
Quiet.
And not in a hurry.
Really resonated with the "quiet tool" philosophy — no login, no onboarding, just use it and move on. I've been building in the same space and found the same thing: the simpler the interaction, the higher the return rate.
One thing worth exploring if you haven't already: localized versions. I run ruleta aleatoria gratis for Spanish-speaking users and the demand surprised me — turns out people strongly prefer using randomizer tools in their own language, especially in classroom and team settings. Could be a low-effort expansion for WheelPage given the core tool is already minimal.
Really appreciate this point. I’m starting to see the same thing while building WheelPage.
For tools this small, simplicity is not just a design preference. It is almost the whole value of the product. If the user has to think too much before using it, the tool already loses part of its purpose.
Your point about localized versions is also a great reminder. I used to think of localization mostly as SEO or distribution, but your classroom and team examples make it feel more like UX.
If someone can use a randomizer in their own language without mentally translating the interface, the tool becomes lighter. I’ve started experimenting with localized pages, and your comment makes me think I should spend more time polishing them instead of adding more features.
I really like the idea of removing friction from tiny decisions.
Personally, I’ve noticed that random choices don’t fully work for me — I tend to feel more relief when I understand why a decision makes sense.
That’s why I often wish for an AI to make a judgment first, and then let me dig into the reasoning only if I want to.
Curious if you’ve thought about this tradeoff between randomness and explainable judgment.
I think this is a very real tradeoff.
Randomness works best when the options are already close enough, and the main problem is hesitation rather than judgment.
If the decision needs reasoning, confidence, or a clear explanation, pure randomness is not enough. In that case, an AI or a more structured decision process probably makes more sense.
So maybe the boundary is:
For WheelPage, I’m trying to keep it in the second category. More like a small nudge than a full decision-making system.
It's genuinely useful and technically well done.
I used something simple some times when I worked in London doing Scrum
Thanks, that’s a great example.
Scrum feels like exactly the kind of environment where small tools can be useful. Sometimes the team does not need a full system. It just needs something lightweight to move the process forward.
That is the kind of use case I’m trying to keep in mind with WheelPage: quick, low-friction, and not trying to take over the workflow.