Decision Maker FAQ
Answers about the Decision Maker, from framing a choice to reviewing how it went.
Last Updated: November 10, 2026
1. General Questions
Q1: What is the Decision Maker?
A1: A tool for thinking through one decision at a time: you frame the choice, weigh the options from several angles (a scoring table, pros and cons, a two-at-a-time ranking, a wheel or a coin with a gut check), make the call with your reasons written down, and later come back to review how it went. Every decision you start is kept in a list, open, decided or reviewed.
Q2: How much does it cost?
A2: Nothing. It is free, with no registration and no limit on decisions. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, it is supported by advertising.
Q3: Do I need to install anything or create an account?
A3: No. Open the page in a modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) on a computer, tablet or phone. Your decisions are kept in that browser, so there is nothing to sign in to.
Q4: Is anything I type uploaded?
A4: No. Titles, options, scores, pros and cons, notes and reviews stay in this browser on your device and are never sent to a server. The page itself loads the site's ads and analytics, as every page on the site does; the Privacy Policy explains those, and what you type is never part of them.
Q5: Does it decide for me?
A5: No. It shows you what your own scores, arguments and gut feelings say, side by side, and points out when they disagree or when a result hangs on one weight. The choice, and the reasons for it, are yours.
Q6: How is it different from SpinForge?
A6: SpinForge is a wheel for any list: names, prizes, chores or numbers, with bigger chances, teams and game modes. The Decision Maker is for one decision between a few options. Its wheel is one of six tools, spins only that decision's options, and your gut checks join the scores, pros and cons and head to head rounds in one table.
2. Framing the Choice
Q7: What does the Frame tab ask?
A7: Why the decision matters and what a good outcome looks like, a date to decide by, how easy it is to undo (easy or hard) and how much is at stake (low, medium or high), plus the list of options. Only the options are needed; the rest helps you and the advice below them.
Q8: What is the advice under the questions?
A8: A suggestion of where to start, from your answers about stakes and undoing. Low stakes: do not overthink it, spin or flip and notice how you feel. High stakes and hard to undo: score the options, check with pros and cons and sleep on it. Hard to undo: make your reasons explicit in Weigh. Reversible but important, or medium stakes: a quick Head to head round. A link takes you to that tab once you have two options.
Q9: How many options can I add?
A9: Two to twelve. Two is the minimum for a decision (add "do nothing" if that is the other choice); three to six works best. Type several at once, separated by commas or semicolons. Past eight, Head to head gets long, and the tool says so.
Q10: Can I change the order of the options?
A10: Yes. Drag an option by its handle, or put the cursor in its name and press Alt and the up or down arrow. The order sets each option's colour and its place on the wheel.
Q11: What happens when I remove an option?
A11: Its scores, its pros and cons and its head to head rounds go with it. A message offers Undo for a few seconds, which puts everything back.
3. Weighing the Options
Q12: How does the scoring table work?
A12: Add the criteria that matter (price, time, risk, enjoyment...) as columns. Each criterion gets a weight from 1 to 5 for how much it matters, and every option a score from 0 to 10 on it, starting at 5. An option's total is each score multiplied by its weight, added up, and shown as a share of the most it could get: 100% would be a perfect 10 on everything.
Q13: What does Suggest criteria add?
A13: Up to four criteria from a short list (cost, time it takes, risk, enjoyment, long term value, effort to undo, fit with my goals, impact on others) that are not in the table yet, each with weight 3. Rename or remove the ones that do not fit your decision.
Q14: What do "robust", "fragile" and "moderate" mean?
A14: After you score, the tool tries changing each weight by one step, then two, and so on, and checks whether another option would then come out strictly ahead. Fragile: one step on a single weight hands the win to another option, and the tool names that criterion. Robust: the leader is ahead by 10 points or more and no one-step change moves it. Moderate: anything in between, with the smallest change that would.
Q15: What is "Why X is on top"?
A15: How much each criterion gives to the leading option's total, as a share: its weight times the option's score on it. It shows what is really carrying the result.
Q16: How many criteria can I use?
A16: Up to ten. A few that truly matter tell you more than many small ones.
4. Pros and Cons, Head to Head
Q17: How are pros and cons counted?
A17: Each argument counts 1, 2 or 3 dots: minor, counts, or a deal maker or deal breaker. An option's net score is the dots of its pros minus the dots of its cons. The tool warns when an option has fewer than two arguments, and when the leading option carries a three-dot con.
Q18: What is Head to head?
A18: Two options at a time: pick the one you would rather have, by gut, quickly. Every option meets every other one once (three options take three rounds, five take ten). A win counts 1 and "Cannot choose" half a win each. The pairs come in a fair random order, and which option sits on the left is random too.
Q19: What does "your choices go in a circle" mean?
A19: That you picked A over B, B over C and C over A. It usually means you judged different pairs on different things; the scoring table, which makes you compare every option on the same criteria, sorts it out.
Q20: Can I undo a pick?
A20: Yes. Undo takes back the last picks one by one, and Restart clears all rounds (with Undo in the message to bring them back).
5. Spin, Flip and the Gut Check
Q21: Is the wheel fair?
A21: Yes. The pick comes from your browser's secure random numbers, every option on the wheel has the same chance, and the winner is the slice the pointer stops on. Before this page was published, 660,000 spins on wheels of 2 to 12 options were checked: the picks were even, and every spin stopped inside the picked slice, away from its edges.
Q22: And the coin?
A22: Heads and tails are equally likely, from the same secure random numbers (checked on a million flips). Rename the two sides, for example "Take the job" and "Stay".
Q23: What is the gut check for?
A23: When the wheel or coin lands, say how you felt: relieved, nothing much or disappointed. That feeling is often the answer: relief means you wanted it, disappointment means you wanted something else. Over several spins, the tool tells you which option you keep feeling good about, and your feelings about the wheel's picks join the table in Decide.
Q24: What does "Remove the winner after each spin" do?
A24: Takes each winner off the wheel until you leave the tab, so you can spin down to the last option.
Q25: Do Quick spin and Flip a coin save anything?
A25: They start a small decision called "Quick spin" or "Coin flip" in your list, set to low stakes and easy to undo, and open its Spin tab. Delete it from the list when you are done.
6. Deciding and Reviewing
Q26: What does the Decide tab show?
A26: A table with each option's rank in every tool you used (Weigh, Pros and cons, Head to head, Gut check) and an overall share. Each tool gives its first option full points and its last none; ties share a rank. Below it the tool says whether the tools agree, disagree or are level.
Q27: What is the pre-mortem?
A27: An optional note: imagine it is a year from now and the decision went badly, and write what happened. Telling the failure story first is a cheap way to spot a risk while you can still plan for it.
Q28: How do I record the decision?
A28: Pick your choice (or "Something else, or not deciding yet" and describe it), write why in a sentence or two for your future self, and press Decide. The decision is marked Decided with the date. Reopen decision takes it back.
Q29: How does the review work?
A29: Come back once you know how it turned out, give it one to five stars and write what happened and what you would do differently. Rate the decision given what you knew then, not just the outcome. The decision is then marked Reviewed; Edit review changes it.
7. Your Data
Q30: Where are my decisions kept?
A30: In this browser on this device, in its local storage. Nothing is saved on a first visit until you start a decision. Another browser, another device or a private window starts empty.
Q31: How do I keep a backup or move my decisions?
A31: Export saves every decision in one file (JSON). Import reads such a file back, in this browser or another: decisions with the same id are replaced and the rest added, up to 500 decisions. Every value in the file is checked first.
Q32: How does a share link work?
A32: Share link copies a link that carries one decision inside it, after the # sign. Browsers never send that part to a server, and the page takes it out of the address before anything else loads. Whoever opens the link gets their own copy in their browser; changes are not shared back. Very large decisions are too long for a link; use Export instead.
Q33: Can I copy a decision as text?
A33: Yes. Copy summary, in the Decide tab, puts the title, context, options, scores, pros and cons, head to head wins, pre-mortem and the decision with its review on the clipboard as plain text.
Q34: How do I delete everything?
A34: Delete all, under Your decisions, removes every decision this tool keeps in this browser after you confirm; the rest of the site is left alone. To delete one decision, use the bin on its card; Undo in the message brings it back.
Q35: Are there keyboard shortcuts?
A35: Inside the tool: 1 to 6 switch the tabs, Esc goes back to your decisions, A and L pick in Head to head and T means you cannot choose, Space spins the wheel or flips the coin in Spin. They work while the tool is in use, not elsewhere on the page.
Still have a question?
The help page walks through every part of the Decision Maker. For anything else, use the contact form.