Attribution
The core idea is Simone Giertz’s, from her video The only life hack I believe in. Sidequest is my tiny web version: write only options I would actually accept, roll the die, then do what it picks.
Why
Sometimes the hard part of a todo list is not knowing what is on it. It is deciding which reasonable thing gets the next half hour. The die is a useful little interrupt: it turns a list into a tiny quest and gets me moving.
The rule
The die is always the size of the open list: dN, where N is the number of open tasks. Five open todos means d5. Twelve open todos means d12. The app rolls once, highlights the picked task, and lets me mark it done when I finish. It is intentionally dumb in the useful way.
Shape
The page is local-first and browser-only. Tasks live in localStorage, so there is no account, no backend, and nothing to sync. The design is mostly Swiss: grid, rules, IBM Plex Sans, one accent color. The D&D touch stays light: quest language, a d20 mark, and a small glyph on the picked task.
Use
Add a handful of things that are all acceptable next actions. Roll. If the result is wrong, that is also useful data: rewrite the task, remove it, or admit it should not have been on the list. The little ritual is just enough friction to stop rereading the same list forever.
Try it
The working version is embedded below. It runs entirely in this page and saves only to this browser.