Putting a list in order is harder than picking a winner. Compare two options at a time: first you find your top pick, then the rest of the order builds itself.
Try it now
Eight ways to spend a free day. Put them in your own order.
Which do you prefer?
vs
No account, nothing is saved, and these options cannot be changed.
That was PickChill
The same thing you just did, with your own list instead of ours.
- Add your own options, not our eight
- Every position comes from a pick you made, never from a guess
- The list stays open, so you can add to it any time
Why an order is harder than one answer
To pick a winner you only need to know which option is best. Everything below it can stay a blur.
An order asks for much more. You have to know whether fourth beats fifth, and whether fifth beats sixth, and so on for every pair. Twelve options make 66 pairs. Nobody holds that in their head, which is why a list you meant to sort stays unsorted for months.
The way out is to stop trying to see the whole order at once, and to answer one small question at a time.
How to rank without scoring anything
It happens in two steps, and the second one is up to you:
- The options meet in pairs, and the one you prefer moves on until one is left - your top pick. For eight options that is seven questions.
- Press "Rank all the rest", and each option still waiting is compared with options already in the order. Every answer removes about half of the places it could go.
- Answers you already gave are used again, so a pair you have already compared is not asked twice.
You never give anything a mark, and you never see the whole list while you decide. You answer small questions, and the order is what those answers add up to.
Every position comes from a pick you made. That is the difference between this and a list you dragged into a shape that felt about right.
Why dragging a list into order does not work
Most ranking tools hand you the whole list and let you drag rows around. It feels fast, and it fails for the same reason the list stalled in the first place: it asks you to decide every position at once.
| Dragging rows | Comparing two at a time |
|---|---|
| You decide the whole order at once | You answer one question at a time |
| The middle is guessed and never checked | Every position was compared with something |
| You stop when it looks about right | You stop when the list is finished |
Dragging is still useful, but for a different job: correcting one position you can see is wrong. In PickChill a drag can only correct a place, never create one - which is what keeps the promise above true.
How many questions it takes
12-19
questions to order eight options: seven to find your top pick, then five to twelve more. It is a range, not a number, because it depends on your answers.
28
questions if you compared every possible pair of eight options, which is what a full grid asks for.
The count grows slowly. Every time the list doubles in size, each new option costs only about one extra question, because each answer removes half of the places that were left.
Ties in the middle of a list
Near the middle of a long list this happens constantly, and it is where people give up. It does not mean the method failed. It means those two options really are close.
A tie costs you far less here than it would on a single answer. Getting one wrong moves one option by one place. Fourth and fifth the other way round is a list that is still right about everything else - and if it bothers you later, you move the row.
So do not spend a minute on a pair like that. Pick either one and carry on. If you genuinely cannot, PickChill has a short optional helper: it asks a few questions about how each option makes you feel, one at a time, and it never decides for you. Sometimes it tells you the two are equal, which in an order is a real answer - either order is a good one.
What it is good for, and what it is not
Good for: a list you keep and come back to. Books to read next. Places to visit. Features to build. Things you want to spend money on this year.
Not for: a list where you only need the top one. Stop at your top pick - seven questions instead of about sixteen, for eight options.
It is also not a way to be told what to do. Every position is yours. Nothing is scored, nothing is judged, and the app has no opinion about your options.
Questions
›How is this different from a to-do list I sort by hand?
Sorting by hand asks you to decide the whole order at once. Here you answer one small question at a time, and the order is built from those answers.
›Can I add an option after the list is finished?
Yes, in the app. The list never really finishes: a new option is placed with a few comparisons against the ones already there, and the rest of the list is left alone. The example on this page is fixed, so it cannot take new options.
›What if I get an order I do not agree with?
Move the row. In the app a drag corrects one position, and the rest of the list keeps the positions your answers gave it.
›How long is too long for a list?
PickChill takes up to 32 options. Above that the questions add up faster than your patience, and it is usually better to split the list in two.
›Is this the same as a tier list?
No. A tier list puts things into a few named groups and does not order them inside a group. This gives one place per option, from first to last.