________  ________  ________
   2024-11-04                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   I arrived  at this idea  organically  but  /        _/         /         /
it's so preposterously simple and  obvious I  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
find it hard to believe I'm the first one to    /        \/        \/    /   \
think  of  it,   if  you   know  of  someone   /        _/         /_       _/
publishing  a similar  idea I'd love to hear  /-        /        _/         /
about it so I can compare notes.              \________/\________/\___/____/

   tarot,  for the unfamiliar,  is a deck of cards and a myriad of ways to use
those  cards  to seek  help with the past,  find  guidance  or insight  on the
present or divine  the future.  the deck is split into  two categories;  Major
Arcana  and  Minor Arcana.  if I remember correctly,  Major Arcana  represents
larger overarching  concepts and Minor Arcana represents things more specific,
speaking to the detail or degree of something larger. each card in the deck is
also interpreted by its orientation in its use, an upright card is interpreted
more literally  and  positively while an inverted card  is  understood to be a
negative or difficult outcome or that something is happening surreptitiously.

   that last concept is what I've applied to my workflow.

   I'm crushed by ideas and plans, some half-baked daydreams and some so fully
formed I can see the result in my mind's eye, it has me completely overwhelmed
and that leaves  me stuck,  unable to pick a direction to move in,  so  I  get
nothing done. all I do is stress about what I want to do and bemoan my lack of
time/organization  to do it.  tarot removes that decision making from  me  and
makes it far easier to get things done.

   for my deck, each idea or project or piece of work is represented by a card
and each card represents  a portion of my time,  for simplicity I currently do
it in threes;  three hours "in office" broken down into three cards,  one hour
each.

   the deck is spread,  shuffled and cut until  I'm  satisfied it's  ready and
then I draw three  cards and lay them in  front of me.  three projects,  three
tasks, three hours.  where  orientation  comes in is it defines  how I work on
that task;  a card upright is positive,  I work  on  something fresh or new or
exciting for that task,  a card inverted is negative and now it's time to work
on those pieces I've been putting off, the hard parts or the grind.

   let's run through a  hypothetical  spread;  the deck is already filled with
tasks and shuffled, here's what I draw.

   music library, inverted.

   this  describes  my music library,  it needs a  lot of work,  I was  pretty
diligent in my youth in  keeping  it tidy but with the rise of mobile data and
streaming platforms it's fallen by the wayside,  I'm trying to  extract myself
from that ecosystem but it's a lot of work.  the card inverted means it's time
for me to grind on  checking  and tagging those albums that  have been sitting
untouched for decades and fix the gaps in my metadata.

   my bike, upright.

   I'm working on a bike,  I've been working on it forever but I'm making real
strides with it now.  upright means I can work on those bits that are going to
get me  excited  about  it  again,  sourcing  new parts maybe  or  working  on
colors/artwork  for it.  before  too  long  a  draw  like this  might  mean  a
test-ride, I can't wait for that day.

   lastly, tarot, inverted.

   it's meta but this idea has been  kicking around in my head for a long time
and now I'm on the hook; it's time to finally write that phlog post about it.



EOF