this is part of an ongoing series on how I work.

I wrote last autumn about making an early prototype of my creative immersion work deck to organize my creative work projects — and why it completely changed how I work. this is version 2.0 — which I’ve illustrated spontaneously, so that each card captures the energy of the project, and connects me with my intuition.

against the linearity of to-do lists

prior to this, I tried ALL the ways of project management: Kanban boards, Notion, Google Calendar time blocking, not to mention a gazillion different paper inventions. I’ve come to accept that

PAPER > DIGITAL, all the way. it’s like - I need to hold a project to feel its presence.
for me, to-do lists only work at the micro-level of a single project. I can only hold my attention on a to-do list for like, 8 hours — and only for ONE project.

I can’t tell you how many weekly to-do lists I’ve abandoned, and felt guilty about — because I think feel compelled to rebel against its linearity and structure. somehow, a to-do list doesn’t fit in with how I experience time. it’s like: time feels round, and a to-do list is rectangular. (ok, this is an oversimplification. time is more like an animal, sometimes rabbit, sometimes a snake, sometimes a cat. but to-do lists are lego blocks).

each card is a worm-hole portal for deep flow

but modularity, I can play with. why? idk, a sense of freedom? maybe to appease my desire to dance between projects — rather than to feel obligated to them, or imprisoned by something I said I’d do 3 hours ago, but lost the mood for?

maybe it’s because when I’m focused on something, I like to delete everything else from my peripherial vision (a temporary state of mind in which there’s nothing else that possibly exists in the world, except this ONE thing). this helps me both get into deep flow, AND… it puts me in danger of getting stuck in a dive — then drowning at the bottom of the psychic ocean.

Thus, this deck is for moving between deep dives. Each one is like a portal wormhole into a different way of being. How?

Projects become deep practices. all smaller projects (individual clients, or sub-offerings, for example) go under a single card. if it’s a process that repeats itself, it becomes a practice. All to-do list tasks turn into processes that I refine, slowly, over time — and this, in turn, alleviates my brain load by SO much. I don’t constantly feel scattered and the compulsive urge to remember something.
The space for hyper-focus: when I think about that project, I can allow myself to sink in and become obsessive, knowing that there’s another deep dive, waiting, on the other side. It’s like diving with a hook attached — that hook reminds you that you’re due for another dive tomorrow, so don’t die here.
An antidote to work amnesia: part of being a deep diver is that your head is so full of things — that you forget so easily. I use the back of the cards to write succinct notes about projects, and to help me pick up where I left off. (I can’t tell you how much time this has saved me — I tend to go in circles).
Tactility connects me to energy: when I hold a card, I can feel the energy of a project. it’s like the tactility of the cards speak to my body and psychic body — as a direct, intuitive line of communication. (this is most definitely connected with my recent tarot practices.) I’m still deepening this as an intuitive practice.
Modularity allows fluidity: when thinking about my week or day, I can lay them out, rearrange them, and see how it feels as I designate different cards to different days / times. This also gives me the freedom to rebirth cards.

each card is a vessel for everything

just as I love this deck because each card is a portal — it gives me permission to deep dive, to fully immerse, and to prepare for the next dive — each card is also a vessel for everything: ideas, dreams, plans, goals, reflections… brain stuff.

I do this by drawing the illustrations (which come to me spontaneously, and are subject to change), and writing on sticky notes, or directly on the cards themselves.

My way of using them has a lot evolved over time, but generally, I have a couple ways of interacting with them.

DAILY: I spread them and touch all the cards everyday, if only to see which ones my hands reach for — what creative urges I feel, and how I can respond to those impulses.
WEEKLY: I review all of them — in detail, and write notes on the back (on sticky notes) for next steps, or creative impulses.
DAILY: I write next “task” on a tiny sticky note on the front (yes, they are color-coded), or on a separate sticky note on the back — and it’s only at this micro-layer that the linear to-do list system works for me, and I could assign time to each task.
COLOR-CODING: red = art practices, pink = intuitive practices, green = digital ecosystem, blue = offerings.

it took me time to refine my own process for these cards — and it’s always changing (which is definitely, 100%, the point). I plan to retire cards and rebirth cards whenever it’s completed a “cycle” — whatever that means.

if you make your own, I’d suggest approaching it as if you were making a creative oracle deck. to think of each card as a living thing, holding energy, directing energy, having a shape. always being in motion.

each one is a process — and the more we live this process (cyclically) the more embedded and embodied it will feel — thus, the more effortless it will feel, until each practice-project will be as natural as breathing.

I’m wishing you deep diving into your own magic.

💌 I write a weekly newsletter on creative alchemy & world-building called guide.notes. I also have a weekly podcast, botanical studies.

my creative immersion deck: how I organize creative energy

against the linearity of to-do lists

each card is a worm-hole portal for deep flow

each card is a vessel for everything