indecision solution: make your own oracle decks for everything!!
i have a BIG problem making decisions. it’s pathological— and the smaller the decision, the harder it is to make. i will sit in my chair for basically forever trying to decide whether to wash dishes or brush my teeth first, and end up doing neither because the pressure of making a decision, when there was no clear answer, was unbearable. something had to be done.
i wrote a few weeks ago about my new task dice rolling system. that has evolved into a task oracle deck, which is an improvement on the original idea. (i’ll get into it below.)
but it also got me thinking— what other decisions could i make into an oracle deck?
tldr: make a custom deck of cards for any (minor) decision you struggle to make, and shuffle & draw one when the choice is not clear.
that’s the entire idea, but if you’d like to hear the nitty-gritty of my system, keep reading!
the task oracle deck
with the dice-rolling system, i would make a big long list of all the tasks i needed to get done that week, and roll a d10 to see what to do next. however, it wasn’t a perfect system. slapping the tasks i needed to do on cheap index cards was a vast improvement.
advantages of the task oracle deck over the task dice roll:
the options are more random. when rolling dice, i often had a list longer than the d10’s options would allow, so as i crossed things off i would move down the list. (for example, if i rolled an 8 at the end of the day, it might actually be the fifteenth option on the list, because i was just counting ones that had not already been done.) while i was correct that more important tasks generally got done first, it also made it so that tasks were often grouped together on my list (from copying down, for example, all my assignments at once) and therefore i would roll similar tasks together in a row, which kind of sucks.
you can have a category and sub-tasks, all on the same index card. when i finish with a card, i often note down the next step on the card itself, so i don’t have to think about it too hard when i draw it again.
you can take out anything that isn’t feasible at this moment. for example, if i JUST took a shower, i take out the shower card and reshuffle. or if i don’t have time to do laundry, i take it out. i do this before i draw a task, because i have a no-redraws rule (see below).
less re-writing. this was kind of a personal choice and may not be applicable to everyone, but i was making a new analog list for my dice rolls every week in my bullet journal. it’s less of a hassle to just put the same index card back in the deck.
it’s easy to add things to the list. just find another index card and shuffle it in.
how to make a task oracle deck: some options
index cards of any variety. they do not have to be fancy. i found a handful in my drawer, but since i have been making more decks (see below), i got some extra packs that were the cheapest my partner could find. if they don’t match visually, close your eyes when you draw one.
put slips of paper of about the same size in a jar.
make a chart that corresponds to an existing tarot deck/oracle deck/playing card deck. (this one has some cons— for example, you would need to have exactly enough tasks to put one on the chart for each card— but it IS doable, especially if you are lacking in materials.)
digital randomizer, or chart with random number generator. set the parameters of the number generator to match your task list exactly, or copy and paste the entire to-do list and shuffle it.
how to use a task oracle deck
the purpose of the task oracle deck is to pick a task when your priority is NOT already apparent. for example, if i have an assignment due today, i’m going to work on that assignment first thing— i’m not going to wait until i draw it from my task oracle deck. however, if the assignment is due in three weeks, i can add it to my oracle deck and get a head start.
therefore, the things that go in my task oracle deck are often things that are necessary to do, but i never really get around to because they are not obvious priorities.
also: feel free to write in fun stuff too!
some rules for my personal task oracle practice:
i cannot redraw. if i draw a card, i have to do it (in some capacity) before i can draw another card.
i have to put SOME effort in and make progress on the task, but i do NOT have to do it all in one sitting. the bathroom does not need to be spotless before i can draw another card— taking out the trash is enough.
i do NOT have to get through the entire deck before i can reshuffle. the to-do list doesn’t have to be complete before i randomize it again. that means that maybe i did two loads of dishes before i took a shower, and that’s okay.
taken together, these rules make it so i regularly chip away on tasks that are necessary but not urgent priorities— without overwhelming myself in the process.
other oracle options
so, inspired by the success of my task oracle, i started working on other oracles.
in process: the curiosity oracle
i am often frustrated by a. my lack of continued engagement with the media i consume and b. a general sense of having 14,000 ideas a day, so i made the curiosity oracle.
the curiosity oracle is a super-chill version of the zettelkasten. in a zettelkasten, you use index cards (physical or virtual) and order them in an extremely precise way to connect your ideas and the ideas of others. in the curiosity oracle, you focus on and develop ideas in a way that allows synchronicity through shuffling.
making & using the curiosity oracle
i took my notes (from fun books AND school books) from my bullet journal and translated the greatest hits to index cards. some of them say stuff like “what is the counter-reformation?” (i have no idea— yet) and others say stuff like “agency?” with some sources. (i also included creative projects that are still in the brainstorming phase.)
i’ve been drawing one every day for a focus. (today’s is a particularly doomed character whose story i want to elaborate on. yesterday’s was the entire topic of overwhelm.) i can research the topic, write/journal on the topic, or just observe the world using the topic as a lens. (for example, yesterday i came across some random buddhist ideas, and found them very useful to apply to the context of overwhelm. i probably would NOT have made that useful connection if i wasn’t already thinking of my daily focus.)
the benefit to having an index card-based oracle is that not only are you randomizing your intellectual focus, you can also carry it around and make notes on right on it!
unlike the task oracle, in the curiosity oracle i allow redraws. maybe an idea isn’t ready yet, or maybe it should be thrown out entirely. (for example, i had a card that was about what supplies are TRULY necessary for crochet beginners as a substack article idea, but then when i drew it i was disappointed because it was not intellectually juicy. into the recycling bin with that one!)
note: if you decide to do something similar, ALWAYS record your sources! even if you are not quoting them directly!!!
in process: the witchcraft oracle
the witchcraft oracle is more like the task oracle, in that it provides a selection of activities to choose at random, that i might not get around to otherwise. it can include witchy journal stuff, books to read, spells to do, activities, rituals, whatever. very chill.
other oracle ideas:
the media oracle: shuffle and draw your TBR!
the creativity oracle: pick a writing/drawing/etc idea!
the dinner oracle: never worry about what to cook again!
as always, check out linktr.ee/bugtourmaline for my various weird projects and publications!