I don't know why I feel embarrassed to say I've really benefitted from Julia Cameron's work. I think it's because I started on on the tale end of it's last lull period (its popularity has come and gone a few times) before it seemed to be everywhere all the time. I think it's because I get it as a person in sobriety as well, and I came to it from a sobriety tool lens rather than as an artistic tool like most people into it recently.

I credit a lot to her work, including my most recent letterpress - I wouldn't have been ready for the commitment and the leap to jump on it when one came up for sale without TAW. I do a shorter form of morning pages each day and I think it helps me know what it is I really want.

Similarly, having a daily two-card tarot pull feels just a bit cringe after years of a weird capitalistic over-saturation of tarot everything. For about 4 years I've been pulling two cards every morning, which I incorporate into my morning pages. I don't see them as divination but just an interesting way to view a day's potential.

I use one deck almost exclusively - a black and white pip deck based on the Rolla Nordic tarot that came in a little metal tin for travel.

I use Kim Krans' Archetype Deck when I'm feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or just stuck. I sometimes use this deck when planning out a week or month.

I have two journals: my morning journal and my evening journal.

My morning journal is for processing, and is a black and white composition notebook with terrible handwriting. I take a half-hour each morning to journal, with the first half of my writing as stream-of-consciousness to clear the clutter for my mind. I finish my morning writing with my tarot pull, a vision for the day (may I feel resourced through this school day with the kids, may I not pass out during my bloodwork, etc) and it ends with a gratitude paragraph.

My evening journal is the fun and pretty one. Here is where I capture the events and flavor of the day with paint pens, stickers, and micron/uniball pens. I sometimes track my habits and to-do lists in this journal as well (as of this writing, I am trying out a weekly planning page with my lists, habits, and accomplishments).

I need my journalling to be completely flexible - no hobonichi techo here. I need to be able to change my systems as needed and I bounce between tracking habits with my journal versus in Notion. I currently track four habits: exercise, "good web" (not more than a few minutes of mindless scrolling), eating healthy, and doing both journal practices (morning and evening). If I track more than four dailies I end up overwhelmed.

Notion is a very imperfect tool for planning and organizing pretty much anything, and for its maaany faults (slow to load, pushing AI, not e2e encrypted), I attribute it with helping me out of some creative blocks. For the last few years I start each month with a new theme and layout, decide what to track, how to organize my calendar (I use Apple calendar integration for Notion Calendar) and calendar notifications, and fill it with art or sozai to encourage me to use it.

There is no shame in getting motivation from making things pretty! I learned how to use Notion in the same way I am re-learning CSS/HTML: copying and shifting templates to grow my skills. I used it to plan my wedding, organize my business, and get myself organized for a move. I still use it as a link bucket to keep all my links in one place.

The above practices are things I *add* to my overallsystem, and blocking apps/websites on my phone and computer helps make called time for them.

I currently run a hardened Firefox as my main browser on Linux Mint, so I use a free browser extension LeechBlock. My only complaint is that if you are severely internet-addicted, you will find a way around it. After using Cold Turkey on my Mac for several years (it's worth every one-time penny to purchase), I got used to not having the ability to ovverride my blockers so my habits are set even just with LeechBlock. I do wish CT worked on Linux, though.I use Burnout Buddy on my iphone.

As for how I use blocking software: I made a list of sites I have compulsive use with - APNews, Mastodon, Reddit, the usual suspects - and limit my use for 20 minutes every 12 hours. It feels fair to me and I don't really try to work around that limit anymore after a few years. I do watch a decent amount of YouTube, but not in a way that feels red-flaggy to me.