I'd love to give credit where credit's due, but I can't find where I read it.

I have a limited amount of practice time, and that's in short bursts. Following from an idea I read here (I think), I've started writing down all the things I need to practice (routines and sleights) on a retired deck of cards. Whenever I get a free moment, I give the cards a shuffle and pick one, and I practice whatever was written on the card.

I find this gets over the problem of "What shall I practice...hmmm..." and running out of time before I've started. Also it helps me to avoid practicing favorite things while neglecting others.

Does anyone else use this idea? Any thoughts?

I have a feeling that this is a Mike Skinner idea -- it was in an issue of Genii sometime in the last two or three years.

-Jim

That sounds possible, Jim, although I'm sure I read it here. Anyway, the method's working for me at the moment, so I thought I'd recommend it for those in a similar situation, and see if anyone had any thoughts/ideas about this.

I remember it being in Robert Giobbi's column in Genii. It is a very good idea.

Cool idea. there are so many effects out there. I never remember any when the moment calls

That's a great idea. Whenever I sit down to practice, I always end up spending 20 minutes trying to figure out what to practice. Thanks for the tip.

It was Giobbi - he calls them "Trick Decks."

Thanks for telling me where the idea came from. Do you use this idea yourself, markjens?

Thanks for sharing this idea! I think it is a great one, and solves the problem of carrying a lot of notes with you besides the cards!

Chris

Very cool idea

I am definatly going to give it a try....



thx bro

It also occurred to me that with the tricks written out on cards like this, it might help one to put together a routine, because you could physically lay the cards out in sequence, move them around, etc.

I don't care whose idea it is, putting it in action is what counts. Thank you.
fib

One drawback would be that if you selected at random each time, a particualar sleight might get negelected out of chance.

If this happened, you could always work through the whole pack. When you get back to the beginning, shuffle and do them in another order. I like this idea. There are so many ways to use it.

This is great, I did it when the topic started, and have been using it since. And yes, it really has helped me, not remember, but create a routine.

One could also remove a card once it has been chosen, then you could shuffle the rest of the "trick deck".

I'm glad so many people have found this idea useful. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

One could even have smaller decks for a specific show that have the individual moves, sleights, patter, etc. and they could be used like flash cards. I will look into this....

Cool idea

How glad I am to have come upon this great idea! Many times I have wasted precious time trying to think of what to practice- or practicing something I like to do instead of need to do. Thanks!

A small problem, however. How many cards do I devote to "Get a cup of "joe", find a comfortable chair, and read Magic Café posts"???