The Cardlendar
2026/01/01
There are 52 cards in a conventional playing card deck and 52 weeks in a year.
Each time you thoroughly shuffle a deck of cards, the order of the cards is very likely the first arrangement of its kind in human history.
The Cardlendar is a simple practice of associating a playing card with each week:
- Thoroughly shuffle a deck.
- For each week of the year that has passed, count out that many cards and put them in a discard pile face down.
- At the start of each week, discard last week's card if present, draw a new card from the deck, and put it somewhere you'll see regularly.
The card is an arbitrary label, but it's entirely unique to you. Even if everyone on earth participated, the saga of the cards would unfold differently to each of us.
I started doing this in November of 2025 with a sliver of the deck remaining. My last two cards for the year were the nine of hearts followed by the nine of diamonds. It's not a practice I think will change your life, but maybe it will help if you find the weeks blending together like I did.