Since I was so experienced with large tarot spreads, I jumped right into the "deep end" - the Grand Tableau. What I found was that, because it can be segregated into so many individual focus areas (health, work, career, romance, home, family, children, money and finances, enterprises and ventures, etc, each with a specific significator card or sometimes two (each one a little "vortex" of influence), using the "distance method" you wind up reading only a few surrounding cards in each major life area, unless they happen to intersect in a variety of ways. Unless you're doing a complete life-reading, you really only have to focus on the specific area(s) of interest and not try to read the whole thing. It's a good way to explore card combinations and interactions in a big-picture way, and not at all intimidating when broken down this way.
Barleywine....I did the same thing! I get really excited seeing all 36 cards laid out together...and find I tap into the relevant topic areas much faster.
In fact....I really struggle with just 3 cards!!