We have cracked the code on growing herbs on our veranda. Basil was no problem, and we can't keep up with our plants. Dill, on the other hand, was a struggle. It took a bunch of A/B testing to find the spot it likes. Once we found it, the plants went into overdrive. There was a perfect spot where it gets a morning dose of sun, then spends the rest of the day in the shade.

Dill is pretty expensive at our local supermarkets, so this rules. A little fresh dill on simple food wakes everything up. The same goes for a couple of basil leaves. Simple accents on simple food rule.

I am trying to apply this "perfect light" light plant lesson to my Reminders app and task system. I had sections set up by context (personal, work, band, etc.), and things weren't quite getting done smoothly. Tasks weren't getting the right light.

I changed the sections to what device I am on, and things went turbo. My devices are watch, phone, laptop, drums, home, and outside. Home and outside are a little bit more loose than the other, but they work for me.

This setup works for me because @watch clears out the sand-sized tasks. Then @phone clears out the gravel-sized ones. When I get to @laptop, the rock-sized tasks are more visible.

Is the sorting of tasks into where they can be done tedious? Yes, but I use sorting and tagging to review the task. Tags are my old context (personal, work, band, etc.). The tags are emojis, which make them really easy to spot.

I like practicing and studying things daily. I am not so into the guilt of skipping a day. My way around it is to make sure my daily practice tasks have a number like "five minutes". If I need to skip a day then I defer the task until tomorrow or some date in the future I know there is more space.

I don't mind arriving to a day and having three "practice drums five minutes" tasks. I can get those done at random times in the day and catch up. That way I know I did the work of drum practice. It allows me to keep on practicing without the daily calendar guilt of habit trackers.

A good system for rehearsal and study. Not a good system for things like taking medication.

Lately, I am all about having a starting point or anchor point. When I am stuck on where to begin tasks, chores, or errands and I can't decide where to begin, there is the starting point. Go there and head out.

In computer mode it is the to-do app where all things flow into. For home mode, I start at the back right corner of the office/living room and work out from there. On drums it is a paradiddle on the snare but lately it is a half-time shuffle.

The goal for me with a fixed starting point is to eliminate the "where to start" and "what to start on" decisions. If I can get moving on things, I'll keep going for hours. Getting going is the slog through the mire for me. 

I ran across the idea of using moon phases as triggers to get things done. It has really stuck with me. It's one of those plain as the nose on your face level ideas. When you buy a daily planner or use a digital calendar, there is usually a moon phase in there or easy to add. It is cyclical.

Just for fun, I asked an AI to assist me with organizing my to-do system but align it with the moon. It gave me a lot of ideas to play around with in the future. There was one idea that made me point at the screen and say, "That rules!"

It told me to use the moon phase icons on my projects . That is genius. That is taking an icon and using it at full power. I can tell I love the idea because I had to rush to blog about it.

Here is what it suggested:

🌑 New Moon: Planning, starting new projects
🌓 First Quarter: Action, building momentum
🌕 Full Moon: Completion, evaluation
🌗 Last Quarter: Reflection, clearing

It could be a Kanban . It can be done with a .txt file. It can be done in an app. It can be done with paper. The actual moon could be a trigger for project review.

Oh look...today is the new moon, I should review all projects in planning phase.

I am stoked to start implementing this. Project organization is not my most favorite, so anything to make it easier to do, easier to understand, and kind of fun rules.

: If this is an idea from someone somewhere, let me know so I can credit them here.
: Kanban is pronounced kahn-bah. Full stop.