Practical ways to tend what matters.

Where to start

Build your first commitment inventory

Who it is for: anyone setting up Life Mode for the first time, or rebuilding a personal system that has grown complicated. What you will produce: a reviewable picture of the areas, roles, relationships, aspirations, and obligations currently asking something of you. Effort: a short first pass, deliberately incomplete.

1. Decide what counts as a commitment

Ongoing responsibilities, temporary outcomes, relationships and aspirations, and commitments with no deadline attached. The last category is the one most systems lose.

2. Begin in Life Mode

List the areas currently asking for attention. Treat the suggested Life Groves as a starting point rather than a prescribed life: merge, rename, add, archive, or ignore them.

3. Separate areas from projects

A Grove continues. A Grapefruit has an outcome. A Seed is an action. Most early confusion is a category mistake between these three.

4. Add one useful Root to each important Grove

State why the area matters. Prefer a durable reason over a temporary target — a Root should still be true next year.

5. Capture, then clarify

Put unfiled thoughts into Inbox. Convert the actionable ones into Seeds. Preserve reference material as Pulp rather than as a task you will never do.

6. Check for overload

Which Groves contain too many active Grapefruits? Which have no visible next action? What can be deferred or removed outright?

7. Complete a small first pass

Choose one current focus. Add one next Seed to each active Grove. Leave the rest intentionally incomplete — the inventory is a working picture, not a filing project.

8. Keep the inventory alive

Review it regularly and update it when circumstances change. Completeness is a passing state, not a destination.

Turn a project into clear next actions

Who it is for: anyone holding an outcome they have not yet broken down. What you will produce: a Grapefruit with only as much structure as it actually needs, and a next action you can start. Effort: one focused sitting.

1. Write the outcome first

Define what “done” means. Name the Grapefruit as an outcome, not as a department or a vague theme.

2. Place it in the right Grove

Choose the ongoing area responsible for the project. Resist creating a new Grove for every project — that is how an area list becomes a project list.

3. Add Segments only when they clarify the work

Phases such as Define, Prepare, Deliver, and Close help a complex project. Skip them for a small one.

4. Find the next visible actions

Write Seeds as concrete actions. An aspiration is not an action, and neither is a note to self.

5. Use Sprouts for execution detail

Break down a Seed when its smaller steps matter. Avoid reproducing the entire project inside one Seed.

6. Add only meaningful signals

Due date, priority, estimate, and owner where relevant. Nothing added out of habit.

7. Preserve supporting context

Put briefs, decisions, links, and notes in Pulp. Keep the action title short enough to read at a glance.

8. Review movement

Use the Board to see lifecycle state, and Harvest to close the loop when work is complete.

Worked example

• Grapefruit: Publish portfolio site
• Segments: Define, Build, Release
• Seeds: Approve page list, Draft homepage copy, Test contact form
• Sprouts under “Draft homepage copy”: Write headline, Add project summaries, Proofread

Run a weekly review you can trust

Who it is for: anyone who wants the system to feel trustworthy again without building an elaborate ritual. What you will produce: a cleared Inbox, an honest set of dates, and a realistic focus for the week. Effort: repeatable, and shorter each time you do it.

1. Know what the review is for

Recover missing context, surface neglected commitments, and make deliberate tradeoffs. Not to feel productive.

2. Review Life and Work separately

Complete one mode before switching. Doing both at once is how urgent work quietly erases personal commitments.

3. Clear Inbox

File each Seed, add the missing context, and remove what no longer deserves attention.

4. Inspect Today and overdue Seeds

Reschedule deliberately and remove inaccurate dates. Do not keep an overdue date as a record of guilt.

5. Review active Grapefruits

Confirm the outcome still matters, ensure each active project has a next Seed, and identify waiting or blocked work.

6. Review Groves

Look for areas with no current attention, revisit Roots where priorities have changed, and check important Branch follow-ups. The Canopy is useful here: neglected areas are easier to see as shape than as absence from a list.

7. Review Propagations

Confirm recurring Seeds remain useful, and adjust routines that generate noise rather than support.

8. Use Juice and Zest selectively

Treat Juice as evidence. Request Zest when another perspective would help. Keep the final decision with yourself.

9. Choose the next focus

Select a realistic set of priorities and put the first concrete actions where Today can surface them.

10. Close the review

Harvest finished work, capture any final loose ends, and stop once the system is trustworthy enough for the coming week.