I spent last week doing some digital gardening. I have a couple of years of posts on this blog minimally tagged, only marking them for large buckets like "Tech", "Music", "Art", etc. I wanted to start threading themes, in part to increase the topography of the blog¹. (See my write up on back links for a deeper explanation.)

Another benefit is getting to really take in a couple of years of posts and bundle them together. They become more than just one-off posts and now become projects that I can name and explain!

Tag Pages

You'll see the fruits of my labor on tag pages. For example, on the Music tag page, I've surfaced these tags:

• Piano
• Guitar
• Jazz
• Improv

Clicking each of those takes you into a more refined look at what I've shared. And those tag pages have their own set of tags that can be linked to! For example, on the Piano tag page, I have a list of tags that includes Chris Learns Piano. So thee's a fun bit of refinement that can be done in the search as you click into it.

On special tags that I feel benefit from an explanation, I can provide it. It's a nice entry point and description for a collection. Using "Chris Learns Piano" as an example, I've included a quick blerb:

I've been dabbling most of my life, but I decided to really go in on learning piano in 2022.

Just enough to give context to what's pulled up.

Projects

Bringing loosely related posts under tags also helps with encapsulating them into "projects" rather than streams. There's an important distinction there. I got to thinking about it after Dave Rupert shared his own realization: It's important for projects to have end dates.

Here I'll refference my art tages Chris Learns to Draw and Chris Learns Digital Painting. Over on the tag page is an explanation of how I've taken the past couple of years to learn drawing and ditial painting from scratch. Context that I don't share with every post.

I'm planning on keeping up drawing! However, I want to put a bow on those projects. They are horizons to move towards, certainly. But along the way, that horizon needs a few land markers and pit stops. They free my mental energy to chose whatever is next conciously.

Interestingly, it's retroactive grouping instead of an initial deadline. I prefer this. It balances the benefit of both a routine feed of what's happening and a more defined project. By sharing what your working are and then later scooping up different peices into a cohesive collection, you get both flexibility and structure. Plenty of people write books this way, in fact!

Grouping my peices up also gives a big confidence boost! It feels good looking back and saying that I completed a couple of year-long learning projecs!

Favorite Tags

I have a few favorite collections that have emerged.

Number one has to be Lucy, a brief collection of posts where our sweet pup makes an appearance. (She's a regular subject in paintings!)

I don't often have the opportunity, but when I play an acoustic piano, I always savor it.

It's probably evident from what I share, but I do a ton of reflecting. I take every chance I get to do annual reflections for different milestones. I like marking occassions and celebrating with writing.

Tending

A garden needs tending. Harvesting and reworking. Seeing what's grown, knowing what to continue watering. The benefit of a long term project like a blog is seeing what sprouts. Seeing development over time. To only post and never organize would miss most the benefit. Revisiting and organizaing brings a cohesion to the organic growth.