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rebelrider_mike

Multi branch circuit question, and GFCI

Mike
last year

I have an old house with electrical that has been messed with many times. I've been trying to clean it up and modernized it, and today I have a specific question.
Here's a picture of my main panel:


I have a 10 AWG, 3 conductor with ground, outdoor rated cable. The thick gray stuff. I forget what it's called. The black is on a 15A breaker and feeds an outdoor LED yard light. The red wire is on a 20A tandem breaker that feeds two outdoor receptacles. They share a common neutral here at the panel.
I've recently learned that this is not the right way to do this, and they should be right next to each other on the same side of the panel to ensure that they are not sharing the same phase. I plan to rectify that shortly.
What I'm not sure about, is exactly what kind of breakers to use. I've read that they don't necessarily have to be on a 2 pole breaker, but the switches do need to be tied together to prevent a "live" neutral on the one breaker that's turned off. That's probably not the right way to say it, but hopefully you get what I mean.
I like to keep my light circuits separate from receptacles at put the lights on 15A breakers and the receptacles on 20A breakers. I don't think code requires it, but in this case, can I still do that?
And since they're outdoor circuits, I'd like to protect them with GFCI. Everything I've read about GFCI and multi branch circuits just has me really confused.
So can anyone help me? What are my options here?

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