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When we set up our planners, the experts tell us to use different colors to highlight different tasks.
Stuff for the kids is green.
Appointments are yellow.
Cleaning tasks are red.
And so on and so on and so forth.
We are told to use highlighters after the pen, different colors for different types of tasks.
Or we can use different color inks, so we can see in an instant what type of task is to happen at what time.
I can do these things. I have tried.
You can see a bit of it in this video I made here.
My problem is whether it is in my daily planner, my daily memory-keeping journal, my weekly planner, or my diary, I will write with whatever pen I can find when I need to write something down.
I do prefer to use black ink. My favorite pens are a simple BIC cristal pen. I use many other pens, but this is the one I always come back to. However, I have pens all over my house, different colors, with different nib sizes.
Using all these different colors at any time in any journal skews how I look at things as I flip through my notebooks. I automatically ignore things that are written in different colors.
If I am using highlighters in my planner, especially in my weekly, and I highlight each task in a specific color, it creates a situation where there is simply too much input for me to process clearly and I end up ignoring all of the highlighting and struggle to read what is under the color. It’s how my brain works.
Now, if I use a highlighter and only highlight a few things, that works for me without a problem.
What about you? How do you feel about color coding in your journals and planners? How do you make it work for you if you do?
Interested in seeing some planner/planning videos from me?