If you’re someone who wants to get more organized but doesn’t know how to start, we feel you. Getting organized can be a big change for some people, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We’ve collected different methods for color coding a daily planner that you can use at home, work, or school to stay on top of things.
Importance vs. Urgency
In the famous self-help book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey introduces the idea of organizing tasks based on whether they are urgent, important, both, or neither. One of the simplest ways to get more organized is to start categorizing all your daily tasks into these four groups. We’ve designed a simple color coding system you can use:
- Red: Urgent and important
- Purple: Important but not urgent
- Yellow: Urgent but not important
- Blue: Not important and not urgent
Color Coding by Task
Another way to get organized by color coding a daily planner is to make each type of task a different color. Birthdays, household chores, work events, social engagements, and doctor appointments all get a different color sticker so you can easily see where your time goes each day.
Variant: The College Planner
If you’re a student, it might be a good idea to color-code your tasks based on what class they are for. Put everything for biology in green, everything for English in purple, etc. When you write out all your tasks for the day, you’ll be able to see which classes are competing for the same time slots so you can decide which ones to prioritize.
The Meal Planner
For people with chronic dietary issues, a daily meal planner can be an amazing tool for staying on track. For example, people with GERD (an acid reflux disorder) may need to watch how many times they consume risky foods such as onions, garlic, coffee, and citrus juice. Placing a big red sticker by your lunchtime slot will remind you that you’ve already had a potential trigger food today, so no more!
Even if you’re not on a special diet, a daily meal planner can help people who are trying to eat healthy by watching what kinds of food they consume. Green stickers can show vegetarian meals, blue for fish or white meat, and red for red meat.
Ways to Color Code a Planner
Our favorite way to color code a planner is to use colored dot stickers, like the ones we have at ChromaLabel. We have stickers in all kinds of colors and sizes, so you’re sure to find the right ones for your organization system.
