Let’s talk about How to Color Code your planner! How many of you love colored pens? I know I do! Who doesn’t love pretty colors right? How many of you actually use every color in that pack of 10 or 20 that you purchase at Staples or Target? Not all of us actually do and it’s not because we don’t like the color necessarily it’s because we don’t know what to use that color for. Am I right? Yellow? Color coding isn’t just for planners this system will work for just about anything whether it’s in your planner, making a grocery lists, or used on a wall calendar. Color Coding is a great way to not only be used for personalizing your planner but the influence of colors helps with memory performance which is totally awesome! Let’s jump right into this…

When it comes to color coding your planner, the first thing you’ll need are some pretty colored pens. So grab all those colored pens that’s are either in your pen pouch, in a drawer or in that cute coffee cup that’s sitting on your desk. I pulled out two of my favorites sets of Papermate Inkjoy pens the flairs and gel 0.7 because I'm not sure which one’s I’ll end up using. Then take your planner, bullet journal, notepad or whatever you want to color code. Lastly, grabs those stickers because what goes better with colored pens…. STICKERS! Here is everything that I will be using…  

One common way to color code your planner is to use a different color ink for each category. For example, you can use one color for bills, one for leisure, one for family members, and so on. This is going to allow you to tell quickly at a glance what things you have going on for a particular day. I would recommend using a color key either on the side bar of the week or on a separate sheet of paper with symbols, colors, and stickers of what you plan to use. You want to make sure these will benefit you and your planning style.  This key will help to organize all your thoughts and once you’ve got a system down it’ll make planning much easier especially if you’re new planner or if you’re just looking for a new system. Choose however many color pens you’d like to use; I will be using 9 different colored pens. Example: Bills will be red, events are purple, dog or pets will be teal, cleaning will be green, To Do is light blue, etc. Feel free to also color code by urgency rather than category and for each family member give them each their own color.

Once your listed key is finished place any stickers down whether it’s a full out no white space spread or just a few icons just start sticking away! I am going to be doing a white space layout on a Happy Planner week just so you all can better see the colors and organization. Now just start plugging your weekly tasks and events starting with good ole’ Monday using your color coding key. I used flag checklist stickers and appointment labels for certain tasks. See the photo below for better example and explanation…

I hope this gives you some color coding ideas. We’d love to see your color coding spreads and bonus hugs if it’s being used with a PopFizzPaper planner kit! Just remember to tag @popfizzpaper so we can all see!