My color coding system was a mess until I tried 3 colors max

Started bullet journaling about 4 months ago and went crazy with like 8 different colored pens. Every page looked like a rainbow threw up on it and I kept losing track of what was important. Then I saw someone's spread at a coffee shop that only used red, blue, and black. Tried it for my monthly spread and it actually made things clearer. The red is for deadlines, blue is for notes, black is everything else. Has anyone else found that less colors actually works better for keeping your brain from getting distracted?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimr9117d ago

Gotta disagree a bit here @charlieh74. I use five colors in my bullet journal and it works fine because I keep a tiny key on every spread. Purple for personal stuff, green for health, orange for finances, blue for work, red for deadlines. The key takes 30 seconds to draw and I never forget what means what. I think three colors would just make me try and cram too much meaning into each one.

aliceharris17d ago

Ugh yes, I had the same problem. Started out with like 6 different gel pens and everything was so distracting I couldnt even find my own to-do list. My brain just couldnt handle all those colors competing for attention. Switched to just three (green for bills, pink for appointments, purple for notes) and it seriously helped me focus way better. The simplicity actually makes the colors feel more important when I do use them so I dont ignore them.

charlieh7417d ago

Haha @aliceharris you totally nailed it with the color overload thing. I did the exact same thing except I ended up with like 8 colors and it was a mess. Could never remember which one meant what. I cut down to just black for daily tasks, blue for work stuff, red for urgent things. Works way better because I actually pay attention to the red now instead of ignoring a rainbow.