How to Color Code Your Planner

Recently, I shared how I stay organized with my Day Designer planner. In the post, I talked about how I set monthly goals, write weekly reminders, and keep track of daily tasks. More importantly, my planner helps me stay on top of my finances, blog tasks, and personal responsibilities. A major key to staying organized with a planner is having a color-coding system. Lately, I have been using Zebra Mildliners to color code everything. Keep reading to learn how you can color-code your own planner!

How to Color Code Your Planner

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Why You Should Color Code Your Planner

First of all, there are many reasons why you should color code your planner. Most importantly, it helps you stay organized. Also, it helps you visualize different priorities and categories in your life. For example, you can use green to signify all financial tasks and reminders in your planner. For more important reminders with deadlines, I use fluorescent colors.

Related: 7 Ways to Succeed in College & Get Straight A’s

What are Zebra Mildliners?

Next, Zebra Mildliners are water-resistant double-ended creative markers. The markers come in 5-packs, 10-packs, and 15-packs. Also, you can buy the markers individually. Or even better, you can buy all the colors in a 25-pack. Currently, I have a 15-pack of soft mild colors. The 15 colors are:

1. Red
2. Vermilion
3. Orange
4. Gold
5. Yellow
6. Green
7. Blue-green
8. Blue
9. Smoke blue
10. Dark blue
11. Violet
12. Magenta
13. Pink
14. Gray
15. Brown

Other Stationery Supplies I Use to Color Code

Additionally, I use other stationery supplies to color code my planner. My go-to fine pointed colored pens are the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner pens. I have the pens in both the 10-pack as well as the 20-pack. Also, I use colored sticky tabs and notes to signify between different areas of my life. For example, I always use blue for blogging and pink for anything personal.

My Color Coding System

As previously mentioned, I use a color-coding system to stay organized. Furthermore, I created a color-coding key and attached it to one of the first pages of my planner. That way, I always have a reference whenever I forget which color to use. Here is my color-coding system using Zebra Mildliners:

• Red = school
• Vermilion = events
• Gold = wellness
• Green = finances
• Blue-green = work
• Smoke blue = blog
• Dark blue = social media
• Violet = relationships (family, friends, boyfriend)
• Magenta = birthdays & anniversaries
• Pink = personal
• Gray = holidays

And there you have it! Keeping a color-coding system is beneficial for staying organized. Currently, I use Zebra Mildliners and Staedtler Triplus Fineliners to color code my planner. It helps me visualize my main priorities and how I spend my time. Not to mention, all the different colors make my planner look more exciting and fun!

If you're looking for more notetaking or planner inspo, check out my Pinterest board.

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*This post first appeared on avecvalerie.com.