Color-Code Your Planner

I’ve often encouraged students to devise a color-coding system for organizing homework. To do this, you simply come up with a specific color to represent each of the subjects you study each semester and buy color-coded supplies like folders and highlighters to keep your notes in order.

This same idea should be carried over into your time management system and put to use in your planner. One inexpensive but effective way to do this is to purchase a few sheets of colored stickers and come up with a system.

Here’s one idea: To me, yellow always stand for warning—so in my planner, I would locate every big test date or due date, go back a week, and place a yellow sticker there. The yellow markers would always indicate that a test or project due date is approaching.

Additionally, I would designate a specific color for each subject and put the appropriate colored stickers on each due date. For example, I would place a big red sticker (red for math) on the day of my math midterm.

You can come up with any system that makes sense to you. Color-coding is effective because it’s so easily noticeable. Flip the page on your planner and you’re sure to see a big yellow or red sticker glaring back at you!