Organizing, Redesign & Staging

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Color Coding Your Calendar

Whether you use a paper/pen calendar or a digital one on the computer, it can be helpful to color-code events by category. This allows you to quickly see types of events at a glance. For example, if money-related tasks or deadlines are all green, you can sort your online calendar by that category/color. On a hard copy or paper calendar, the green events 'stick out', appear significant, and are easily found.


Many calendar software programs offer this feature -- on my Palm, for instance, I can create categories then designate an event or task with that category and its respective color. I do green for money matters, red for medical appt's, etc. It makes significant events more obvious as well as allowing me to have the calendar only show certain category events if I want (i.e. sort/show only medical for that month).
If you write things down on a wall calendar, you can use highlighters or write in different colored inks for each type of item or by family member. The key to success with this method is to keep it simple -- not too many categories, basic colors, easy to implement. You are more likely to maintain a color-coding system if it's not too complicated. Give it a try!