I wrote about using color in a previous article, which was focusing on using it as a visual learner. However, using color for organization can work for almost everyone. It catches attention, and, eventually, the brain will naturally associate colors with whatever they have been associated with. Here’s a few things I’ve learned about utilizing color.
If you are living with someone else, and find your stuff getting mixed up, color can easily help. Get different colored laundry baskets and hampers (all one color per person) and sew a line of specific colored thread into shirt collars if you have similar shirts (or use a colored tag if you prefer). Buy different colored dishes for each person if you want to keep the dishes separate. Mark bottles and containers that are yours in the fridge with colored tape.
Color code in highlighting. This has been especially useful for me in writing workshops because I can immediately identify an issue within a piece of writing based on the color text is highlighted in. Grammar errors, language issues, and other writing problems each get their own color. This works well in any body of writing you may need to be reading for class, especially if you need to separate certain concepts or ideas. Using colored Post-It notes within notes and books also works well for this purpose.
If you’re using a physical planner book, write down different events in different colors. For example, I have birthdays in purple and doctor’s appointments in blue. Assign different colors to different classes and keep those colors correlated to due dates; this way, you can keep track of which assignments are for which class.
Color is an amazing organizational tool, and it can make the act of organizing things a more creative and personalized experience.