Having a planner is essential to staying on top of your schoolwork. Color-coding your planner can help you stay on top of your assignments, and prevent that heart-sinking moment when your classmate asks you how you feel about the upcoming exam tomorrow and you haven’t even thought about studying.
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Method 1: Color-Code by Class
My first year of college, I color-coded my planner by class. Each class had a color in my planner that also matched the color of the binder I used for the class.
The pros to this method are that you can quickly glance at your planner and see what is coming up for each class.
Associating a class with a color is also convenient when building your study schedule. If you have a week that is filled with green, you know that you should study the class that you assigned green to.
If you use binders to store your notes and class supplies, color-coding them makes it easier to grab the correct materials for your class that day.
I moved away from this first method of color-coding for 2 reasons: first, I bought an iPad and did not need binders for each class anymore. Secondly, I bought a custom student Plum Paper Planner that had sections for each class.
Which brings us to…
Method 2: Color-Code by Category
Since I no longer needed to separate my classes by color, I assigned a color to each category of thing that was happening that day.
This is how I set mine up:
Red: due date. Whenever I had an assignment due, I would write it in red on the date it was due. This would go in both my monthly layout and my weekly so I could easily see if something was due that day.
Light blue: reading. All of my political science classes were very reading-heavy. If I had to read something by a certain day, I wrote the reading assignment on the day I planned to read, or start to read, it.
Purple: study/work on. The things I would write in purple were things that I was going to study or work on that day. For example, I wrote when I was going to work on a research paper so I could remember to put aside time to work on that.
I also used purple as an assignment/exam reminder. A week before an assignment or exam was due, I wrote “exam next week” in the weekly layout part of my planner. That was my reminder to start studying or finish up the assignment.
To learn more about my study habits, click here!
Orange: work. Since I worked PRN and my schedule always changed, I wrote my work schedule in orange. Nothing really special about orange, just had to assign work to a color!
Magenta: research. This color was added my senior year when I worked with gerbils for my senior honors thesis project.
Navy blue: exams/quizzes. I wanted to make exams different from other due dates {in red}. Occasionally I would highlight the exam as well to make it really stand out.
Pink: fun! Pink is my favorite color so I reserved it for the fun things that I do! Including going out with friends, going home, and graduation!
Black: everything else. I didn’t want a color code that was 20 colors long so anything that did not fall under the above categories was written in black. These included appointments, volunteering, when med school apps opened, and when class was cancelled.
Making Your Own
Color-coding your planner is easy and you can start doing it right away!
The first thing you should do is come up with your categories. You can use the same as mine, or think of your own! Find what works for you.
You also need your pens. I use Papermate InkJoy and bought the 20 pen pack with lots of colors! They write beautifully and they don’t smudge!
Click here to buy them from my Amazon Storefront!
Color-coding your planner is a great way to stay organized and stay on top of your assignments and exams in college!
Don’t forget to click the share button below to share with your planner-loving friends! As always, feel free to DM me any and all your questions at @medicineandmoscato
