PSA: Stop using those fancy color-coded key systems in your bujo

I spent 6 months using a 6-color key system for my bullet journal like all those Instagram posts show. Red for work, blue for personal, green for health, yellow for finances, purple for family, orange for random. It looked amazing but I was spending more time picking which pen to use than actually writing stuff down. The moment it clicked was when I missed a dentist appointment because I grabbed the wrong color pen and my brain just saw a mess of rainbow blobs. Now I use one black pen for everything and a single red X for urgent items. Has anyone else ditched the artsy keys and gone back to bare bones?

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matthewross6d ago

Pretty hard disagree here. A well set up color system actually helps your brain sort info faster once you commit to it. Forced myself to stick with 5 colors for three months and now I can glance at a page and know exactly what I need without reading anything. Sounds like your system was too complicated or the colors were too close to each other. Try limiting to 3 colors max and give it more than 6 months before calling it quits. The rainbow blob problem usually happens when people use too many similar shades instead of distinctly different colors.