One of the things that helps keeps me organized is my commitment to color-coding my planner. I know that might seem like a silly thing, but for years I’ve coded everyone with a color (it’s not always consistent year to year, but it is consistent for A year). That means I can glance at my monthly or weekly calendars and know who’s busy when and who might be able to fit just one more thing into their day.
Lately, my coding is breaking down.
My beloved pencil case is tired, and I started to worry that overstuffing it was leading to an early demise. I pulled out everything but the colors I needed, a couple of highlighters, and a single black gel pen, for when one of my brighter colors just wouldn’t do. Then I got distracted. I like the way the pens wrote, which meant I started using them at work and in my journal, which is something I didn’t do with the calendar pens when there were other pens in the case.
Things got confusing. One ended up on my nightstand. One ended up in the bottom of my belt bag, one in the bottom of my work bag next to the stainless steel straw that I probably need to throw in the dishwasher at this point.
Then I made an appointment and needed to write it down. I won’t lie. In the past, without the correct pen color, I’ve been known to write the appointment on a small post it and add it to the calendar, until I can find the correct pen and code things in the correct way.
This time I simply wrote Dylan’s appointment in my pen color, the one I’d been holding at work when the doctor’s office called me back to confirm the time and location.
The floodgates opened, and I started writing lists in purple (Abbey’s color), when only her activities used to be in purple. My dentist appointment is in red (Dylan’s color), and you can see how once the breakdown starts, there’s not a ton of incentive to put things to right for April, since my quick glances now require reading and not just color sighting.
I realize this is a lot of words about colored pens. I think part of the reason it’s not bothering me the way it used to is because Abbey’s driving now, which means I don’t need to keep such a tight rein on the evening activity color overlap, because I rarely need to be in two places at once or within a tight time frame. Her driving has relaxed our evenings — in a scheduling sense but definitely not an emotional sense.
It’s strange, this lack of reliance on colors to keep my brain organized. It hasn’t affected anything yet or made me late or ruined any plans, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it. The end of an era often surprises me, and I’m not sure I’m ready to let this one go yet.
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