The time I tried to color code my entire bullet journal | Bullet Journaling

Blake Henderson · 2026-03-10T12:15:07.481419+00:00

About three years ago, I decided every single task and event needed its own color. I bought a 12-pack of fineliners and spent a whole Sunday setting it up. By Wednesday, I was spending more time hunting for the right pen than actually doing the work. I had to scrap the whole system and go back to a simple black pen. Has anyone else tried and failed with a super complex color system?

the_sean6mo ago

My first planner had a five color system for different work projects. It looked amazing but I could never remember which color meant what. The simpler the system, the more you actually use it.

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cole8366mo ago

My own eight-color key (inspired by @the_sean) was a beautiful, useless mess by lunchtime.

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patricianguyen4mo ago

Got a friend who went way overboard with this. She bought a whole set of gel pens and made this detailed key for her bujo - like green for groceries, blue for bills, red for deadlines. She even color coded her color coding with highlighters. By the second week she was out of brown ink and just started using whatever pen was closest. I showed her @the_sean's post about keeping it simple and she just laughed and said "too late." She's back to using one black pen now and swears she'll never buy a pink highlighter again.

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