Productivity Hacks: Colour-Coding Your Notes with Erasable Pens

Different colours have different effects on our brains, and while we all perceive colours a little differently, our brains are wired to associate certain colours with specific emotions. Certain colours will calm us, improve our mood, or even warn us of danger (bright red). We can use these subtle cues to make our notes come alive. Whether you’re highlighting a critical meeting or a calming spa session, colour coding your notes can be a great practice. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the subject. 

Key Takeaways

• Colour-coding notes can boost information retention by 25-50% based on simple psychology. 

• There are existing systems one can use to keep colour-coded notes consistent and organised, or you can create your own system while keeping simplicity in mind. 

• Erasable ink is great for colour-coding and makes it easier to fix mistakes or adapt notes later on. 

• Colour-coding works on calendars, school notes, personal diaries, and way more. It’s not just a tool for students, it’s a means to a more organised lifestyle. 

• When building the colour-coding habit, start small, keep pens accessible, and use sticky notes or bookmarks to keep organised and on track. 

Why Colour-Coding Works: The Psychology Behind It

Colour-coding your notes isn’t just for aesthetic appeal, it can actually impact the way your brain perceives the notes. Each individual will view colours slightly differently, but our brains have evolved to recognise and associate different emotions with different colours. 

Bright colours draw attention, while cool tones calm and organise thinking. What’s more, combining colours with text helps us encode information in two different ways, which improves recall of the information – a useful trick for studying. 

One 2013 study found that colour-coded notes can improve memory recall, with some findings suggesting a 25–50% improvement in retention.

This is because colour helps to segment topics visually, allowing for easier review and navigation. It also improves focus, helping the brain categorise and prioritise different information.

Finally, colour-coding simply makes note-taking more fun, offering a creative appeal. 

You also don’t have to create your own colour-coding system, as such systems already exist for you to copy from. Here are a few that are proven to work. 

Colour-Coding Systems That Actually Work

Thematic Colour Coding

Thematic colour coding is great for students and is best used by those who carry a single notebook, as opposed to several for different subjects. The idea is to assign certain colours for different subjects. 

For example, you could use blue for science, red for maths, and so on. If you prefer to use a single notebook per subject, you can still colour-code different topics within that subject. For example, blue for trigonometry and red for algebra. 

This helps us compartmentalise complex subjects and helps us stay organised so we’re not poring over unrelated notes when crunch time hits, but instead can use our colours to guide us and offer greater focus on the important stuff. 

Priority-Based Colour Coding

Priority-based colour coding works well for anyone looking to prioritise their life. The idea is simple: assign colours to tasks based on their priority. You may want to use red to signify urgency, green for completion, and anything in between based on a simple scoring system of how urgent each task is. 

This system helps us to get our lives in order and works best with to-do lists, planning, and blocking out time slots in our day. 

Note Structure Coding

This system gets even more granular than Thematic colour-coding. Using this system, you can break down single subjects into small parts based on the type of information. For example: 

• Definitions (blue)

• Key concepts (green)

• Examples (purple)

• Questions (orange)

If you prefer to use a notebook per subject, this could be a great way to quickly and easily organise complex notes and improve recall of certain information based on colour. Use the same colour across subjects as far as possible if you choose this system.

Mind Mapping with Colour

Mind mapping is a tried-and-tested method of study that’s been proven over the years, but it’s not only good for study. It helps visual thinkers connect ideas for study, but can also be useful for brainstorming or creative planning. 

Adding colour to your mind maps can add additional sparkle, boosting visual recall and giving learners even more of an edge. 

If you’re using it to brainstorm a new product, service, or idea at work, you could colour-code depending on the relevant department, team, or even team member to easily keep everyone on the same page. 

Create Your Own System

Naturally, you don’t have to fit your preferences into any existing system. You can simply create your own, though there are a few best practices to keep in mind. 

The first is to keep it as simple as possible. Start with 3-4 colours and don’t expand too much unless it’s absolutely necessary. Keeping your system simple is key to its success, as overly complex systems could largely negate the benefits of colour-coding in the first place. 

Once you’ve settled on your colours, stay consistent to build muscle memory. Also, don’t be afraid to adapt your system as time passes, ensuring it stays relevant and helpful. 

Why Erasable Ink Makes Colour Coding Better

We’ve been over the advantages of colour-coding your notes, but what if you make a mistake? You could rip out the page and rewrite all the notes, or you could simply erase the mistake. That’s where erasable ink comes in. 

Using erasable ink pens allows for clean changes, updates, or reorganising with greater ease. Whether you’re a student or a professional, life is fast-paced, and rewriting entire sections is a luxury at this point. 

Erasable ink is also ideal for working on evolving plans or even complex ideas where more context may be required later on. You’ll also use less paper, and while it’s only by a small margin, every little bit helps. 

The PILOT FriXion erasable pen range is perfect for this, including pens, highlighters, and markers for all your note-taking needs.

Let’s take a brief look at the different use cases where colour-coding helps modern students and professionals. 

Real-Life Use Cases: From School to the Office

High School & Uni Students

For high school and university students, colour-coded summaries are ideal for exam prep. Whether you use an existing colour-coding system or create your own, it can reduce your study workload significantly. 

Another great way to use colour-coding is to break up the textbook by topic or difficulty level, offering a more focused study path. 

Teachers & Tutors

For teachers and tutors, colour-coding can help a great deal in lesson planning, group tasks, and feedback. You can also use any of the existing systems to help students adopt better study habits and keep track of progress. 

Professionals & Planners

A colour-coded calendar can help you, as a professional, keep track of meetings, deadlines, and focus blocks with greater ease. You can also sort project tasks and keep track of your priorities at all times. 

Mindfulness & Journalling

Colour-coding can also be used in personal journey diaries or gratitude journaling. Using cool, calming colours can help you better collect your thoughts and focus on what you want to process, express gratitude for, or simply write down.

When recurring thoughts or ideas emerge from your personal journals, you can highlight these in matching colours to keep things organised and identify important patterns in your own thinking. 

Tips for Building a Habit Around Colour Coding

Building a habit of colour-coding isn’t hard work, but consistency is required to form and maintain the habit. Here are a few simple tips to help you stay on track. 

• Start small. Even one consistent colour-coding habit can make a difference and lay the foundation for the habit. 

• Keep pens accessible. Life can move pretty quickly, and scratching around for a pen when you need to jot something down can be a pain, so keep your pens within easy reach. It’s always a good idea to keep one on your person. 

• Use sticky notes or bookmarks. These can help further keep your notebook tightly organised and keep your life on track effortlessly. 

• Review your notes. It’s a great idea to set up some time to review your notes in the evenings. You may even want to set up a weekly session to review notes with a little more depth and aid retention of information. 

• Personalise your colours. Use colours that hold meaning to you, that appeal to you, or help put you in a focused mood. 

• Use erasable pens and highlighters when you can. Erasable pens make organising your notes easier and allow for effortless changes when the need does arise. 

Conclusion: A Brighter Way to Organise Your Brain

Colour-coding isn’t just a visual upgrade, it’s a brain-friendly tool that can vastly improve clarity and recall. It helps us to stay more organised and be more productive, so we can complete our work earlier and have more much-needed rest. 

What’s more, erasable pens allow us to write without fear of mistakes, as we can always change our notes later on if we misunderstood or even misspelled something. 

Whether you’re studying for exams, planning a big project, or simply trying to organise your life, take a look at the FriXion erasable pen and marker range to make your colour-coding a walk in the park.