Hot take: I spent two years tracking my mood with a complex color system before a friend asked me what the colors even meant.

I had a whole legend in the back of my 2022 journal with eight different shades for feelings like 'productive anxiety' and 'quiet contentment'. My friend Sam looked at a weekly spread and just said, 'So... blue is bad?' That question made me realize I was coding data I couldn't even read back quickly. Has anyone else ditched a system that got too clever for its own good?

3 comments

3 Comments

norathomas19d ago

Stare at my bullet journal for way too long trying to remember if the purple gel pen meant 'tired but wired' or 'sad about a movie'. I used to think super detailed systems were the only way to be productive but honestly @clairem47 nailed it in that earlier comment about the grandma recipe box. It's like we get so caught up in making things pretty that we forget the WHOLE POINT was to actually use them. Now I just write down three words for how I feel and move on. My brain is way happier without all that color coding stress.

clairem471mo ago

Oh man, that hits home. I see this everywhere now, like my friend who has a five step phone filter system for photos but never posts any. We make these perfect, complex systems that just become another chore. Your color key is a perfect example, it sounds beautiful but then you're just managing the system, not your actual mood.

cameronschmidt1mo ago

My grandma's perfect recipe box just gathered dust, which @clairem47 made me realize is the same problem.