Ask HN: Do you color code your calendar?

Yes.

When I first got into color coding, it was mostly for work purposes and I used a simple model that was about the type of event... meetings blue, external/customer red, 1:1s green, etc.

But as time went on, I realized to (try to) be an effective leader what really mattered was the underlying goals of how I spent my time.

So I switched to a model where I tried to associate every event on the calendar with goals/projects... Ship Feature X was blue, New Pricing Model was red, Hiring New PM was green, etc.

The challenge with that model is, as is often the case in time-management, finding goals/projects that have enough "staying power" that you're not changing the entire list every week, but also that aren't so generically evergreen that they don't inform the way you think about how you spend your time.

These days I use mostly event type (what I started with) but layer in 1-2 key projects that "override" the color type so that they stand out and I remind myself to focus primarily on those.

FWIW, some of these ideas have found their way into my startup and will continue to do so: https://reclaim.ai

I use categories (or collections, as EteSync[1] calls them), and colour code them to be able to identify things at a glance.

Right now I have:

- Personal

- Home (shared with my wife)

- Work

- Operations (shared with my team)

- Birthdays

- Holidays

But I do still have a problem organizing these categories correctly. Because I work at two companies, "Work" and "Operations" end up with events for both, with is not ideal. I could create one for each company, but then I would have four categories with weird names that would bug me and would create problems for future me, since I may need a "Support" category later or "Meetings."

For now though, this system is better than my old one of not having a calendar at all and missing important events, both at work and on a personal level, so I am counting it as a win.

[1] https://www.etesync.com/

Yes. My work calendar is blue, my personal calendar is green, my wife's calendar is grey, reminders are purple.

That way, at a glance, I can see what the next event is for, how balanced my day is, etc.

Well yes, I do. What calendar are you exactly referring to though?

I'm going to assume you're referring to a general calendar. I use Google Calendar for using time blocking technique.

I divide my calendar into the five major categories :

- Jog/Shower/Meditation : Grape

- Work : Blueberry

- Study : Yellow

- Lunch/Dinner/Breakfast : Green

- Entertainment : Sage