Use a Special Calendar Color for Deadlines (As Opposed to Events)
Most of us hate deadlines , but they are part of life. If your deadlines are falling apart, adding a unique color tells you that the deadline is approaching.
The New York Times interviewed Professor of Marketing Dilip Soman of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She explains how color-coding your calendar tasks can remind you to stop procrastinating:
Color can also affect the perception of time, she said. She and Professor Soman found that by simply coding a chunk of calendar days in the same color – say, blue – with the assignment on the first blue day and the deadline set for the last blue day, people were more likely to to complete tasks. Once again, this serves to make the future deadline look more like the present one.
This is a different way of creating a “now” rather than a “future” deadline . It may be five days until Friday, but that blue fill on your calendar is a shard in your head reminding you to get work done every time you look at it. Gmail and most other programs allow you to change the color of the event . Mix colors so that you don’t get too used to blue as a deadline every week.
If you want to meet this deadline, play a trick with your mind | New York Times through Inc.
Photo by Team Dalog .