Guide
How to keep a year in color
One color a day, and a year you can see at a glance.
Updated
The short answer
A year in color, often called a year in pixels, gives every day of the year one color for how it felt. Choose a small palette, such as five colors from great to awful, pick the color that fits each evening, and after a few weeks the colors start to show patterns you wouldn't notice day to day. You can draw it in a notebook, or use an app such as My Life in Color, which fills the year in for you.
1. Choose a palette
The palette is the question you answer every day, so pick one you can answer in a second:
- Mood: Great, Good, Okay, Low, Awful. The usual choice, and a good first one.
- Stoplight: Good, Okay, Bad in green, amber and red. Three colors for people who want it fast.
- Energy: from wired to drained, for tracking sleep, training or a health condition.
- Your own: anything you want to watch over a year, such as focus, pain, or how a project went. Give each color a name so it means the same thing all year.
2. Log it at the same time each day
The evening works best, when the day is done. Tie it to something you already do, such as brushing your teeth or plugging in your phone. If you miss a day, fill it in tomorrow or leave it blank; a few gaps don't matter.
In My Life in Color you turn a dial to the color and tap Log. An evening reminder has color buttons that log without opening the app, and widgets, Siri, Control Center and the Apple Watch log in one tap too.
3. Add a few words when it matters
The color is the habit; a note is optional. A line on why a day was red or gold is what makes the year worth reading later. Some days have more than one color; log each one and let the day blend them.
4. Read what it shows
- Seasons: a run of low colors every February, or a lift each spring.
- Weekdays: whether Mondays really are worse, or Sundays quietly are.
- Changes: before and after a new job, a move, a medication or a training plan.
- Good stretches: the weeks that went well, and what was in the notes for them.
My Life in Color works these out on your device: the Year view draws twelve rings of days (or a field, or a spectrum of everything you felt), each finished month becomes a named paint chip, and Patterns shows what your colors say by weekday, time of day and tag.
Paper or app?
Paper is lovely and needs nothing but pens; draw a grid of 12 columns by 31 rows and a key. An app saves you the drawing, reminds you, logs from your wrist or Home Screen, and turns the year into a print or wallpaper. Whichever you pick, keep it private: a year of moods is personal. My Life in Color has no account, no ads and no server, and your journal stays on your device.
Questions
What is a year in pixels?
A chart with one small square for every day of the year, each filled with a color for how that day felt. It comes from bullet journaling, where people draw it as a grid of 12 months by 31 days. A year in color is the same idea.
How many colors should a mood palette have?
Three to five is easiest to keep up: few enough that choosing takes a second, enough to tell a good day from an okay one. Name each color so you pick it the same way in March as in October.
What if I forget to log a day?
Fill it in the next day if you remember how it felt, or leave it empty. A few blank days do not spoil the year; the pattern still shows.
Is there an app for a year in pixels?
My Life in Color is one: a daily color journal: pick how today felt as a color and watch your year fill in. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro, and keeps the journal on your device.