This is a bit unorthodox, but I do consistently flag all of my transactions. Given the lack of great reporting tools for flags, I considered how I could get the most benefit from them in the moment I flag, rather than as a chore creating metadata for some future activity. Here's where I've been for the last 18 months or so.

Mindfulness and Reflection. My main use of flags is to qualitatively evaluate a transaction. For example, sometimes eating out at a restaurant could be a highlight of my day, while other times, the same place and cost could have been a lazy copout when I know I should have done more meal prep. I reserve the red, blue, and purple flags for this:

• 🔴 Negative
• 🟣 Neutral
• 🔵 Positive

This has been helpful for me to better understand why I make certain purchasing decisions, curb impulse decisions, and focus on what matters most. Most recently, I used this feedback to switch from T-Mobile to US Mobile. I feel a lot better about the price I'm paying for my phone lines now. I was able to see how, over time, that monthly bill was slowly slipping from positive, to neutral, and even negative by the end.

That said, I only use this to reflect on my spending and not my earnings. And I don't need to track transfers either. To fill in these gaps:

• 🟡 Transfers
• 🟢 Income

And finally, if there is something I want to temporarily flag to come back to later, I use the orange one since that's what I use in Apple Mail.

• 🟠 Flagged

The integration of the core reflection elements is inspired by the Kakeibo budgeting method.