Pat, I use a very limited palette and the palette I use will depend on the subject matter. I arrange the colours according to the colour wheel...just in a straight line starting with white, then yellow, red, blue...and so on. When I premix colour strands, I will put them on my palette in a row from top to bottom (underneath my limited palette) and leave enough space between colour strands so they don't intermix and leave enough space if I need to do inpromto mixes. At the end of the day if I find my palette is starting to look too messy, I will move the colours from my palette, keeping them in the same order, to a big piece of glass. Clean off the palette and move the colours back, all ready for the next painting session. I always try, most of the time, to work methodically...but what works for one artist, might not work for another. Hope this helps.