Design choices should be made deliberately. Start with an entirely blank chart to help avoid excessive clutter or chartjunk. This means making all the colors gray and removing all the labels. From there, you can add in different elements or change attributes as needed to make the point of the visual evident. This is even more important when data visuals are made by our software using default settings. Be explicit. I often find myself needing to step away from the computer and use pen and paper to focus on the big idea and three-minute story.