Try to LEARN 10-string C6th right and don't use post-it's, stickers, coloring strings because you won't ever get off those and it will not help you to "see" but "hide" the polyvalence of this tuning:
Look at the 7th string (C) as the root-"tracker" (as Maurice Anderson used to put it) for your Maj. 6th chords up and down the neck.
Likewise the 8th string (A) as the root-"tracker" for your minor 7th chords up and down.
And the 9th string as the root-"tracker" for your Maj. 7th chords.
While the bottom string is tuned to C, I would keep it in mind as a "D", because it evidences a 4th playing pocket root for single note playing.
The pack of 4 bottoms strings is easy to discern and isolate from the other strings.
THAT's what you want to see: 4 tracker-strings and the "rest". Breaks it up nicely:
#7 plus the rest
#8 plus the rest
#9 plus the rest
#10 (thinking of it as a D) plus the rest
The other thing you want to see is the whole tone interval between strings G & A (#3 & #4).
After that, you learn all you sting pairs in minor 3rds and Major 3rds. And already you'd know more than many who PLAY.
Contrary to the Jerry Byrd C6th/A7th tuning (with the C# on the bottom or before the C), the "BE-10string-C6th" is essentially a 4-chord tuning: CM and it's relative minor Am7 (which become A7th when you raise the C's to C#) and FM7 with it's rarely mentioned relative minor D minor 9th (which becomes D9th with P5). The two Maj-&-relative minor-sets are a 4th or respectively a 5th apart from each other. Which opens this tuning up to play in any key in good sounding playing positions without even having to use the pedals.
So, what you need to train yourself to "see" is strings 6 thru 2 (assuming you have a D on top) and look at the bottom 4 string as ROOT-trackers to the chords.
It's just that and once you understand it's organization, you will be able to clearly separate the "core" from the added root-chords.
Keep in mind, that coming from non-pedal steel, you have an edge over many of today's new players which come from pedaled E9th back into C6th and are not really good at moving around the neck without the help of pedals! Use that to your advantage like our heroes of the past did!
As Maurice Anderson once said pointing at down at the strings when we were working on non-pedal C6th (12 string): "
this is the boys' stuff!".
Getting used to 10 or 12 strings instead of 6, 7 or 8th, is a 3-month deal at most. You bite thru it like a boy and be done with it, shrug it off and move on.
We don't need no stinkin' stickies
... J-D.