I use a different background color for the terminal in question; in this case, I use a dark red to signify a production system, and a dark blue to signify a dev

I use a different background color for the terminal in question; in this case, I use a dark red to signify a production system, and a dark blue to signify a development system. I find it quite useful. You can do this through Xterm profiles (Edit -> Profiles, Terminal -> Change Profile) in Linux and OS X, and I'm sure there's a way to do it in Windows / PuTTY.