I need a tickler file
- Thread starter yonyz
- Start date
kelstarrising
Kelly | GTD expert
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Hi Yonyz
You can buy one pre-made from our store: https://secure.davidco.com/store/product.php?productid=16297&cat=0&page=1
or simply make your own by getting 43 folders of your choice and labeling them (12 for the months and 31 for the days.)
This free article will walk you through what to do: https://secure.davidco.com/store/product.php?productid=16163&cat=0&page=1
Hope this helps!
Hi Yonyz
You can buy one pre-made from our store: https://secure.davidco.com/store/product.php?productid=16297&cat=0&page=1
or simply make your own by getting 43 folders of your choice and labeling them (12 for the months and 31 for the days.)
This free article will walk you through what to do: https://secure.davidco.com/store/product.php?productid=16163&cat=0&page=1
Hope this helps!
Barb
Registered
Tickler
there are only 31 folders (for the days of the month), 12 month folders. That adds up to 43. You keep the monthly folders in back of the daily folders and then change out the monthly when the month changes.
Hope that makes sense. In short, you move the folders around.
yonyz;70123 said:
there are only 31 folders (for the days of the month), 12 month folders. That adds up to 43. You keep the monthly folders in back of the daily folders and then change out the monthly when the month changes.
Hope that makes sense. In short, you move the folders around.
Barb
Registered
what I do
Let's assume it's August
If I have something in the September file, for example, and it's date specific, I put a sticky on there with the Sept. date on it. I most likely will also put a reference on my calendar.
About the 3rd week of August, I'll pull out that Sept. file and start putting items under the appropriate date. The reason I'm waiting until toward the end of the month is that I don't want things confused with the August materials.
So on Sept. 1 the only things in your daily-numbered files are those things related to Sept.
Just as an aside: In January I was unexpectedly stuck out of town for almost a month. I asked my husband to go through each date in the tickler file in my desk and tell me what was in there. Then I told him what to do with each item. Two of my friends got birthday cards almost a month too early. :-}
yonyz;70131 said:
Let's assume it's August
If I have something in the September file, for example, and it's date specific, I put a sticky on there with the Sept. date on it. I most likely will also put a reference on my calendar.
About the 3rd week of August, I'll pull out that Sept. file and start putting items under the appropriate date. The reason I'm waiting until toward the end of the month is that I don't want things confused with the August materials.
So on Sept. 1 the only things in your daily-numbered files are those things related to Sept.
Just as an aside: In January I was unexpectedly stuck out of town for almost a month. I asked my husband to go through each date in the tickler file in my desk and tell me what was in there. Then I told him what to do with each item. Two of my friends got birthday cards almost a month too early. :-}
Barb
Registered
Not complicated
It's very easy, really. By the way, the tickler file was one of the last things I implemented GTD-wise. I kept resisting it. Now I wonder how I ever lived without it. It's a nice place to park things where you know you can find them when you need them. One word of caution: You MUST look at it every single day!!
yonyz;70133 said:Seems a bit complicatedת but I guess I'll get used to it.
Hehe.
It's very easy, really. By the way, the tickler file was one of the last things I implemented GTD-wise. I kept resisting it. Now I wonder how I ever lived without it. It's a nice place to park things where you know you can find them when you need them. One word of caution: You MUST look at it every single day!!
yonyz;70123 said:
I use the Staples Desk Apprentice Organizer (the way my mind works, out of sight, the more easier it is to forget all about it).
You can get it at:
http://www.staples.com/The-Desk-Apprentice-Rotating-Desk-Organizer/product_597003?cmArea=SEARCH
I use 12 hanging folders that I labeled with months, and 31 hanging folders for the days. These hanging files have 7 notches for the plastic tabs. For the months, I put the plastic tabs into the last 2 notches, and for the days, I staggered the plastic tabs, halting right before the last two notches and then starting again at the beginning until I reached Day 31.
Still working on remembering to change the folder for the day everyday (since right now I have no job and not too many responsibilities, much of my folders are empty).
Oogiem
Registered
yonyz;70123 said:
Mine is a purchased thing but you can easily make it from folders.
The reason you don't bother with a file for every day is that much of the time a single months worth of stuff is not too big. The way I do mine is that on the last day or 2 of a month when I check the folder in the morning I also grab the next month's stuff out and spend the 5 minutes or so it takes to put it in the day it belongs. It goes a lot faster if as you put stuff into the future months you put a quick note on it with the date you plan to re-visit it.
Mine tickler file actually has several section. I have 2 sets of monthly folders and the 1-31 day folders. The current year is in the main working file and works like a normal tickler. The other set of monthly stuff is actually a history file. Through the month as I find notes, cards or things that I may want too put in my scrapbooks I toss them into that months folder. When I get to doing my scrapbook page layouts (I usually do chronological books) I grab the folder with my memorabilia and sort through it as I lay out the pages. Some gets tossed but some makes it into my family books for that year.
Tickler file photo
Here's a photo of my tickler file setup
http://picasaweb.google.com/phillipwhiteuk/UKGeneralReferenceFiling/#5119014253650512402
Phil
Here's a photo of my tickler file setup
http://picasaweb.google.com/phillipwhiteuk/UKGeneralReferenceFiling/#5119014253650512402
Phil
My tickler is simpler and smaller, but it works. Included
-12 monthly tabs
-12 monthly folders, one behind each monthly tab
-31 folders labelled 1, 2..., one folder that I move daily from one month to the next.
The tabs are thick cardboard and store-bought, but the folders are all self-labelled.
-12 monthly tabs
-12 monthly folders, one behind each monthly tab
-31 folders labelled 1, 2..., one folder that I move daily from one month to the next.
The tabs are thick cardboard and store-bought, but the folders are all self-labelled.
My tickler is a ring binder with two sets of tabbed dividers - one with the numbers 1-31 and one with the months of the year. Anything I want to put in the tickler is put into an A4 plastic wallet which has holes down the side so it can be added to the ring binder without problems. I find it much less cumbersome than individual folders
My work tickler is crucial for keeping documents that I will need for particiular meetings. I can just nip into my office, grab the plastic wallet from the file and rush out again knowing I've got all the stuff I need for the meeting.
Ruth
My work tickler is crucial for keeping documents that I will need for particiular meetings. I can just nip into my office, grab the plastic wallet from the file and rush out again knowing I've got all the stuff I need for the meeting.
Ruth
I may be a terrible tickler heretic, but although I use the concept and find it really useful, I've never had the need to have the 1-31 daily folders. I don't generate that much physical stuff that doesn't have a home in a project folder of its own. WRITTEN tickler reminders, on the other hand, I use all the time. (I am paper-based)
So my tickler system is 12 month folders, a tickler tray on my desk to hold the few miscellaneous physical things for the current month that don't have their own "home", and notations of whatever I want to be reminded (and its location, if it won't be obvious) on the relevant day's calendar page. Very simple and works for me. YMMV.
I look at my paper planner every day, all day, and the tickler tray is right at hand and in view, so I don't need to remember to check a daily tickler folder, empty it, rotate the folder, all those steps which (for me) were just too much overhead.
So my tickler system is 12 month folders, a tickler tray on my desk to hold the few miscellaneous physical things for the current month that don't have their own "home", and notations of whatever I want to be reminded (and its location, if it won't be obvious) on the relevant day's calendar page. Very simple and works for me. YMMV.
I look at my paper planner every day, all day, and the tickler tray is right at hand and in view, so I don't need to remember to check a daily tickler folder, empty it, rotate the folder, all those steps which (for me) were just too much overhead.
Brent
In a situation like that, I’d just make a note on the daily calendar pages for the 1st and 15th. I don’t need to remember to check my planner every day, because I use it all day long. When I reach September 1st and see the tickler item, I‘ll then go to the project folder where any related physical, related items would be. After I complete the task, I’ll check to make sure I’ve entered the next reminder on the page for September 15th (etc…). If I need to change the day I do something, I’ll re-write the reminder on another date in my planner, but I don’t need to move the physical papers from one folder to another.
I’ve found after experimentation that the tickler concept works better for me when I do it this way. I have an effective filing system and keep up with it, so I don’t really have a need for another 31 folders to hold “stuff.” And I prefer to keep physical materials grouped together by project or function or activity rather than de-constructed by date.
For example, I have a trip to England next month. Several different things have to be done on different days in the next couple of weeks, and there’s paperwork related to each. But I want those documents all together in my “UK Trip” folder; the tickler to tell me what to do when will be on the relevant page in my planner.
Key to all this is that I do not resist writing things down (and re-writing them if necessary). It’s actually part of the process that helps me be effective. On the other hand, remembering to check a daily tickler folder (or two, in separate work and home locations), is an approach that I did resist, because it just did not fit the way I work, plan and process information.
In a situation like that, I’d just make a note on the daily calendar pages for the 1st and 15th. I don’t need to remember to check my planner every day, because I use it all day long. When I reach September 1st and see the tickler item, I‘ll then go to the project folder where any related physical, related items would be. After I complete the task, I’ll check to make sure I’ve entered the next reminder on the page for September 15th (etc…). If I need to change the day I do something, I’ll re-write the reminder on another date in my planner, but I don’t need to move the physical papers from one folder to another.
I’ve found after experimentation that the tickler concept works better for me when I do it this way. I have an effective filing system and keep up with it, so I don’t really have a need for another 31 folders to hold “stuff.” And I prefer to keep physical materials grouped together by project or function or activity rather than de-constructed by date.
For example, I have a trip to England next month. Several different things have to be done on different days in the next couple of weeks, and there’s paperwork related to each. But I want those documents all together in my “UK Trip” folder; the tickler to tell me what to do when will be on the relevant page in my planner.
Key to all this is that I do not resist writing things down (and re-writing them if necessary). It’s actually part of the process that helps me be effective. On the other hand, remembering to check a daily tickler folder (or two, in separate work and home locations), is an approach that I did resist, because it just did not fit the way I work, plan and process information.
I use an index card file with appropriate dividers sitting next to my Inbox. When I want to be reminded on something, I write a note on an index card and file it there. I use my General Reference for large materials and only keep the reminder in the index card file.
I find it convenient (no extra work like pulling out a drawer).
Keith
I find it convenient (no extra work like pulling out a drawer).
Keith