The Tickler File system is your personalized post office in a file drawer. It allows you to file things so that you will see them on a particular date up to a year in the future. It works for anything you’d like to see at a particular time in the future, but don’t need to take action on until then. Got a catalog, or a page from one, that you want to order from closer to the holidays? Got concert tickets for three weeks from today? Got the perfect birthday card
If you have been wanting to try out a Tickler File, here’s your chance. The David Allen Company store has their popular GTD Tickler System file folder set on sale for $29.95, a discount of 25% off the regular price.
I’m surprised how much use I get from mine.
Such a simple idea, yet so effective. Has saved me so much time – I’m no longer searching for things that I would have “put in a safe place” otherwise.
Rachael — I like that you think of the Tickler File as a ‘safe place.’ When I was first developing the habit of looking at the file each day, I tried the trick of putting a $5 or $10 bill into a future date folder, so it would show up as a pleasant surprise to reinforce my habit. Later I found that putting a cartoon or a meaningful quote in as a future surprise was also a good way to help me look forward to opening the file each day.
— John
I’ve always wondered where the best place to keep the tickler file is. I have a totally different list of things I need to be reminded about at home versus work. Do I need two sets of files?
For my lists, that’s all electronic so that system is portable and available in just about any context, but what about the tickler file?
Hi Brad — Good question. You could try using one set to start, and see if that works. I get by with one Tickler File, at work, rather than one at home and one at work. But that’s because I also use a To Work and a To Home file that I carry in my knapsack.
Please post again, if you’d like, when you’ve decided what works for you.
— John
I used to say “I hate paper” all the time because I didn’t have an effective system for managing it and was in constant fear of losing something important (though somehow I rarely did).
The A-Z filing system took a great deal of pressure away but the Tickler File made it possible for me to not mind working with paper at all. It gives me tremendous peace of mind knowing that those tickets for that event three weeks from now will show up right when I need them.