One of the best productivity tools that has greatly enhanced my level of personal effectiveness is the use of my action management file, or what's commonly known as a Tickler File. The use of the tickler file has become huge since productivity consultant, David Allen, refreshed the concept and usage of the tickler file in his best-selling book Getting Things Done. While the tickler file is not, by any means, a one-stop comprehensive system for personal productivity, it does handle very well all the time-sensitive items that tend to pile up on your desk or counter and it's a great tool for managing daily workflow for both your personal and professional life. The tickler file is something I recommend to my clients who experience a lot of work-related stress and feelings of not being in control of their incoming paper "stuff" because the tickler file is uniquely capable of organizing all the paper "stuff" out there that has no conventional place to go. A tickler file is an amazingly simple, yet highly effective tool that will enable you to regain control with your life.
What Exactly is a Tickler File?
For those who don't know what a tickler file is—a conventional tickler file consists of 43 folders: 12 folders for each of the months of the year and 31 folders for each of the days of the month. It works just like your paper day planner that you might have, only the advantages of a tickler file is that it's uniquely designed to organize and keep pieces of paper that otherwise can't go into your day planner. Your tickler file, when used correctly, is the ultimate reminder system for time-sensitive documents that don't have a place anywhere else except in the growing piles on your desk, commonly referred to as the "black hole."
The Benefits of Using a Tickler File
Besides being a fail-proof reminder system, most tickler file experts don't mention the greatest benefit of the tickler file—that of being a stress relief device! That's right, and it's the comment that I hear most from my personal coaching clients as well. That's because the tickler file system is uniquely capable of handling the amorphous paper "stuff" that doesn't seem to go anywhere except in your overflowing in-box or in one of the many growing stacks of paper on your cluttered desktop. Stress relief comes when your in-box, desk and even your own head is empty and all your bits and pieces are filed away in a trust-worthy system that you check regularly. Therefore, your tickler file system can greatly enhance your own personal health and well-being. Not many productivity tools can do that! Here are a list of other benefits of using a tickler file system:
Pay Bills on Time: Never pay late fees by processing your incoming bills and placing them in your tickler file on a "pay by" date, allowing sufficient lead time for cash flow and mailing/processing.
Track Time-Sensitive Documents: Reports, forms and other time-sensitive documents can be easily managed by placing them in the folder when you want to take action on those documents.
Fail-Proof Reminders: Defer hard-copy documents to a later date by "mailing" them to your future self. Additionally, tickler file users and followers of the Getting Things Doneâ„¢ (GTD) method, utilize standard 3x5 index cards as reminders and file them in the appropriate date folder in their tickler file when they want to be reminded of such an item.
Never Forget Travel Documents: Any business person who travels a lot and even the occasional traveler will love the fact that their tickler file can hold, not only their travel tickets, but also supporting documents such as hotel information, maps and directions, and your passport. Don't suffer from the "last minute rush" syndrome where you're trying to scramble to find your passport with 15 minutes to get to the airport. Prepare everything in advance and put it in your tickler file and you won't have to worry about it.
Prepare Meeting Information: Keep track of client meeting information such as: agendas, directions, support materials, and names of people with your tickler file by preparing that packet in advance and placing it in the appropriate day folder.
A Non-Electronic, Perpetual Birthday/Anniversary Reminder System: The problem with a paper-based day planner is that every year, you have to rewrite everyone's birthday and anniversary. With a tickler file, you only have to write it once on an index card and it becomes your analog perpetual reminder system just like your Outlook or similar electronic software system. Simply write the person's birthday or anniversary on an index card and file it in the appropriate folder in your tickler file. Once that special day is over, then simply replace it for the next year.
A Handy Place to Store Coupons: If you are like me, then you might come across a good coupon during the course of the day, but really won't have an immediate need for the item on that particular day, so you might pin the coupon up on the refrigerator, where it suffers from the all too common disease of "familiarity blindness." Then when you need the item, you're disappointed that the expiration date is already past. With your tickler file, you can simply place the coupon on a date before the expiration when you think you might need the item and forget about it until you process the workflow for that day.
A Place to Store Your Claim Tickets: Your tickler file makes a perfect storing system for the various claim tickets that you have for picking up your items such as laundry, dry cleaning, film, prescriptions, photocopies, etc.
Homework: Students can use the power of the tickler file system to manage their homework and term papers that are due on a specific date. Place supporting materials, assignments that need to be worked on a particular day in the specific day folder and handle assignments in the same way as an employee processes daily workflow. Not only will you beat procrastination, but you'll be learning an important skill that most employees don't even know.
Never Forget to Send a Card: Your tickler file will help you take control of your special relationships and business networking through the use of cards. With your tickler file, you can simply write your cards in advance and then place those cards in the folder that you wish to mail them out on. Then when that day comes, simply process your card from that folder by mailing it out. Your relationships will greatly enhance because you'll never forget a day that is important to someone else.
Never Forget Support Material for Medical or Legal Appointments: Have you ever gone to a doctor's appointment and left your case history, insurance forms, or other supporting documents at home? With your tickler file, you can remember to take with you all the pertinent supporting documents to your next appointment.
Product Warranties: Take full advantage of product warranties that often don't get used just because we forget or lose those warranties. With your tickler file, you can place those product warranties in your appropriate folder to remind you to check up on that particular product before the warranty expires. This can save you literally hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, depending on the products that you purchase by simply having a system that tracks them.
Fail-Proof Maintenance Reminders: Never forget to take your car in for a tune-up or change the filters on your air conditioning unit again. Simply write a reminder note to yourself and place it in the appropriate folder in your tickler file. And yes…maintenance even means YOU! Use your tickler file to remember annual check-ups and exams as part of your commitment towards good health practices.
Never Pay Late Return Fees Again: You can avoid paying late return fees for movie and audio rentals and library books by simply putting the sales slip, library card, or a simple note to yourself in the folder when you need to return or renew it by.
Tickle Your Relationships: A less-thought-of life hack for your tickler file is to use it to remember to spend quality time with the people that are near and dear to your heart. You can do that by simply placing a note or even better, a photo of the person that you should spend time with in a future folder. For us work-a-holics, sometimes a gentle reminder like a photo helps put things into perspective and reminds us that it's not overtime that we will be remembered for, but rather the small acts of kindness that we show the people that we love.
Manage Impulse Buying: If you're an impulse buyer, then the tickler file can help you manage that costly habit. When you get a piece of direct mail or an impulse to make a purchase, simply write that product down or put the advertisement in next week's folder and revisit it on that day. You might find that something you would have wasted money on was really not that important or necessary a week later. Your tickler file gives you a system for "cooling off" impulse purchases.
Follow up on Delegated Actions, Orders and Requests: Often when we delegate something to another person, we expect that they will do it, but in reality, they might forget about the request or not consider it a priority and it never gets completed when we want it to. Your tickler file can act as a follow-up reminder system to ensure that a delegated task has been completed or in progress.
How to Build Your Own Tickler File
Building your tickler file takes a small investment of your time and a few dollars, but the payoff is tremendous and your tickler file is something that will last you a life time, so I suggest blocking a few hours of your towards building your tickler file system,
Materials
1 slim (12" x 5" x 12") Portable Manila File Holder. You can find a manila file holder at your local office supply store where the manila and Pendaflex hanging file folders are found. It's important that this file holder be slim (no more
From India, Hyderabad
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What Exactly is a Tickler File?
For those who don't know what a tickler file is—a conventional tickler file consists of 43 folders: 12 folders for each of the months of the year and 31 folders for each of the days of the month. It works just like your paper day planner that you might have, only the advantages of a tickler file is that it's uniquely designed to organize and keep pieces of paper that otherwise can't go into your day planner. Your tickler file, when used correctly, is the ultimate reminder system for time-sensitive documents that don't have a place anywhere else except in the growing piles on your desk, commonly referred to as the "black hole."
The Benefits of Using a Tickler File
Besides being a fail-proof reminder system, most tickler file experts don't mention the greatest benefit of the tickler file—that of being a stress relief device! That's right, and it's the comment that I hear most from my personal coaching clients as well. That's because the tickler file system is uniquely capable of handling the amorphous paper "stuff" that doesn't seem to go anywhere except in your overflowing in-box or in one of the many growing stacks of paper on your cluttered desktop. Stress relief comes when your in-box, desk and even your own head is empty and all your bits and pieces are filed away in a trust-worthy system that you check regularly. Therefore, your tickler file system can greatly enhance your own personal health and well-being. Not many productivity tools can do that! Here are a list of other benefits of using a tickler file system:
Pay Bills on Time: Never pay late fees by processing your incoming bills and placing them in your tickler file on a "pay by" date, allowing sufficient lead time for cash flow and mailing/processing.
Track Time-Sensitive Documents: Reports, forms and other time-sensitive documents can be easily managed by placing them in the folder when you want to take action on those documents.
Fail-Proof Reminders: Defer hard-copy documents to a later date by "mailing" them to your future self. Additionally, tickler file users and followers of the Getting Things Doneâ„¢ (GTD) method, utilize standard 3x5 index cards as reminders and file them in the appropriate date folder in their tickler file when they want to be reminded of such an item.
Never Forget Travel Documents: Any business person who travels a lot and even the occasional traveler will love the fact that their tickler file can hold, not only their travel tickets, but also supporting documents such as hotel information, maps and directions, and your passport. Don't suffer from the "last minute rush" syndrome where you're trying to scramble to find your passport with 15 minutes to get to the airport. Prepare everything in advance and put it in your tickler file and you won't have to worry about it.
Prepare Meeting Information: Keep track of client meeting information such as: agendas, directions, support materials, and names of people with your tickler file by preparing that packet in advance and placing it in the appropriate day folder.
A Non-Electronic, Perpetual Birthday/Anniversary Reminder System: The problem with a paper-based day planner is that every year, you have to rewrite everyone's birthday and anniversary. With a tickler file, you only have to write it once on an index card and it becomes your analog perpetual reminder system just like your Outlook or similar electronic software system. Simply write the person's birthday or anniversary on an index card and file it in the appropriate folder in your tickler file. Once that special day is over, then simply replace it for the next year.
A Handy Place to Store Coupons: If you are like me, then you might come across a good coupon during the course of the day, but really won't have an immediate need for the item on that particular day, so you might pin the coupon up on the refrigerator, where it suffers from the all too common disease of "familiarity blindness." Then when you need the item, you're disappointed that the expiration date is already past. With your tickler file, you can simply place the coupon on a date before the expiration when you think you might need the item and forget about it until you process the workflow for that day.
A Place to Store Your Claim Tickets: Your tickler file makes a perfect storing system for the various claim tickets that you have for picking up your items such as laundry, dry cleaning, film, prescriptions, photocopies, etc.
Homework: Students can use the power of the tickler file system to manage their homework and term papers that are due on a specific date. Place supporting materials, assignments that need to be worked on a particular day in the specific day folder and handle assignments in the same way as an employee processes daily workflow. Not only will you beat procrastination, but you'll be learning an important skill that most employees don't even know.
Never Forget to Send a Card: Your tickler file will help you take control of your special relationships and business networking through the use of cards. With your tickler file, you can simply write your cards in advance and then place those cards in the folder that you wish to mail them out on. Then when that day comes, simply process your card from that folder by mailing it out. Your relationships will greatly enhance because you'll never forget a day that is important to someone else.
Never Forget Support Material for Medical or Legal Appointments: Have you ever gone to a doctor's appointment and left your case history, insurance forms, or other supporting documents at home? With your tickler file, you can remember to take with you all the pertinent supporting documents to your next appointment.
Product Warranties: Take full advantage of product warranties that often don't get used just because we forget or lose those warranties. With your tickler file, you can place those product warranties in your appropriate folder to remind you to check up on that particular product before the warranty expires. This can save you literally hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, depending on the products that you purchase by simply having a system that tracks them.
Fail-Proof Maintenance Reminders: Never forget to take your car in for a tune-up or change the filters on your air conditioning unit again. Simply write a reminder note to yourself and place it in the appropriate folder in your tickler file. And yes…maintenance even means YOU! Use your tickler file to remember annual check-ups and exams as part of your commitment towards good health practices.
Never Pay Late Return Fees Again: You can avoid paying late return fees for movie and audio rentals and library books by simply putting the sales slip, library card, or a simple note to yourself in the folder when you need to return or renew it by.
Tickle Your Relationships: A less-thought-of life hack for your tickler file is to use it to remember to spend quality time with the people that are near and dear to your heart. You can do that by simply placing a note or even better, a photo of the person that you should spend time with in a future folder. For us work-a-holics, sometimes a gentle reminder like a photo helps put things into perspective and reminds us that it's not overtime that we will be remembered for, but rather the small acts of kindness that we show the people that we love.
Manage Impulse Buying: If you're an impulse buyer, then the tickler file can help you manage that costly habit. When you get a piece of direct mail or an impulse to make a purchase, simply write that product down or put the advertisement in next week's folder and revisit it on that day. You might find that something you would have wasted money on was really not that important or necessary a week later. Your tickler file gives you a system for "cooling off" impulse purchases.
Follow up on Delegated Actions, Orders and Requests: Often when we delegate something to another person, we expect that they will do it, but in reality, they might forget about the request or not consider it a priority and it never gets completed when we want it to. Your tickler file can act as a follow-up reminder system to ensure that a delegated task has been completed or in progress.
How to Build Your Own Tickler File
Building your tickler file takes a small investment of your time and a few dollars, but the payoff is tremendous and your tickler file is something that will last you a life time, so I suggest blocking a few hours of your towards building your tickler file system,
Materials
1 slim (12" x 5" x 12") Portable Manila File Holder. You can find a manila file holder at your local office supply store where the manila and Pendaflex hanging file folders are found. It's important that this file holder be slim (no more
From India, Hyderabad
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