Tools for Thought

Some paperwork is relevant now, and some won’t be until later. If the car insurance bill is due on the 13th, but you get paid on the 9th, you can put the payment reminder on your calendar. Or you can write the check now, stick the bill and check in the envelope, and file the envelope in a dated folder in your tickler file.

A tickler file (or “suspense file”) is a file drawer comprised of 43 folders: one set of folders numbered from 1 to 31 representing the days in the month, and another set 12 folders individually labelled for each month. The folder at the front is the one numbered for tomorrow’s date, followed by the folders consecutively numbered through the rest of the month, then the ones leading up to today’s date. Behind the day folders are the set of month folders — the upcoming month at the front, followed by the subsequent months.

Whenever you get any paper-based material that’s not actionable until a later date, you drop it in the appropriate folder in the tickler file. If the later date is in the current month, drop it in the folder numbered for that date. If the date is on a later month, drop it in the folder for that month.

Each morning, you empty the contents of that day’s folder into your intray, and file the empty folder at the back of the day folders. At the beginning of each month, you take the contents of that month’s folder and distribute each item into its appropriate date folder.

The tickler file essentially works as a three-dimensional calendar. Not everyone will need or want a to set up one. A calendar might be enough, especially if your work environment is largely paperless. But a tickler file does have its advantages:

• Filing the source material is usually faster than writing a calendar entry
• You can keep your calendar clear of date-specific items that aren’t mission critical
• Filing the entire document to reference on the date you need to see it avoids having to separately file the item and make a calendar entry for it
• You don’t have to copy parts of the document for reference, since you’re storing the whole document
• You can defer a thorough reading of a complex document to a date that you anticipate having more time to concentrate
• You can file reminders for making a decision on something later, and keep your calendar for firm commitments exclusively

The biggest disadvantage to a tickler file is that you have to actually use it daily. You can’t “sort of” use one. Filing a bill for a later date is only effective if you can trust that you’re updating your tickler file every single day. If you’re just setting up the habit, you may to start out by duplicating any mission critical items on your calendar as a fail safe.

Uses

Bills are the most obvious application for a tickler file, but there are plenty of others. You can write reminders to yourself to resurface on a specific or arbitrary date. If you come across an article from a magazine, or printed from the web, you can file it for some date after a crunch period when you have more time. If a thought occurs to you that you’d like to bring up at next Tuesday’s meeting, write it down and drop it in the file for that day — you may wind up with a pile of ideas that accumulated over the week to bring up during the meeting.

If you’re studying, you can reinforce your memorization of the material by asking yourself, “When will I start to forget this?”; then file it for review to avoid the risk of forgetting what you’ve forgotten. You can apply the same technique to reinforcing the motivation to establish a new habit: “When will my enthusiasm start to wane?” You can drop in quotes or essays from virtual mentors at determined or random future dates.

Reminders like these would be harder to cram into a calendar.