Is a tickler file really needed? Do you use one?

[ctklai]

Hi shane_k,

I'm going to use the TV flyer case you brought up in your original post as an example of how effective the tickler file can be.

Your situation:

- a sale I might want to check out on Saturday September 15th, 2012.
- a physical piece of flyer
- I'm not sure if I want to go and buy a new TV, but I would like to know on Saturday that there is a sale.

Your challenge:

- where do I put the physical piece of flyer? I want to be reminded there will be a sale on Saturday.
- I'll just put it on my calendar since it's a day-specific information (perfectly GTD compliant as long as the edges on your calendar are clear between inaction and action items)
- but I might lose my piece of flyer!

Solution:
- have your piece of flyer be the reminder
- physical tickler file OR a digital tickler file

Strategy:

Physical tickler file:

- file the actual physical piece of flyer in the folder marked for September 15th, 2012 (or even September 13th to give yourself 2 days heads up)
- Principle: anything you take out of the tickler file MUST go in your INBOX to be processed that day
- you can use the tickler file as your not-to-decide system
- you must go to your tickler file everyday to see if you 'sent anything from the past'

"It’s OK to decide not to decide—as long as you have a decide-not-to-decide system."
- D.Allen

Digital tickler file:


- setup a digital tickler (either offline or cloud)

It is the same setup D.A. wrote about in his book. The advantage of having a digital tickler file is that I can insert items into specific dates later in the YEAR, not just the month (30 day limit)

- take digital pics of the flyer and store it in a digital tickler file
- use your tickler file everyday, and dump into inbox for processing
- for instance, you see here that I have 4 items to dump into my inbox for processing (I haven't decided if I want to take action with any of the 4 items yet, but it's off my mind since I trust it will appear in my inbox on that day) on September 10th

Ignore my inbox, I just did a huge digital core dump and I'm still working through it :P

Hope this helped,
Calvin