Hello!

• It's easy to bake a bundt cake when you have the right pan.  It's the right tool for the job.   Similarly, your tickler file system is a powerful tool, but only if you commit yourself to using it consistently in the way it was designed to be used. Most people who complain that the tickler file system doesn't work for them never committed to using it as their trusted system and therefore never gave this marvelous system a chance to prove its value to them.
  
  
  
• Your tickler file system is not designed to be a stand-alone reminder system, but rather as a compliment to your paper or electronic-based planners. The purpose of a tickler file system is not just to remind you of actions that need to be done on specific dates such as bills, but more importantly, the tickler file serves as a place to store supporting documents that don't easily fit in your electronic or paper-based day planners. Let's say you have tickets to a sports event  or the theatre on Saturday at 7:00PM. You could write that down in your day planner, but it does not help you to locate or to store the actual tickets you need. This is where the tickler file would help. You can log your appointment in your day planner (and I recommend for the newer TIckler user to indicate a T next to the appointemnt) so that your time is blocked off from other obligations and then you can place those tickets in the appropriate day that you plan on attending that event. Then on the morning of that day, you simply empty your tickler file for that day into your inbox and "voila" you've just saved yourself the frustration of wondering where the tickets were located.  (not you just have to remember to take them with you!). 
  
  
• Use the monthly (January-December) folders to file documents for that particular month from which you don't have any assigned day. Yesterday, I worked with a client and she had marketing material for a conference in June, it was too early for her to think about and the cut off day for registration was May, so we set it in her tickler monthly file of May.    When you reach that month, empty out your May folder and place that memo in the appropriate day (1-31) folder for the month of May (for example, the deadline for registration.)  Just make sure you don't forget to check those monthly folders!  Possibly consider putting in a blank sheet of paper in the last day of the month with a note saying, "Check the Monthly folder!)

• Make it a habit to check your tickler file each morning (or the end of the previous day) by taking the contents out of the day's folder and placing them in your in-box for processing. II had one client a while back and he's was on the go, so we made a yellow folder called, "Daily Processing Files" so he could have those files with him knowing they were prioritiy.  Make sure you process your in-box at least two times daily so it doesn't start to overfill.  (If you have a SwiftFile, you can take the day's relevant files with you.)
  
  
  
• Keep your tickler file next to your in-box, whether it be at home or at work because you will want it close to your in-box when you are processing your paper workflow as a place to store items that you want to revisit on a particular date, such as bills.  As I learned from Barbara Hemphill, "clutter is postponed decisions", so make a decision on when to act upon it right away when you are opeing your mail. 
  
  
  
• After emptying each day's folder into your in-box; put the newly emptied folder back  put it back into yourand reposition it on the next appropriate folder. Then replace the folder in sequential order behind the following month.
  
  
  
• Be wary about the end of each month, since not all months go to 31.
  
  
  
• Prior to repositioning of any folder in your tickler file, make sure you check to see if anything is in those folders.