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A small victory with my ticklerfile

05 01 07 - 16:42 - Bookmark this post

What a surprise this morning! I have a paperbased based ticklerfile on my desk but to be honest, never really used it. I occassionally check it, say, once a month and nothing goes in or out of there. It is a nice piece of officefurniture though, check out this popup

But it takes up deskspace. So I thought! Because the last couple of days I decided to check it every morning. And ofcourse, nothing in it. But this morning I found a flyer at today's date. And I was surprised. I had this "The-Dave-talks-about-this-on-his-seminar-but-it-never-happens-to-me"-moment. Because it was a flyer for a management seminar. When I received it, I was going "ooooohhh....gottago!Wannago!Oughtago!" Or as The Dave would say "It's a midgetwidget!"

But then I thought "Wait a minute, lets' think this through. Do I really want to go or is it just a nice fieldtrip?" Nothing wrong with nice fieldtrips, but right now I have other priorities. So in the spur of the moment I threw it in my ticklerfile. And now? I have thought about it. I let it sink in. I read the flyer again this morning and said: "Nah...what was I thinking?" I saved the company another 700 dollar thankyouverymuch by not going to this seminar.

But I felt a deeper feeling. When I saw the flyer I was thinking "Wow! This ticklerfile works! Excellent!" You could say that this positive experience with the ticklerfile (first in two years) made such an impact that I think it changed the way I use it. I might want to use it more often...

More on the Ticklerfile in the 43folders-Wiki.

Happy to see that you’re saving our company another 700 bucks and that you’re using my old ticklerfile ;-) I allways figured where I have left it.
Martijn - 05 01 07 - 21:03

I’ve experimented with GTD for about 6 months now and the tickler file is my favorite part!

When I first read the book I was skeptical about the concept. But, I got myself 43 folders and tried it like a good follower. One day I checked it and found a meeting agenda. The best part was I hadn’t thought about that meeting at all for the two weeks it was in the tickler file. And that’s good! It was off my mind and in the system. And it never got lost. From that point on I’ve deferred all kinds of stuff that “miraculously” shows up right when I need it most.

I may forget some of what GTD teaches but I will always have my 43 folders.
Jason Rehmus - 06 01 07 - 01:33

Martijn: I knew you were gonna say that :-) See you monday buddy!
Jason: Excellent story! How did you get used to using the Ticklerfile? Did you have any tricks like putting money in random folders? I’ve read about people doing that. Might be a way to start using the ticklerfile..
Frank Meeuwsen - 06 01 07 - 12:07

I strong-armed myself. We use Outlook at work so I have a recurring task for “Check Tickler File.” It shows up on my Next Actions list every morning. I can’t mark it “completed” until I’ve dumped the contents of today’s folder into my inbox.

Plus, I find satisfaction each time I put something into the tickler. While I’m flipping through the folders to file a new item, I get a chance to see pages and pages of work that I don’t have to deal with. I don’t have to deal with them because they’ve been deferred to the appropriate time. Very satisfying.
Jason Rehmus - 08 01 07 - 01:19

@Jason: So in reality, you trick your mind in thinking something else. Very clever! Do the same with the Weekly Review and you’re halfway there!
Frank Meeuwsen - 08 01 07 - 07:41

I set up a tickler file many, many years ago, long before GTD. I rarely used it.
When I read GTD, I thought “been there, done that” and didn’t arrange one.
It wasn’t until I found so many enthusiastic adherents on the web, that I tried it again. Wow. It has made all the difference.

It didn’t fit my lifestyle in my early 20s, but now it is a HUGE memory aid. It is such a boon to processing the inbox, to be able to defer the decision, without creating a pile.

All the best,
CLKL
clkl - 15 05 07 - 01:34