Tickler file
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A tickler file is a system for organizing data in such a way that future tasks are recorded and reviewed, routinely, essentially providing a way to send a reminder to oneself in the future, "tickling" one's memory.
Tickler files are often used in newsrooms by editing, journalists, and reporters, as well as by many other groups, including sales representatives and professional offices in medicine, law, non-profit, government, and accounting.
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[edit] History
One common implementation was in law offices in the early twentieth century, if not before, where small task cards or "tickler cards" would be filed by date and then distributed to lawyers as legal tasks such as renewal of trademarks, updating of wills and filing of motions for a particular case would be approaching. In larger firms a single person would be assigned the maintenance and follow-up of this file, distributing tasks and ensuring their follow-up, which could be recorded on the cards for billing and documentation.
More recently the concept was re-introduced to popular culture through various self-help books as Pam Young and Peggy Jones' 1977 book Sidetracked Home Executives: From Pig-Pen to Paradise, Janet Hall (consultant & author) "5W's of Organizing, A TEASER, and a TICKLE(c)" was developed in 1996 to assist others in getting organized, using a tickler file as part of her system, FlyLady Maria Ciley, Chris Crouch's book Getting Organized, David Allen's 2002 book Getting Things Done and Merlin Mann's website "43 Folders," whose name comes from one popular method for maintaining a tickler file.
[edit] 43 divisions
In larger, institutional uses a tickler file would be chronological, with one section for each year or day, sometimes encompassing more than a century in as much detail as appropriate (especially for dates far in the future). A more common technique is to have index cards with forty-three dividers or a system with forty-three folders or two accordion files. The forty-three divisions (31+12 = 43) come from a maximum thirty-one days in a Gregorian or Julian month and twelve months in a year. When something is scheduled for the coming month, it is placed within the appropriate daily section. Items which need to be done in a particular month are placed in one of the corresponding monthly folder, to be distributed in days near the beginning of that month. Tasks which are not completed may be moved to a different folder or kept in position to be revisited in the following month or year.
Simple systems which involve many repetitive tasks over time tend to use and re-use index cards of an appropriate size, with more complex systems using expandible "accordion files," file folders or even entire rooms full of filing cabinets. Modern systems are usually maintained in computerized databases or with simple tools such as a Unix ".calendar" file.
