What does a digital tickler file look like?

Question

I'm in the process of implementing my GTD process, and I'm starting to run in to items that I want to put in a tickler file. The implementation of a physical tickler file makes tons of sense, but its unwieldy for me to have a physical tickler file. I'm trying to set everything up using remember the milk, but I'm willing to lean on other tools to complete the task. I've taken a brief look at the "Tickler file for email" question, but I was wondering what other alternatives people would recommend, or have had success with, in particular, using remember the milk?

I realize that StackExchange is not the place to ask for recommendations, but I'm at a loss: What does a digital tickler file look like, and what tools / techniques can people recommend?

Answer 1

A digital tickler file can be implemented in various ways:

• Use your calendar (Outlook calendar for example). Create All-Day events to hold the items to pop-up in a desired date in the future. You can categorize those All-Day tickler events so they can be easily searched for. Each event can hold text, links, actual items such as email/documents. Everyday you will potentially have a tickler calendar event to open and process.
• There are task managers allowing for scheduling items to a future date while taking them off the radar until that date. Such tools can act as a tickler file within your GTD projects/NA system.

Answer 2

RTM is simply ninja for implementing a tickler file, so if you use Remember the Milk you're all set.

Use the due date meta tag to force an item to pop up when you would have filed it in your tickler. This answer on RTM implementation explains how (see the due dates and repeat and smart lists headers.

Due dates and repeat can be entered in natural language, e.g. ^tomorrow or ^June 30 or *weekly. If I have a task that I've though of now but don't need to see until a certain date (i.e. it's not yet a next action but will be by date certain), then I use this meta data field (Note: the due date as I use it dictates when the item shows up, not when it's due--more on this in the smart lists section).

Then you just use smart lists to pull up items that are dueBefore:Now OR due:Never.

Answer 3

If you are planning on using a tickler file as described by Allen, then you will want to file stuff (reading material etc.) for later. So IMHO simple calendering doesn't cut it.

I keep a tickler file on my desktop that has sub-folders. Since you don't have physical limitations on the number of folders (i.e.: you don't have to use 43 folders) you can name each folder with the date when the material inside gets interesting. So if you have 50 PDF files each of which gets relevant at a different date in the future you would use 50 folders.

If the due date of the next files is super-far into the future you can remind yourself of looking into the folder by adding an appointment to your calendering. Or you can incorporate it into your morning ritual.

Answer 4

To me using the due date in a todo application to implement a tickler file seems a bit weird—semantically because a tickler file is for having a task start on a specific day as opposed to being due on a specific day, and functionally because you'll probably have to work against the system to set up the right kind of behavior where tickler file items are invisible to you until the specified date (which is the whole point of a tickler file).

Things and OmniFocus are the only apps that I know of that let you specify both start dates for tasks (in addition to due dates) and handle them properly.

Answer 5

I use two methods, depending on whether the thing I'm being tickled about is part of a project or stand-alone.

• If the task is part of a GTD project, I keep it with the rest of my project tasks. For me, that means a list on Remember The Milk, with a due date of when I want to be tickled.

  The things that normally fall into this category are where I'm waiting on something that has a specific deadline before I can progress my project, but where the next action thereafter will be on me (so it doesn't go into my "@Waiting for" list). Recent examples would be my suit being ready from the dry cleaners, or to talk to a specific person about something when I know I'm going to see them that day.

• If the tickle is something that stands alone, it goes into a specific Google Calendar. This is for things that need to remind me of something (eg a voucher runs out in a couple of weeks, or that I need to pay the council tax).

If there's physical material involved, I'll file that with the rest of my project/reference material, and note in the electronic tickle where it's been filed. IIRC Allen talks about using his tickle file for concert tickets; in contrast I have a reference file called "Tickets", so when I'm tickled about them, I know where to look.