A tickler file is a collection of date-labeled file folder

File folder

A file folder is a kind of folder that holds loose papers together for organization and protection. File folders usually consist of a sheet of heavy paper stock or other thin, but stiff, material which is folded in half, and are used to keep paper documents...

s organized in a way that allows time-sensitive documents to be filed according to the future date on which each document needs action. Documents within the folders of a tickler file can be to-do lists, pending bills, unpaid invoices, travel tickets, hotel reservations, meeting information, birthday reminders, coupons, claim tickets, call-back notes, follow-up reminders, maintenance reminders, or any other papers that require future action. Each day, the folder having the current date is retrieved from the tickler file so that any documents within it may be acted on. Essentially, a tickler file provides a way to send a reminder to oneself in the future—"tickling

Tickling

Tickling is the act of touching a part of the body so as to cause involuntary twitching movements and/or laughter. The word evolved from the Middle English tikelen, perhaps frequentative of ticken, to touch lightly. The idiom tickled pink means to be pleased or delighted.In 1897, psychologists G...

" one's memory

Memory

In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....

.

Tickler file

File folder

A file folder is a kind of folder that holds loose papers together for organization and protection. File folders usually consist of a sheet of heavy paper stock or other thin, but stiff, material which is folded in half, and are used to keep paper documents...

s are often used in newsrooms by editors

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

, journalists, and reporters, as well as by many other groups, including sales representatives and professional offices in medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, non-profit, government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, and accounting.

A tickler file system also has other applications such as museum guides, specialized fact books, time management software, or any organized arrangement of information to which a person may want quick access.

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

Self-help

Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...

 books as Pam Young and Peggy Jones' 1977 book Sidetracked Home Executives: From Pig-Pen to Paradise, FlyLady

FlyLady

FlyLady is a support and self-help group that offers advice to help people with housekeeping , founded by "The FlyLady", Marla Cilley.The group is based upon the website FlyLady.net, as well as a Federated Media's BigTent group for its email mailing list...

 Maria Ciley, Chris Crouch's book Getting Organized, David Allen

David Allen (author)

David Allen is a productivity consultant who is best known as the creator of the time management method known as "Getting Things Done" .He grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana where he acted and won a state championship in debate...

's 2002 book Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done is an organizational method created by productivity consultant David Allen, described in a book of the same name....

and Merlin Mann's

Merlin Mann

Merlin Dean Mann III writes the blog . He received a B.A. from New College of Florida, and he currently resides in San Francisco, California with his wife, Madeline Mann, and their daughter, .-Writing:...

 website 43 Folders, whose name comes from one popular method for maintaining a tickler file.

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 come from a maximum thirty-one days in a Gregorian

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...

 or Julian

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...

 month

Month

A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which was first used and invented in Mesopotamia, as a natural period related to the motion of the Moon; month and Moon are cognates. The traditional concept arose with the cycle of moon phases; such months are synodic months and last approximately...

 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 database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

s or with simple tools such as a Unix ".calendar" file.