The TICKLER FILE or BRING FORWARD FILE consists of 43 folders:

31 daily folders labelled “1″ to “31″

12 monthly folders labelled with the months of the year

The daily folders are kept at the front, beginning with tomorrow’s folder (for the example used in Getting Things Done where today is October 5th, this would be the folder labelled “6″).

The remaining daily folders (in the example, “7″ to “31″) are filed behind this followed by the monthly folder for next month (in the example, this would be “November”) and then the daily folders already used (in the example, “1″ to “5″). Finally there would be the remaining monthly folders for the remaining 11 months (in the example, “December” to “October”.

So you would end up with a set of folders (following the example) labelled thus:

[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[November]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[December]
[January]
[February]
[March]
[April]
[May]
[June]
[July]
[August]
[September]
[October]

How it works

1. Each day, empty the daily folder for that day into your in-basket.
2. File the empty folder at the back of the daily folders (in the example, “6″ is emptied and placed behind “5″ to now represent November 6th).
3. When the next monthly folder is reached (in the example, “November” after “31″ has been emptied) the monthly folder is emptied into your in-basket and then filed at the back of the monthly folders to represent that month next year.

Tips and Tricks

Be sure to update your Tickler File every day and if you’re going away for a few days process all the folders ahead for the days you’ll be away.

Use the folders to file:

• travel documents and tickets for events on the day you’ll need them
• bills on the days you need to pay them
• print out reminders for each birthday and anniversary and file them in the appropriate month to be moved into the appropriate day in due course. It’s a good idea to file reminders a few days ahead (especially if the due date is at the beginning of a month) to ensure you get a card and present ahead of time

There is a free factsheet on the Tickler File available on the David Allen website. There is also a set of 43 sturdy plastic letter size file folders, open on three sides. The GTD Tickler files are blue-grey with black trim and appropriately labelled (in five languages!) Please note that this is expensive to ship as the folders weigh over 5 pounds. Although the folders are letter size, they take A4 papers quite happily.

You can, of course, easily make and label your own set of folders but they are unlikely to last as long as these strong, purpose built folders.

However, it’s essential, once you’ve got all your open loops under control, that you keep them that way otherwise you’ll lapse back into your old ways and get completely out of shape!

How often you do a REVIEW is up to you but the oprimal frequency is weekly – it’s usually referred to as the WEEKLY REVIEW.

There are three parts to the REVIEW:

1. Get CLEAR
2. Get CURRENT
3. Get CREATIVE

Get CLEAR means:

• get all the loose papers, receipts, etc. that have accumulated since your last REVIEW into you in-basket ready to PROCESS (this is a mini-COLLECT!)
• get anything that’s in your head out and written down an in your in-basket
• PROCESS all outstanding items in your in-basket

Get CURRENT means:

• review all your NEXT ACTION lists and cross off anything that’s done and add any new NEXT ACTIONs that this triggers
• look back over your calendar since your last Weekly REVIEW for any remaining NEXT ACTIONs and add to your NEXT ACTIONs lists
• look forward over your calendar for the next few weeks and capture any NEXT ACTIONs triggered by this
• review your WAITING FOR list checking off completed items and look for any needed follow-up on these and other items and capture any NEXT ACTIONs on your lists
• evaluate the status of all your PROJECTs making sure that you’ve at least one NEXT ACTION on each

Get CREATIVE means:

• review your SOMEDAY/MAYBE list and transfer any PROJECTs that have now become active to your PROJECTS list and delete any SOMEDAY/MAYBE items that are no longer of interest
• think of any new things you want to be doing that you can add to your GTD system

One of the key tricks with the REVIEW is finding the time and space to do it justice. Book a meeting with yourself or take all your lists to your favourite coffee shop and shut out the rest of the world whilst you put your world into order.

Next week we’ll look at DO, the final phase of mastering workflow. Then we’ll go back to the beginning and look at some of the tips, tricks and tools for each phase and I’ll show you how I’ve implemented GTD. Don’t forget – you can get an overview of the Five Phases of Mastering Workflow from David Allen’s site for free!