An “everyday file” with 31 days of the month, followed by the 12 months of the year may be the best bet in setting up your tickler file.

The 1–31 slots are always used to hold papers for the current month, followed by 12 slots labelled January to December.

1. Receive a document or task that will require an action.
2. Determine when you will need to work on this action and place the document in that day of the month.
3. If the document has a distant deadline, place in the predicted month you will need to take action.
4. Each morning, remove that day’s papers and complete the task or action. If there is a follow up, place that follow up in the appropriate new date to take action.
5. You may want to look at the next few days to be aware of what is coming up.
6. At the end of the month the day-to-day section of the file should be empty. Remove the next month’s papers and action, prioritise their dates and repeat the cycle.