T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
interruption. Reading difficult material requires your best effort,
not the last shreds of consciousness at the end of the day.
10. the tickler File
If you can adhere to the “touch it once” rule at all times, you’ll
save yourself tons of time.
If that rule’s a little too rigid, create another file category, the
tickler file.
Can’t decide what to do with it? Not sure you should do any-
thing at all? Put it in the tickler file. This file can become quite
cumbersome; most advocates recommend a file for each day and
another for each month. Put items in the appropriate file depend-
ing on when they need attention. Each day, attack the material in
that day’s file. If the amount of paper you are dealing with on a
regular basis warrants this arrangement, go for it.
Alternatively, you can create a tickler system on your comput-
er’s or PDA’s calendar. Just as you would enter a calendar item
for a meeting, enter a reminder to work on a particular task. The
reminder can be entered on any day or at repeating intervals to
alert you to your tasks. The reminder can include phone numbers,
the location of files, or any important information you’ll need and
are likely to forget—or don’t want to remember.
Paper management will soon become a happy habit, one that
will save you enormous amounts of time and remove a lot of the
frustration from the workday.