Tag: tickler files

Watching people online chat, ask questions, and generally get excited about their planners for 2026, I thought I would spend a few minutes to set up my Memindex-inspired planner version using 4 x 6″ index cards and tabbed dividers. It’s amazing how useful a $2.50 block of 500 index cards can be for planning out your coming year.

A Steelcase file index drawer open showing a four inch chunk of cards separated by tabbed cards featuring the names of the 12 months of the year and one divider in the back labeled 2026. On the front card is a calendar for the month of December 2025. In the blurry foreground is a label for the drawer of cards that reads "Memindex".

Interestingly, I’ve recently come across versions of this same sort of tickler file recommended in mid-20th century textbooks for filing and indexing in business contexts:

Portion of a book page featuring an image of a card catalog tray full of index cards. In the front is a tab for November followed by 1/5 cut tabs numbered 1-31 followed by tabs for the months December - October.

Cadwallader, Laura Hanes, and Sarah Ada Rice. 1932. Principles of Indexing and Filing. Baltimore; Chicago: H.M. Rowe Company. page 134: https://archive.org/details/principlesofinde0000laur/page/134/mode/2up

 

Portion of a book page featuring an image of a card catalog tray full of index cards. In the front is a tab for November followed by 1/5 cut tabs numbered 1-31 followed by tabs for the months December - October. At the top is the heading "A Tickler for Follow-up File" with numbered details pointing at portions of the card index.

Kahn, Gilbert, Theo Yerian, and Jeffrey R. Stewart, Jr. 1962. Progressive Filing and Records Management. 1st ed. New York: Gregg Publishing Division, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. page 190: https://archive.org/details/progressivefilin0000gilb/page/190/mode/2up 

The careful observer will notice that both of the photos in texts by different authors nearly 30 years apart are the same! I would suspect that they’re from a manufacturer’s catalog (Remington Rand) earlier in the century. It’s even more interesting that one can still quickly create such a set up with commercially available analog office supplies now.