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On Day 6 of the GTD Thirty Day Challenge, I am going to talk about how I set up my tickler file and exactly how to set up a tickler file.

From what I can tell, David Allen is a big believer in the 43 folders tickler file. If you haven’t seen a tickler file before, it is 12 folders for each month and 31 folders for each day. Right now it’s January so I’d have my 31 folders behind January. As each day passes, I’d move the previous date behind February. Since today is the 21st for me. Folders for days 1-20 would now be behind the February tab.

Now, how do you use it? Today, I had a bill I learned I had to pay on February 3. I don’t want to forget it, so I would put it behind my February 3 tab. When that day rolls around, I check my tickler file and it prompts me to pay the bill.

If you asked me, I think using 43 folders for my tickler file is not the best way to set up a tickler file. First, it’s hard to remember to check the tickler each day. You’ll be asking yourself, “how do I remind myself to check the tickler file?” Secondly, it’s very bulky and not very portable. Third, when you move the folders for each day to the next month you have to take items in that months folder and put them in the right day.

The tickler file is essential to your GTD set up, however, because you have to remember future items. If you have a lot of physical items then the tickler file is the way to go. In my case, I don’t have tons of physical items and so here is my solution to the above problems with a tickler file.

How To Set Up A Tickler File

The first thing to do is to create a plastic folder for your briefcase called “Waiting For” and put all the things you need to remember in the future in it.

After I have my “Waiting For” folder set up, next I would create a folder called “Yahoo Reminders” in my email account. You can see how I set this up if you read my article on How To Set Up Your GTD email. Then filter all of your reminders directly to this folder so they bypass your inbox.

The last component is Yahoo calendar. I put any item I need to remember and enter it as an all day event. I attach and email reminder to it that sends me a reminder 2 days ahead of the day I need to remember it. As a second reminder, a text is sent too.

Using the example above, the bill that’s due on the third of February gets entered onto my calendar as an all day event like “pay this bill” and an email reminder gets sent to me 2 days before that date. Then I slip the bill in my “Waiting For” folder in my briefcase.

On February 1st, an email is sent ot me that reminds me I have to pay a bill on the third. The email bypasses my inbox and is filtered into my Yahoo reminder folder. As a backup, I get a text message too. Using text and email both gives me a backup in case I can’t check my Yahoo reminders folder I then have a reminder sitting on my blackberry too. I review my reminders each day on my Blackberry and if I am at my computer, I review them too.

This setup is especially lightweight and extremely portable. It reminds me of everything so I do not have to remember to check. I also don’t have to move stuff around in my tickler file. If you don’t use email reminders, you really don’t have any idea how valuable they can be. My suggestion is use them, even if you use the 43 folders as your tickler file. They will improve your GTD system 100%

Once you learn how to set up a tickler file in this fashion, you’ll find it ideal for maximum effectiveness.

In part 1 of this series we talked about the quick fix people are looking for as opposed to taking responsibility for creating your life.

And I asked you…

So where do you start if you are ready to take responsibility for your life and create your future?

There are 4 core areas, or what I call core blueprints, that require your attention if you want to have a life that is in flow with your true passion and purpose. When you’ve created all 4 of your blueprints and you have all 4 of these areas functioning at a level that satisfies you, then your life will be more peaceful and effortless than you have ever imagined it could really be…

No magic bullet required!

In the next 4 weeks we will discuss each of these areas:

*Introspection and Discovery of Purpose *Blueprinting the Life of Your Dreams *Sales/Marketing/Communication Skills *Mentoring for Your Life and Your Business

First I’d like to have you go back and look at how you reacted to the assignment I gave you at the end of part 1. You remember, the four lines I asked you to read out loud and then look at what your reaction told you about yourself.

I’m making the assumption that you’ve at least taken one simple action towards creating your life by doing this. So how did that go for you?

What came up?

Your body reacts to your thoughts and feelings, situations real or imagined, all the time but most of the time we aren’t aware of it, or you’ll look for a pill or a drink to cover the reaction.

Why do you think people refer to your ‘gut’ reaction?

When your stomach gets butterflies or starts swirling do you reach for an antacid or do you go inside and ask yourself what’s really happening here?

Because now, in part two of this series, we’re talking about Introspection and Discovering Your Purpose.

Introspection does not require hours of meditation or trekking to Tibet. You can start very simply by just listening to what your body is telling you.

For example: When you notice your body having a reaction, take a minute and see what was just happening that you are reacting to. Was it a phone call, an email, a conversation, or seeing something you don’t want to do coming up next on your calendar?

Or was it a daydream, a thought of fear or doubt that isn’t even real?

First you have to know what is driving your life now before you can make a shift that will move you in the direction you want to go. Why randomly make changes in your life if you don’t know where you’re actually at or what your truly want?

It’s like shooting arrows at a target while someone is spinning you around instead of planting your body, taking a proper stance and aiming at your target. That would be silly, wouldn’t it? And yet you’re basically doing the same thing every day if you haven’t created your first blueprint of Introspection and Discovery of Purpose.

So how do you get started figuring out what your purpose is?

These are criteria that I use to qualify every opportunity that comes up in my life. I believe they will serve you as well as they have served my clients in the last several years.

7 Criteria for Recognizing Your Passion and Purpose

1. Doing it makes you feel good about yourself 2. You would do it for free 3. You loose all track of time when you do it 4. You love to talk about it to everyone 5. You are happy to teach others 6. If this were how you spent all your time, it would be a good thing. 7. It makes you want to get out of bed in the morning

If you are truly living your purpose and doing what you are meant to do in this life, you will easily be ale to say yes to all 7 of these criteria. And just as importantly, you will be able to confidently say no to any opportunity that doesn’t rate a resounding yes. And I mean all 7, every time.

If you say yes to 6, but 1 of these criteria is a no or a maybe for you, then say no to whatever it is. It’s not worth your time and effort to do anything that isn’t a perfect fit for you. You don’t want to be coming from a place of lack and grabbing on to something that isn’t meant for you.

I can hear all the “yes, but..” now. It doesn’t matter how good the opportunity would make you look or how much money it could bring or what your friends will say if you don’t do it. Just say no. Your life will start working on such a higher level as soon as you really embrace this concept of saying no to the good to say yes to the great.

That’s the first step to creating your life and creating the first blueprint.

You must have a place that you confidently stand in your life. Your own personal line in the sand. And only you know what that is. I can’t give it to you and neither can anyone else.

Another good tool I would suggest you use is creating your own personal manifesto. If you haven’t done that, you can go to http://LynnPierce.com and sign up for this ezine, and you’ll get an email with a special report on how to create your personal manifesto as my gift to you. I take you step by step through how to create it and how to use it. It’s a powerful tool.

To be living your blueprint of introspection and purpose you have to be in a place of abundance in terms of confidently saying no to an opportunity that may be a good one to have the space available in your life to welcome a great one.

Does that make sense?

Too often whether it’s a relationship, a job, or a dream; you’re limiting your own ability to live your purpose by fearfully holding on to things in your life that, upon introspection, you would realize are not serving you at the highest level.

The law of attraction is not the only Universal law. One that has always been a very important one in my life is the law of creating a vacuum. Nothing new and great can come into your life unless a space has been created for it to occupy.

If all the available space in your life is filled with things that are less than perfect for you, there is no room for anything better to show up.

So you can use the law of attraction and sit and wait, or you can beg and plead, or you can stand on your head, but you will not get your desired end result.

Until you let go and know that the Universe will bring into your life exactly what you need to fulfill your purpose, you’ll have no space available for it come into your life.

Have you ever been in a bad relationship and wished for a better person to come into your life, but you wouldn’t break up with the first person because you were afraid you’d be alone?

How did that work out for you? Eventually, if you suffer enough and the pain becomes great enough you’ll make the leap and leave. Then, lo and behold, someone else shows up.

That’s the way it works in every area of your life. You can always take the slow and painful route and wait to be so miserable that you make a change out of desperation or you can choose now to actively listen to your body when you have a ‘gut reaction’ and begin to create blueprint #1: Introspection and Discovery of Purpose using the tools you’ve learned here.

Next week we’ll move on to my favorite part, Blueprinting the Life of Your Dreams.

So get to work right now on discovering your purpose and creating your personal manifesto so you’ll be standing in a place of knowing who you are, where you’re starting from and where you want to go so we can begin to create that life for you next week!

Until then, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just comment on this post on my blog.

Owning a website on the net is not enough; you need to get traffic to your site and should have awareness about its importance. A profitable venture depends on consistent and sustainable traffic. There are different ways of diverting traffic to the site and while it is not possible to do this for free like most people would want, some tips given below will surely enable you to achieve your goal.

Write a good content filled article and submit it to blogs and article sites. The bogs will give you permanent links and the sites will pass your article on to other sites and blogs. This is a great way to get links; if your article is picked up then the number of links can become exponential.

Join a few forums and post frequently. Most forums allow you to link your signature to your site. If you pick the bigger Forums like Digital Point, they have so much traffic that these inks are very valuable. Make friends and they will help you by giving suggestions on how to get traffic.

You need to offer your website to various directories so that they can back links to help boost your ranking with the major search engines. There are thousands of directories out there, many with a high ranking.

I have an auto submitter which saves an enormous amount of time, but there is no reason why you should not use a submission service.

Putting an article on a blog is a great way to improve your ranking. You should find blogs that are relevant to your service and ask the owner if you can submit an article, with your link of course. If the owner is not inclined to accept your suggestion, no problem just post a comment on one of his articles.

These are a few ways in which you can improve your visibility on the Internet. There are many others but these will give you a start. Earlier I mentioned paying for Directory submissions, I would agree that this is acceptable, but never pay for traffic. 99% of paid traffic is garbage, so dont be tempted. If you really want to learn more about traffic, just follow my blog.