A few thoughts:

I'll start at the bottom and work my way backwards.

As for dumping the ticklers, I have a question. If you don't have the ticklers, where/how do you plan to track the actions/projects/items/etc. that are currently stored there? While they may not be the ideal situation at the current moment, do you have an alternative to try? I guess I'm thinking along the lines of don't go from something to nothing, even if the something isn't perfect. At least now, you're seeing those things you have in your tickler. Perhaps instead of just moving them back in the tickler, you need to look at the committment, and see if it is something that you must do and that must be done within the next week or two. If it can honestly be delayed, then move it back a month, and catch it at the relevant review points. But with the tickler there, you can trust that it will be seen in time. On the other hand, if its just as urgent, then it may need to be renegotiated.

For the work inbox, you say that this is urgent and it must be completed, but you have trouble due to interruptions. Is it possible to block some time that is "interruption free"? I know that this isn't always an option (I still haven't found a way to do this, but its still a nice thought :) ), but it could be a way to get through it. If you could get say, half a day to work on this exclusively, then it may be easier to keep up with everything else.

As to going to your desk at home to manage your home system, that's a tough one. There's a few options. One is the basic, just go there, but that's often easier said than done. Another option might (which may seem counterintuitive) would be to separate parts of your system from your desk. Maybe try things like moving the calendar to somewhere in the house where you're going to be anyways (kitchen, etc.) at which point you can look more frequently. Use this calendar as a partial tickler, for some items, even if its something where you might need to look at the original item, put a note reminding you that you have to go look at the full tickler.

As for the weekly review, unfortunately all I can say is it really is the glue that keeps the rest of the system running. Then you know you're looking at your projects and doing the evaluating regularly. As for trying to book it, there's suggestions I've seen from booking conference rooms at work to do it, picking weird hours, etc. The key is just to keep plugging away. I know I sometimes have a problem doing my weekly review from 10-11 Friday AM, which is when I aim for it. If I can do it Friday, great. If I can't then its done as early as possible Monday morning. (Or since tomorrow and Monday are holidays for us at work, I'm going to try to squeeze in one this afternoon).

The other problem is definately a calendar. Compactness seems to be the cornerstone of your system, so you'd need something small, but you didn't like the 3x5s. How about trying to find a template of some sort online showing the next month on one side, and the current week on the other, and print it out two-sided on a letter size sheet of paper. Then, with a little folding, voila, it can fit inside the moleskine, but you still have an easy to see view of the next relevant timeframes? As far as where these templates may be, you might be able to google them or something, or design one of your own. For some ideas, I think the Scrybe (iscrybe.com I think) demo video had some visuals of some of their PaperSync ideas, you might be able to work that into a lo-fi version.

Well, I hope these help, and they weren't too random, but if you need clarification, just let me know!

Cheers,

Adam

My recommendation for Capture/Calendar:

http://www.moleskineus.com/pocket12month.html

Calendar on the left side, Planner on the right side. I carry the Large size of this and I love it.

Michael

The short answer: commit your time, whittle away at the nasty bits, and learn some procrastination hacks (see Merlin's archive for some doozies). Longer answers follow...

Can't you print out calendar pages for your Moleskine? Or buy some? That would solve that problem.

This is two problems. First, the desk habit. Try sticking notes on the fridge, back of the bathroom door, on your wallet, to remind you.

Second, the weekly review. When you say "something always comes up", what that means is that either you don't have a fixed regular time, or that you decide to do something else instead when the time comes. This won't work. It needs to be hard landscape, at a regular time, otherwise something will always come up. Write it on your calendar and commit to it.

Shut down your email. Same with your web browser. Close your office door, and maybe even lock it. By interrupting, your colleagues are saying that their work is more important than yours, and they have the right to barge into your office whenever they wish. Don't let them.

The implicit problem is that you're seeing your paperwork as completely unimportant. If it's part of your job, and you're expected to do it, it's all important. You have to schedule time daily to do these things. Don't let them go until they build up into a huge pile.

There are several tricks for whittling away at things like this, listed on Merlin's site under the categories of procrastination, productivity, and a couple of other things. Read them, because they're good.

First, you need to realise that the problem isn't in the tickler file. It sounds much more like an issue with procrastination, distraction, and time management issues. This sort of mess is extremely common to postgrad students, because creative people generally tend to suffer more from procrastination for reasons I won't go into now.

So to round up: commit to time for daily and weekly reviews, and check out Merlin's archive for some groovy hacks.

As someone who has long fantasized about having my whole world in a compact, analog format, I feel your pain.

One tip on the calendar. The lined Moleskine page can easily be divided into seven segments. No need to use a ruler--use the lines as your guide. This allows for a week per page. So a month takes up only 4 pages (or 2 sheets).

I went to the next step of using my moleskine pocket lined as a calendar and marked off the last 13 pages and replicated the week-per-page layout from the moleskine 18-month planner. This is 4 lines for each weekday and 3 1/2 lines shared for the weekend. (example) That gave me 6-months (26 weeks) of planning and the very back page (facing the unlined card stock) became a list of events the happen after the end of the calendar for when I fill out my next one.