http://www.jamiephelps.com/apple/tickler-file-in-mailapp-with-dockstar-and-mailtags

I know a lot of people (okay, at least me) use their calendar for this. Just put an all day event on the date when you need reminding, assign an alarm, and disco.

Another way to do this is with a simple folder scheme - literally 43 directories, set up same as paper... Anyone else tried this?

I haven't tried it, but I suspect that would be unduly complex unless you used some kind of scripting to simplify it. And at that point, you'd still probably be better off implementing it in some other way.

My only tickler file is remind. I just add an item to my active.rem that triggers on the chosen date and it tells me whatever it I wanted to remind myself of on that day. As far as putting actual files or objects in a tickler file, I don't. If there is any support object or file associated with a reminder, I simply note that in the reminder itself and file it away someplace sensible -- like putting that file wherever I would keep it if it were associated with an active project. That way, when the reminder triggers, all my support material is already where I need it to be. Why file it away in a folder only to refile it again on a specific date?

The tickler file is just a hack, a way to get around the limitations of the physical world -- primarily the inability to set individual alarm clocks for every possible reminder attached to an object. On your PC, you don't face those same limitations, so it's kind of silly to emulate the same solution. The primary point of a physical tickler file is to remind the user of an action related to an object. The point of a tickler is not to store the objects. If I wanted to store things I'd get a box, not forty-three folders.

On the PC, I put the file where it belongs, I file it like anything else. I put the reminder somewhere where it will leap up at me at the appropriate time.