While I don't use a tick timer the basic theory is to setup your client via 'time' commands to echo a warning every X seconds. You reset the timer as often as possible of the global echo's you see in game to account for the randomness of ticks.
For example:
At 25 seconds echo to yourself 'Tick in 5 seconds'
When you see 'The sun rises in the east' you have your timer reset to 0.
What you want to do is collect as many global echo's as you can since ticks are random. You ideally want to reset on every tick if possible. I'm sure some of the other players have some nifty tricks (and a great long list of echo's) if they want to share. The easy way is to play and everytime you see something quickly add it (learn how to do it via command line for better speed). It won't take long for your list to grow 
In game type 'help tick' as a good starting point.
L-A