---
title: "An empty task inbox"
description: "Processing every captured item until nothing is left undecided. Not doing everything — deciding what each thing is, and putting it where it belongs."
canonical: https://taskpocket.io/glossary/inbox-zero-for-tasks/
lastUpdated: 2026-09-01
---
1. [Home](https://taskpocket.io/)
2. [Glossary](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/)
3. An empty task inbox

# An empty task inbox

An empty task inbox means every captured item has been decided about — turned into a next action, a project, a someday item, a reference note, or deleted. It does not mean the work is done.

By [Bohdan Stefaniuk](https://taskpocket.io/about/) Last updated 2026-09-01

## Processing is deciding, not doing

This is the part people get wrong and then give up on. Emptying the inbox does not mean completing what is in it; it means deciding what each item is. Allen’s rule: if it takes two minutes or less, do it now — otherwise it becomes a [next action](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/next-action/), a project, a [someday item](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/someday-maybe/), a reference note, or rubbish.

An inbox with forty undecided things in it is not a backlog of work. It is a backlog of decisions, which is heavier.

## Why a separate inbox at all

So that capture can be thoughtless. If writing something down requires choosing a project and a date, capture is slow, and slow capture means you stop capturing — which is the failure that actually kills a system. An inbox is the place where an item is allowed to be undecided for a while.

In TaskPocket it is one of three locations a task can be in, alongside a project and Someday. Note one behaviour worth knowing: giving an inbox task a date moves it to Someday automatically. See [the dates FAQ](https://taskpocket.io/help/dates/faq/).

## How often

Daily if you capture a lot, weekly at minimum — step 2 of the [weekly review](https://taskpocket.io/guides/gtd-weekly-review-checklist/) is getting it to zero. The number itself does not matter; what matters is that nothing sits undecided long enough for you to start avoiding the list.

## Sources

1. [David Allen — the Weekly Review checklist, step 2: “Get ‘in’ to zero”](https://gettingthingsdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Weekly_Review_Checklist.pdf) checked 2026-09-01

## Related reading

- [Next action](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/next-action/) — The physical step you would do next to move something forward — the step, not the outcome, written so you could start it without deciding anything first.
- [The GTD weekly review checklist](https://taskpocket.io/guides/gtd-weekly-review-checklist/) — All eleven steps of David Allen’s weekly review, in order, with what each one is actually for and where people give up. Works with any app, or none.
- [Dates: common problems](https://taskpocket.io/help/dates/faq/) — Why a task left the Inbox on its own, why a deadline will not save, why something due today is not in Today, and where the time of day you typed went.