I’ve been getting my adminstration in order and ended up creating some ‘rules’ for me to follow. They help me avoid a big pile up of work each quarter or end of year when taxes need to be reported. So I thought to document some of these and write about how the approach helps me in other areas too.
Taking inspiration from Inbox zero, Atomic Habits and the GTD process, a task trigger is an action or event that initiates a specific task or habit. They usually arrive in an inbox of some sort, and they serve as a cue for me to perform a particular action.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear discusses the concept of habit stacking, where you link a new habit to an existing one. Task triggers function similarly by providing a clear signal to start a task or process.
It’s the “IF THIS THEN THAT” of my administrative / productive / professional life.
Task triggers
- Decide if it is legitimate. Archive it if it isn’t.
- Check that the details are correct (address, name, tax number)
- If it’s a business expense but the invoice is missing my tax number, request it for future invoices.
- Pay it if it hasn’t been paid.
- Move the PDF to my administration folder of the current year.
- Rename the file according to my naming conventions: 2026-01-23 - Apple - EUR €3.45.pdf
- Decide if I still want to be paying for this service and cancel it if I don’t.
- Check if I can set up automatic payment (business credit card if it’s a business expense).
- Archive the email to indicate I have processed this task successfully.
- Decide if I actually want to be receiving these.
- If the email is addressed to me: find the unsubscribe link and unsubscribe.
- If the email is addressed to a team inbox that includes me: set up a filter that marks emails like this as read, labels it as noise, and archives them.
- Decide if this was actually urgent or important
- If it wasn’t, I will silence notifications from that app forever.
- Log into the Berichtenbox, download the letter, read it, and move it to my administration folder.
- If that letter requires action / payment, add a task to my task manager with a due date. If the action takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately.
- Archive the letter in the Berichtenbox.
The inboxes, how many do I have, where are they?
- Email Inboxes: For all incoming emails that need to be processed. (Apple’s Mail.app has all my email inboxes)
- Task Inbox: My todo app, I currently use Todoist. I add tasks to this myself usually. Follow up tasks end up here.
- Berichtenbox: A digital inbox for official communications from government agencies in the Netherlands.
- Notes Inbox: A repository for ideas, thoughts, and information that I want to remember, but isn’t sorted yet into a more permanent location.
Inboxes are everywhere (and I love them)
My hamper is an inbox for laundry tasks. When it’s full (but before it’s overflowing) the task “do the laundry” is triggered.
My actual physical mailbox is a inbox too.
My sink and drying rack are inboxes for dishwashing tasks.
I end up having little stacks of things throughout the house that represent tasks. That’s not ideal to be honest, but for example things I am selling or intending to sell on Marktplaats (the dutch ebay), are grouped together on a drawer. Then when I feel I have some time I take the pictures, and get it posted for sale.
This means I can have another task trigger that is like “When I see something I am not using and could sell, put it on the drawer with things I am selling”, and eventually it will get posted to marktplaats. But this way I separate the decision from the more involved task of posting it, but things still keep moving.
This does mean my environment and the positions of things in them is an extension of my task system, and someone moving things around can be disorienting.
I might want some kind of stacked movable trolley tray for things like this. 🤔
Why
Inbox zero is a state of zen. Glancing at my inboxes and seeing nothing there is a small victory that sets a positive tone for the rest of the day. It reduces stress and helps me focus on what truly matters.
If I have zero items in my inbox, I know that there are no pending tasks or actions that need my attention. I also know what is in my inbox isn’t actioned yet and will be waiting for me when I am ready to work on them. I know I can just do one thing at a time and it will eventually get taken care of.
I can relax knowing that everything is organized and under control. This peace of mind allows me to focus on my work and play without the nagging feeling of unfinished tasks.
About that ADHD question in the summary — here’s the thing: systems like these work especially well for ADHD brains, but they’re not evidence you have it. They’re evidence you’ve discovered something called “cognitive offloading.”
Your brain has limited working memory. Every “I should remember to…” takes up a slot. By externalizing decisions into triggers (“when X, do Y”) and physical spaces (the Marktplaats drawer!), you’re freeing your mind to actually think instead of just remember.
The hamper-as-inbox observation is lowkey brilliant, by the way. You’ve turned your physical environment into a distributed task management system. The state of each “inbox” is the reminder. No app notifications needed.
— Claude