For EAs
Phrases That Mean Your Exec Owes Someone
"Let me check" isn't a sentence. It's a promise with no date.
Most promises in an inbox don't look like promises. They look like politeness. These are the phrases worth hunting for, because each one means somebody is waiting.
The questionFor every phrase you find, ask one thing: did anything go out after this?
The phrases
A deadline nobody wrote down. If it's been a week, it's late.
An attachment, a deck, an intro. Check the thread: did anything actually go out?
An open question with no owner. It's yours now.
A timing window. Note when, or it never comes back around.
A favor promised to two people at once. Both are waiting.
A date in disguise. Put the real date on it.
Often means a next step was agreed. Find out whose move it is.
Finding them in Gmail
Paste these into the Gmail search bar, one at a time:
in:sent newer_than:30d "next week" in:sent newer_than:30d "I'll send" in:sent newer_than:30d "let me check" in:sent newer_than:30d "circle back" in:sent newer_than:30d "happy to intro"
For each hit, open the thread. If nothing went out after it, it goes on the Promised list with who and since when.
The other direction
People promise your exec things too. Run the same searches without "in:sent" to see who owes you. Keep those in a separate column, so you can nudge them before your exec has to.
This is the first step of taking over a founder's inbox and the first three minutes of the morning routine.
Or let it build the lists
Sidekick Log reads your exec's Gmail and shows who's waiting, what was promised and what went quiet. Read-only, it never sends.