For EAs
The 10-Minute Who's-Waiting Routine for EAs
Ten minutes, the same order, every morning. New mail goes last.
Most things don't slip because nobody cared. They slip because the newest email always looks the most urgent, and the expensive thread is the quiet one from last week.
The order mattersPromises first, people second, new mail last. Reverse it and the inbox decides your day.
The order
Yesterday's sent mail from your exec. Search "I'll", "next week", "let me check" and "will send". Every hit is a promise. Add it to Promised with a date.
Today and tomorrow. Who is your exec meeting, and is anyone from those meetings already waiting on a reply? Surface it before the meeting, not after.
Anything older than two days goes to the top of today's update. Anything older than a week gets a draft reply, ready to send.
Only now. Sort it into the three lists. Most of it is noise, and that's fine.
The update
One message to your exec, decisions only. A format that works:
- Waiting on you: names, one line each, oldest first.
- You promised: what, to whom, due when.
- Gone quiet: anyone who matters and stopped replying.
If the message is long, that isn't your problem to hide. It means your exec is the bottleneck, and now they can see it.
Once a week (20 minutes)
- Clear or re-date everything in Promised.
- Pick three threads from Quiet and draft a nudge for each.
- Two tests: nobody waited more than two days, and no promise was found by accident.
Setting this up for the first time? Start with taking over a founder's inbox.
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.