Playbook guide · Free
Build an Unfinished Promises Tracker from Your Email
A muse connected to your email can search your sent mail for promises to follow up, and compile them into one tracker of promises still open. Nothing gets sent to anyone until you approve it.
What it does
Most people make small promises in email all week: I will get back to you, I will send that over, let me check and follow up. Each takes ten seconds to write and is easy to lose under newer mail. The person on the other end remembers. You may not.
A muse can search your sent messages for promise phrases like those, plus your own usual wording, and pull each match into a tracker. Each row shows who you promised, what you promised, the date you said it, and the thread subject, so you can open the original mail and check the context in one tap.
How to use it
- Connect the email account you send from, and start with a set window: the last two or three months of sent mail.
- Give the muse your promise phrases: "Search my sent mail for lines like 'I will get back to you' and 'I will send that.' Add any similar wording you find in my messages."
- Ask for the tracker: one row per promise, with the person, the promise, the date, and the thread subject.
- Read the list and cross off anything handled, settled in person, or no longer owed.
- For each promise still open, ask the muse to draft a short follow-up in your tone, and approve, edit, or drop each draft before anything sends.
- Set a weekly rerun, so new promises land on the tracker before they go stale.
What you need
- A muse account
- Your email account connected, with sent mail the muse is allowed to search
- A few minutes to review the first list and clean it up
What to watch for
- Phrase search is literal, so it will catch casual lines that were never real promises, and miss a promise you worded in a new way. Expect to tidy the first list.
- A promise can look open in email when you settled it by phone or in another app, so check the thread before writing to anyone.
- It is normal if a helper reading your sent mail sounds like a lot: you choose which account to connect, and you can review or delete what it remembers.
- The muse builds the list and drafts the words. You decide what you still owe, and what goes out.