Follow-ups
Tracking promises you made and promises others made — without each one becoming a separate task.
Some commitments are big enough to be tasks; others are just thread-level “I’ll get back to you Tuesday” promises that should resolve themselves when you reply. alfred_ tracks both.
Two layers of tracking
Tasks
Created when a commitment has a clear deliverable that you’ll need to actively work on. “Send the proposal by Friday” → task.
Thread-level follow-ups
Tracked on the email thread itself. Resolves automatically when you reply. “Let me get back to you Tuesday” → thread-level promise; closes when you respond.
What you can do
- See open promises — “what did I promise this week?”
- See what you’re waiting on — “what am I waiting on a reply for?”
- Snooze a follow-up — “remind me Friday if no reply”
- Convert a follow-up to a task — when you realize a thread-level promise actually needs real work
- Mark resolved — handled offline, ignore
Where follow-ups appear
- Daily Brief — under “Overdue promises” (yours) and “Waiting on them” (others’)
- Tasks panel — filter by “Promise / follow-up” to see only this layer
- Thread itself — open any email and see linked promises
Why two layers
Tasks are heavier — they need a title, deadline, status. Follow-ups are lighter — they’re just “this thread is open, and here’s why.” Conflating them either drowns your task list with thread noise or loses the thread context for real work.
Related
- Email follow-up tracking — the email-side surface
- Daily Brief sections — how follow-ups appear in your brief