A six-column tracker for everything you’re waiting on

The quote a supplier promised by Friday. The signed form from a new hire, a manager’s approval, the pledge a donor made over the phone, the invoice a client said they’d pay “next week.” Most people keep that list in their heads, which remind them at eleven at night and drop the one item that matters during the busiest week.

Most of the fix has nothing to do with AI. A spreadsheet with six columns holds the list and highlights what’s due; a five-minute slot in your calendar keeps it current. The assistant takes the part people put off because it feels pushy: the second and third nudge, worded so they name the item and are easy to answer. Whether to write again, wait or pick up the phone stays your decision, because you know the relationship and the assistant doesn’t.

By the end of this you’ll have one sheet, filled from your last month of sent mail, that lights up every follow-up due today, and you’ll have sent today’s nudges. The method works the same for a recruiter waiting on references, a project manager waiting on sign-off, a teacher waiting on permission slips or a freelancer waiting to be paid.

What you’ll be able to do

• Keep one sheet with everything you’re waiting on, filled today from your last month of sent mail, where the rows due for a nudge light up on their own.
• Send today’s nudges, each naming the item and a date, in words you’d be comfortable saying to the person directly.
• Keep the sheet current with a five-minute check each weekday.

What you need

• About an hour for the first pass.
• Your email. The steps cover Gmail and Outlook; any app with a Sent folder works.
• Excel or Google Sheets, and your calendar.
• A chat assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. A free account is enough.

The assistant only needs a first name, the item and the dates, so keep account numbers and confidential details out of the chat. Before you upload a client document covers what to check about the tool itself.

Steps

1. Find what you’re still waiting on. In Gmail, search for from:me newer_than:1m to list what you sent in the last month, or use the narrower search in the next section. In Outlook, open Sent Items and scroll back a month. Any thread where you asked for something and the last message is yours, or the reply was “I’ll get back to you,” is open. Then scan last month’s calendar for promises made out loud in meetings. Note how long this hunt takes, so you can compare it with the five-minute check in step 7.
2. Set up the six columns. In a new spreadsheet, name the first tab Open and add a second tab called Done. Type the headers from the next section in row 1 of Open, then add one row per open item. Make the What column specific enough to paste into a nudge: “Signed quote for 40 task chairs” works, “Quote” doesn’t. For Next nudge, start with the day after the deadline they gave you, or about a week after you asked if they gave none.
3. Turn Status into a dropdown. The formula in step 4 looks for the exact word Done, so “Done.” or “finished” wouldn’t count. In Excel, select E2:E500, choose Data > Data Validation, set Allow to List and type Waiting,Nudged once,Nudged twice,Final sent,Done in the Source box (with semicolons instead of commas if your formulas use semicolons). In Google Sheets, select the same range, choose Insert > Dropdown and enter each option, using Add another item for the next one (both checked in October 2026).
4. Add the formula that highlights what’s due. Select A2:F500. In Excel, choose Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule, then Use a formula to determine which cells to format. In Google Sheets, choose Format > Conditional formatting, then Custom formula is in the Format cells if list (both checked in October 2026). Paste the formula from the next section, pick a fill color and save. Sort the rows by Next nudge, earliest first, and the highlighted ones gather at the top.
5. Get today’s nudges drafted. For each highlighted row, paste the nudge prompt into a new conversation and fill in the brackets from your sheet. With several due, repeat the lines from “What I asked for” to “Format” once per item and ask for all of them at once.
6. Check, edit and send. First search your inbox for the person’s name, since a reply may be sitting in another thread. Compare every date and fact in the draft with your sheet, delete any deadline you didn’t give it, and read it aloud. Before a final nudge, decide whether email is the right channel at all; with a long-standing client or a major donor, a phone call may be the better last step. Once it’s sent, update Status and move Next nudge a few business days out, or less if the date you need it by is close.
7. Put a five-minute check in your calendar. Create a five-minute event called Follow-ups, repeating Monday to Friday at a time you’re usually at your desk, and paste the sheet’s link into its description. Each day, mark what arrived as Done, add new requests from yesterday’s sent mail (from:me newer_than:1d in Gmail, newer_than:3d on Mondays) and send the highlighted nudges. If next week has no room even for that, Make next week fit in your calendar helps you find it.
8. Close the loop once a week. Cut the Done rows from Open, paste them in the Done tab and delete the empty rows. Write down how many rows Open holds after today’s first pass; a week later, count the rows on Done. That pair of numbers is your own measure of what the sheet helped you close.

What to copy

The search (Gmail)

Swap in the phrases you use when you ask for something:

from:me newer_than:1m ("could you" OR "please send" OR "let me know" OR "by Friday")

The headers

A: Who
B: What
C: Sent on
D: Next nudge
E: Status
F: Notes

Notes holds what depends on the item and the email’s subject line, so you can find the thread in seconds. For example, a made-up sheet for an operations manager at a small nonprofit, opened on Thursday, October 15, 2026:

Who	What	Sent on	Next nudge	Status	Notes
Leo, furniture supplier	Quote for 40 task chairs	9/29/2026	10/14/2026	Nudged once	Budget review 10/26
Omar, finance	Approval to move training budget to Q1	10/2/2026	10/19/2026	Waiting	Subject: “Training budget, Q1”
Priya, referee	Reference for our new coordinator	10/8/2026	10/15/2026	Waiting	Offer waits on it
Ana, bakery owner	Signed pledge form, spring appeal	9/22/2026	10/13/2026	Nudged twice	Promised by phone at the gala
Inés, partner school	Payment of invoice 1042	9/30/2026	10/20/2026	Waiting	Due 10/19

On October 15, the rows for Leo, Priya and Ana light up.

The formula

Conditional formatting rule for A2:F500, in Excel or Google Sheets:
=AND($D2<>"",$D2<=TODAY(),$E2<>"Done")

Optional, in cell H1, the number of nudges due today or earlier:
=COUNTIFS(D2:D500,"<="&TODAY(),E2:E500,"<>Done")

Read the rule as: this row has a Next nudge date, that date is today or earlier, and the status isn’t Done. Keep the first condition, because a blank cell counts as a date long past. If your spreadsheet separates arguments with semicolons, use semicolons; any formula that already works in the same file shows which one it uses. With function names in Spanish, the rule is =Y($D2<>"";$D2<=HOY();$E2<>"Done"), or the same with commas if that’s what your file uses. For any other rule, Describe the formula you need in plain words shows how to get it written and tested.

The nudge prompt

Draft a follow-up email for something I'm still waiting on.

What I asked for: [THE ITEM, as specific as in my tracker]
Who: [FIRST NAME AND ROLE, for example "Leo, our contact at the furniture supplier"]
When I asked: [DATE]
What depends on it: [WHAT HAPPENS ON MY SIDE, AND WHEN]
This nudge is: [first / second / final]
My plan if the final nudge gets no answer: [for example "go with the other supplier's quote"]
Our relationship: [for example "we've worked together for years" or "new contact, fairly formal"]
Format: [reply in the same thread / new email with a subject line]

Rules:
- Name the item and the date I asked in the first two sentences.
- Ask for one specific thing with a date: the item, the date it will come, or who else can help.
- Make it easy to answer, for example with a yes-or-no question or a smaller first step.
- First nudge: brief and warm; assume they're busy. Second: add the date I need it by and why. Final: say plainly this is my last note on it and what I'll do next, using only my plan above.
- Don't use any of these, or anything close: "just following up", "just checking in", "circling back", "touching base", "bumping this", "per my last email", "gentle reminder", "friendly reminder", "I hope this email finds you well", "sorry to bother you", "any update?".
- No guilt, no sarcasm, no apologizing for writing.
- Don't invent facts, deadlines or consequences I haven't given you.
- Under 90 words.

A nudge, before and after

For example, with made-up details, the nudge most of us would send:

Hi Leo, just following up on my email below. Any update? Thanks.

The second nudge from the prompt above, after a quick edit:

Hi Leo, on September 29 I asked for a quote for 40 task chairs. Could you send it by Wednesday, October 21? I present the budget on October 26 and it’s the last number missing. If 40 is hard to price this week, a quote for 20 would let me move forward.

The second one names the item and gives a date with a reason, and the smaller option at the end gives Leo an easy yes. A final nudge from the same prompt might close with: “This is my last note on the quote. If I don’t have it by October 23, I’ll go with the other supplier’s quote, and I’d be glad to ask you again for next year’s order.”

What can go wrong and how to check

The sheet stops getting used

Usually because it grew: a list that takes too long to update soon stops matching reality. Keep the six columns and put everything else in Notes. If the daily check keeps running past ten minutes, look at why, such as nudges written from scratch that a saved template would cover.

Nudges that sound passive-aggressive

Assistants reach for the stock phrases unless told not to, and the banned list catches most of them. What gets past it is tone, such as a polite sentence that still says “you’re late.” Reading the draft aloud is the check. If a sentence sounds off, tell the assistant which one and why, or rewrite it yourself.

A past date that doesn’t light up

The date is probably stored as text, which happens when you type it in a format your sheet’s regional settings don’t recognize, such as 15/10/2026 in a sheet set up for the United States. Type =ISNUMBER(D2) in a spare cell, pointing at that row: FALSE means text. Retype the date in your sheet’s format.

Two systems for the same list

Gmail can suggest sent emails to follow up on (Settings > See all settings > General > Nudges, “Suggest emails to follow up on”), and Outlook lets you flag a message for follow-up (both checked in October 2026). Two lists drift apart, so pick one. Neither tool holds a promise made in a meeting or on the phone, and the sheet does; if you choose it, turn the suggestions off or stop flagging.

Where to go next

After a week of nudges, a few will have worked better than the rest. Turn those into templates and the next nudge takes a few clicks: Five email templates built from your sent folder shows how. Meetings are where many follow-ups start, and Take meeting notes in three letters and send the follow-up within the hour leaves you with a list of actions and owners; the ones you’re waiting on go straight into this sheet. And if what’s stuck is your own reply, The email you’ve been putting off, sent before lunch covers that side.