The friction

Commitments get made constantly. Personnel check-ins. Team meetings. Client calls. Vendor negotiations. Hallway conversations. A text message while walking to the car. By the time you open your task list you’re carrying several other things. What’s more, leaders don’t just have their own commitments to be concerned with but are also tasked with ensuring follow-through:

• John committed to call Client A about the aging AR invoice

• Suzy committed to visit Client B’s warehouse to check on the new vendor performance

Keeping track of it all is important and taxing. And getting it to the right place isn’t always without friction. As an operator, it’s a great workflow worth examining.

Build the capture habit

Start with the moment the commitment happens. Choose one place you can safely capture a short note immediately afterward using a tool already in your routine.

Keep the entry simple: who, what you promised, and when it needs attention. If you haven’t agreed on a date, record that instead of inventing one.

AI can help turn those rough notes into a review list. Before adding automatic reminders, check whether it preserves the person, action, date, and uncertainty correctly. Then give the list a dependable place in your day for review.

What worked for me

I started capturing my commitments and follow-up items to my AI chief of staff from the phone in my pocket. A half-dozen workflows pipe into this skill: commitments made during meetings, follow-up items from 1:1 conversations, client check-ins, and audio notes-to-self throughout the day are automatically imported to or verbally staged with my AI chief of staff. Every weekday at 6:00 pm I get a message on my phone listing all the commitments and follow-ups captured and anything previously captured that’s still outstanding. I indicate what’s closed, I confirm what gets added to my task list, and I discard what’s no longer relevant or important.

This entire thing is coordinated by me via a messaging app I already use every day from my phone.

Test before expanding

The key to the success of this system I found was consistent capture in the same place, keeping one visible record of what is open and what is complete. Otherwise, the system can become another source of reminders about work you’ve already handled.

Test it for a week with one category of commitments. Look for missed captures, wrong interpretations, and time spent maintaining the list. A useful system should make keeping your word easier.