Hey there,

If you're managing a team and a pipeline at the same time, you're not forgetting things because you're disorganized -- you're forgetting them because your brain was never meant to hold all of that.

As my responsibilities grew, so did the gaps. More direct reports, more deals, more internal projects -- and more moments where I'd reach out to someone and then completely lose track of whether they ever responded. It wasn't a character flaw, it was a systems problem. Once I built a simple label into Todoist to capture everything I was waiting on, the follow-up anxiety disappeared almost overnight.

Today I'm breaking down the exact setup I use so you can do the same:

Let's get into it.

To keep projects moving, you don't need more reminders. You need one clean system that catches everything you're depending on others to deliver.

Here's how to set it up.

In Todoist, labels let you tag tasks across any project and surface them instantly.

To create one: open the sidebar, click "Filters & Labels," hit the plus icon next to Labels, type "waiting_for," pick a color, and click Add. That's it -- the label now exists and is ready to assign to any task.

This becomes your dedicated holding zone for every ball you've handed off to someone else.

When you send a message, make a request, or delegate something, immediately create a task in Todoist that captures it. Something like: "Follow up with Rich on Q3 spiff" or "Check in with Courtney on Salesforce tracking."

Then type @ in the task field and select your waiting_for label.

Here's the key move: don't assign a due date. This intentionally pushes the task out of your active daily view so it doesn't add noise to your list. It's logged, it's labeled, and it's out of your head -- but it's not gone.

At the end of each workday, and again during your weekly review, pull up your waiting_for label from the sidebar. Scan the list. Ask: has anything moved? Does anything need a nudge?

This review takes less than two minutes but prevents the kind of stalled deals and missed internal commitments that quietly kill momentum. It also works as a lightweight prospect follow-up tracker -- a centralized place for everything you're waiting on, from colleagues to buyers.

That's it. Here's what you learned today:

This week: create the waiting_for label in Todoist and tag the next three things you're waiting on from someone else. That's the whole action step.

PS...If you're enjoying The Systematic Sales Leader, please consider recommending this edition to a friend.

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