Getting Started with Pending

Pending keeps track of the responsibilities hiding in your day. It reads the conversations you already have, notices when something becomes your responsibility, and keeps that responsibility up to date as the conversation changes. The result is a calm list of what you owe others and what you are waiting on, instead of an inbox you have to keep re-reading.

When a communication arrives, Pending looks for signs that it assigns you a responsibility: a direct request, an implied assignment, something you now owe someone, or something you are waiting on. When Pending is confident something is your responsibility, it adds it automatically. When it is less certain, Pending may ask you to review it as a Possible Responsibility, so nothing is silently added to your list.

Discovery continues after the first pass. When later messages change a deadline, answer a question, or close the loop, Pending updates the responsibility to match. For more detail, see How Pending Finds Responsibilities.

Not everything arrives as a message. You can add responsibilities yourself, in your own words, in one sentence or several. Pending turns what you write into tracked responsibilities the same way it handles communication.

You can use Pending without connecting any account. Automatic discovery is how Pending does the heavy lifting, but it is not the only way in. You can start with a manual list and connect sources later, or never. You stay in control of what Pending can see, and you can disconnect sources at any time.