[Gardener]

I agree that there's no need for steps 2 and 3.

I would want the followups in my action list; I'd just give them a context of Followup so it's easy to filter them out, plus the Start Date would naturally filter them out.

But if you don't want your followups in your task list, you could have a list of followups, maybe in OmniOutliner or just Excel, sortable by followup date. Then OmniFocus or some sort of daily checklist could have an action "Check followup list and email due or overdue followups."

Of course, that external list isn't all that different from your Outlook folder, except that it's sortable by followup date, which seems to have value.

Gardener