The pattern
"I was about to" plus a verb means you were one second away from doing something, and then something else happened. "I was about to call you" is what you say when the phone rings and it is them. "I was about to leave" is what you say when someone arrives at the door. The pattern always implies an interruption, even when you don't name it.
It is a small social gift. It tells the other person their timing was perfect, or that you had the same idea, or that you nearly did the right thing. It also makes a decent excuse: "I was about to do it" means the task is not done, but you were close.
Say it out loud
Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.
"Just" makes it even closer: one more second and it would have happened.
Check yourself
Practice · 3 min
Say what you nearly did. Prompt on the left, one natural sentence on the right.
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Say it today
Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.