The Stack Method Principles Guide

TM

How To Overcome Email Overwhelm

The Stack Method™ is the world’s best email productivity technique that reduces email-related stress and gives you
back your time.

This guide is to support the free video series available at [Link] which explains the
important principles of the Stack Method™ and how to make the mental shifts required in order to get your inbox to
zero and keep it that way. The video series is supported with detailed graphics and a downloadable set-up guides for
Gmail and Outlook on PCs and Macs. However, the principles can be applied successfully to any email platform.

For those of you that want to read a brief overview about the principles as opposed to watch the videos, this
document of facts and lessons is for you.

FACT #1 Attention Is Your Greatest Asset

If you can’t concentrate and stay focused, your can’t be productive. Attention is the currency of
productivity - meaning you can’t be your optimally productive self with all of the distractions vying for
your time (email, phone calls, texts, slack messages, social media platforms, and so on…). Email requires
a specific management strategy to stop it from fracturing your attention.

FACT #2 Emails Are Actions

Shift the way you think about email. Look at you inbox as full of actions, rather than messages, and
you’ll transform your relationship with email. Your email actions tell you to do things like reply, review,
do, and meet. This small shift in perspective changes how you organize, prioritize, and process your
emails.

FACT #3 Inboxes Are Bad For Storing Email

You wouldn’t keep your clothing, dishes, family photos, shoes, and gym equipment in the living room
would you? Everything has its place, determined by the action you’ll use each item for. In the same way,
your inbox isn’t the ideal storage place for all of your messages. Storing on your inbox leads to lost
messages and difficulty prioritizing.

FACT #4 Batch Processing Is Faster Than Sequential Processing

When you sort your emails by action, you can batch process across those actions. This makes
prioritizing your messages easier, because you’re no longer comparing the different contexts of your
messages. It’s much easier to address all of your DOs and then your REPLYs, rather than switching back
and forth across the two, and any other message action you have in your inbox.

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FACT #5 “Chunking” Big Problems Is Easier on Your Mind

A well known problem solving strategy known as “chunking” involves taking a large problem, and
breaking it down into smaller pieces. This makes it easier to solve the various parts of the larger
problem. Seeing 150 emails in your inbox is overwhelming, but dividing them up by their action and
archiving or deleting the messages you don’t need, will make that large sum much easier to manage.
This is a small adjustment, but has massive mental benefits.

FACT #6 Sorting Is Faster

In order to sort your emails by action, you need to put them into a folder first. You’ll use keyboard
shortcuts to make this go quickly, and you’ll ensure you only orient yourself to the content of each
message once (instead of over and over, as you do when messages are left in the inbox). When you
sort emails into their action folders before you act on them, you give yourself the context of the
message before you even open the folder - it’s described in the folder name itself.

LESSON #1 A Great Folder Name Primes You for Action

There are 3 types of folders used in the Stack Method, called Action, Archive, and Active. The first type of
folder, The Action Folders are named for the action your emails are asking you to perform. The basic set
of folders in the Action folder set we recommend are: Reply, Forward, Meet, Review, Do.
• The Reply folder is for messages you’re directly responsible for replying to.
• The Forward folder is for anything you need to pass on to others, or save to other platforms
(including images or documents).
• The Meet folder is for a meeting you need to schedule or accept on your calendar.
• The Review folder holds items you do no need to respond to, but want to look over. This includes
things like messages you’ve been Cc’d on, and newsletters.
• The Do folder is for any message containing a task for you to complete.

LESSON #2 It’s Your Home, Make It Suit You

The basic folder names work for most people, but you should feel free to add additional folders as they
pertain to your role. Remember to use short, action oriented names, and don’t add too many folders so
they become cumbersome to click through. We recommend around 5-7 folders.

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LESSON #3 The Order Matters

Think about the priority of your messages. The order of your folders will set the priority for how you
address you email. It’s important to have an intentional order to your folder stack. We recommend
organizing by anxiety; that way you get your most difficult messages out of the way first. Make sure to
use the folder order number in the name of the folder itself. For example, our folders look like this:
1 Reply
2 Do
3 Meet
4 Forward
5 Review

LESSON #4 Simplify Archiving To Save Time

The Archive Folder should be used to hold all of your emails that you no longer need. We recommend
using one, high-level archive folder, rather than a complicated tree of folders to store your messages.
You’ll find using one Archive folder saves you time, even when searching for old mail.
The last type of folder is called the Active Folders. Your active folders are for messages you think you’ll
need to reference again, because they’re part of an active conversation. When thinking about a name
for your Action Folders, use the word “When” in front of the folder name, to help you think through
when you’ll need to reference the folder again. If you can’t think of a specific time, just put the email
into your high-level Archive folder. Our “When” folders look like this:
When:
Filing last year’s taxes
Working with X Client
Creating X Presentation
I need to Laugh

FACT #7 Closure Is Necessary for a Clear Mind

According to researchers, people tend to fixate on their unfinished work. This means that incomplete
tasks occupy our consciousness more than finished tasks. In order to clear your mind from all of your
email, you have to intentionally select the message you want to act on, and the ones you won’t be
actioning that day.

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LESSON #5 Follow the Stack Method

To do this, open your inbox, and sort all of your messages into your action folders (this goes quickly
when using keyboard shortcuts). Then, work through your action folders in order. Flag the messages
you want to address that day, respond to them, and archive or delete it once complete. Then, you’ll
move on to the next folder, and repeat the entire process.
It’s important to note that you are intentionally deciding not to act on certain messages - this will
provide closure that you’ve acted on every email that required your attention that day.

LESSON #6 A Day In The life

In order to adjust to this new method of email management, you need to make it a habit. Book time
onto your calendar every day to make time for email management. Email management should be done
in two steps: Stacking Folders and Stacking Inbox.
Stacking Folders is when you review the contents of all of your action folders and flag, address, and
archive each message you want to act on that day. Stacking Inbox is when you sort messages from your
inbox into their respective action folders.
It doesn’t matter the order these sessions are done, just that they are both done to complete a full
stack cycle. Keep regular sessions on your calendar for email management. We recommend 3 session
per day- one first thing in the morning, at mid-day, and to close out the day. The pattern is flexible, so
you can move the sessions based on your schedule.

LESSON #7 Easy Emails and Effort Emails

As a rule of thumb, any message that will take you more than 5 minutes to address should be
considered an Effort email. Effort emails should be booked onto your calendar (using the subject line of
the email as the calendar invite name). This will ensure you have enough time to manage your email,
and will give you more transparency over your true workload. Your Easy emails can be managed
through the regular stacking process.

LESSON #8 Use The Do Folder To Manage Effort Emails

As you are stacking, you’ll recognize an Effort email by the length of time needed to complete the email.
If it will take more than 5 minutes to address, sort the message into your Do folder. When you review
the messages in your Do folder, flag any message you want to address that day, and book them onto
your calendar, using the subject name as the calendar session name. Once booked, apply a colored
marker to the message as a reminder to yourself that it’s been scheduled. Work on the email when that
calendar block comes up in your day. After addressing the message, archive or delete the original
message.

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LESSON #9 Track With Remind

Most people haven’t figured out a standard way of following up on a message. We hear often that these
messages are overlooked or forgotten. This tip will ensure you never forget to follow up again. When
you’re send a message that you need an answer to, BCC yourself on the message. This will send a copy
of that request to your inbox, which you can sort into a new folder in your stack, called the Remind
folder. When you complete your daily stacking process, you will glance over the items in the Remind
folder, and follow up directly on that message, until you receive an answer.

LESSON #10 Take Back Control

Habit building is an essential part of Stacking. You have to both begin a new habit to master stacking,
and break your old emailing habits. Building these habits is best done by taking control of your time and
inbox, and turning off all email and chat notifications. You won’t overlook any messages because you
have regular Stacking sessions booked on your calendar. Instead, you’ll own your reactivity and the time
you dedicate to emailing.

FACT #8 Getting To Zero

Following the Stack Method, you’ll get your inbox down to zero every day, and have the peace of mind
that you haven’t overlooked anything.

LESSON #11 Breathe

Remember to breathe while managing your inbox. Email causes much unrecognized overwhelm and
stress. Deep breathing while addressing your email helps you stay centered and in control.

Next Steps
Visit [Link] for our set-up guides, workflows, and keyboard shortcuts, and feel free to
contact us with any questions you may have: hello@[Link].

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