Drowning in emails with an overflowing inbox? Here’s the fix.
Organize your emails with the Stack Method and free yourself from inbox overload.
In 2022, I returned to work after a two-week long trip to Disney World. The trip was amazing but before I stepped foot in the office, I had some dread. Two weeks away from work meant my email inbox would be overflowing with messages waiting for responses. To be effective at work, I needed to get through those emails. I wanted to be aware of what had taken place in the office while I was away. I knew I had a full work day of reading and responding to emails.
When I started working flexible schedules, where I had every other Monday off, I found that my inbox was loaded with new emails when I returned on Tuesday.
I would spend meetings scrolling through the emails trying to find the one that had the agenda or supporting materials. Or, if someone asked for a status update on a project, I would have to sort through unread emails to get caught up.
I felt ineffective, disorganized and unprepared – three feelings I try to avoid as much as I can.
Rethinking your email
I came across a solution to the email chaos and decided to give it a try. The Stack Method is a way to organize and process emails in a series of steps. The process is explained in a series of short, easy to follow videos.
The first lesson from the Stack Method is to rethink how you view emails. The basic function of an email is to communicate, but in the workplace, an email is really a task. If you see your emails as tasks that can be sorted into actions, then it makes the organization part very simple.
Think of the emails you receive at work. There is usually an action implied in the email. Either you are responding to a question, you are assigned a portion of work or you are given information that should be consumed ahead of a meeting. These actions are tasks that you can put into categorized folders and prioritized.
Setting up your stack
To set up your stack, you will create a series of folders within your inbox folder and numbered by priority of attention. Common tasks are reply, review, do and meeting. You can add additional folders based on your work need. It would look something like this:
The folders should be named with simple, and actionable names so you know what task you are doing with the emails in the folder.
Much of my work is project-based, so I have a folder for Projects and subfolders within it for each active project I am working on. This makes recalling emails faster
Working your stack
Once you have this file structure set up, you are ready to start stacking emails. I schedule time on my calendar every morning to “email stack” for about 15 minutes. I will adjust the time if I am returning from an extended time away from work.
During my email stacking time, I skim over an email to get the general idea of the ask and determine what type of task it is. then I drag the email to the appropriate folder. I don’t read too far into it as I will be tempted to start responding, but for the system to be effective, I have to be quick in determining the task and moving the email to the folder. I will do this for every email in my inbox.
There are emails that I don’t need to keep, and they don’t have a task assigned to me. These are notices from the organization that are no longer relevant or when I am on a group email and I know someone else was responsible and I don’t need to save the email. I know this might be scary for some, but those emails get deleted. Yes, delete.
Once i have sorted through all of my emails, my inbox is at zero.
First step of stacking is done, let’s take a break and grab some tea (or coffee).
Sort, then process
After a little break, I am ready to start tackling those emails. The next step in the email stacking method is to work the emails in the order of priority. My number 1 is reply. These are emails that are asking me a question, seeking to confirm something, or asking me to send them a document. They are quick tasks that I can get through without extra work or research. Once I reply to the email, I archive the ones I complete and my folder is empty, so I move to folder number 2.
Going through all of the folders, I work each email, archiving ones I complete, and leaving ones that I cannot complete in that moment. If I am sent any documents or presentations that I need to review ahead of a meeting, I will put them in my review folder and then after reviewing them, I move them to my meeting folder.
Some days this entire process takes 10 minutes, while other days it may take 60, but the important part is that it no longer takes days.
Once you have worked the stack method, the rest of the day you can respond to emails as they come in as you normally would.
The efficiency of stacking
One of the most time-consuming email issues is recalling emails. If you are operating out of your inbox only, and you have hundreds of emails, it is difficult to find that one email you need when someone asks you about it or when you need to remind yourself of information contained within it.
When you use the stacking method, you can quickly retrieve meeting attachments from your meeting folder or project-specific emailsfrom the projects folder. When I close out a project, I archive the entire project folder.
What used to take hours tracking down an email from last month that had the project budget adjustment, now takes less than a minute.
Does email stacking really work?
YES!
I have used the stack method for two years and sometimes I do get lazy and just work emails as they are listed in the inbox. But when I get back on track, I am pleasantly surprised how quickly I can clear my inbox after time away and how fast I can retrieve old emails for reference.
I no longer dread coming back to an overflowing inbox because I know it won’t take long to sort through it and focus only on the tasks I need to work on. I also notice a difference in my stress level because I know I am caught up on emails and I can quickly refer back to emails when I need to.
Also, there is something really calming about an empty inbox.
One more tip about managing emails after a vacation
I saw one of my coworkers do this and it was so helpful to know upfront that they would be out of the office. They added their out-of-office time to their email signature! It’s so simple. I started doing it as well.
Now, a week before my scheduled time off, I add a message to my email signature that says something like this:
Upcoming time off: I will be out of the office from May 1-15.
And, if I am going to be gone longer than three days, I add an extra day to that notice. So, for the example above, I will be back in the office on the 14th, but I am giving myself a day to catch back up before I get meetings added to my calendar. It’s helpful to have some breathing room. Don’t forget to use a focus block on your calendar too!
