Action Stacks: Why Wouldn't You Want to Make it Easier?

A little "hack" for you to make life and work operate a little more easily

Yesterday, I tried a whole different type of photography: sports photography. I took snaps of a roller derby game having had no previous experience trying to capture fast action. Just the same, I leveled my typical battle cry of: “How hard could it be?” and proceeded to fumble my way through some decent photos.

I would have done much worse, if I hadn’t run through an “action stack” before I got going. I’ll explain the stack for these shots, and THEN we’ll talk about the tool.

Chris’s Action Stack for Photography

Another nice person shooting the game professionally.

• Batteries charged

• SD card cleared and ready

• Lens(es?) clean

• Shutters speed set (I went fast to minimize blur)

• Exposure compensation (I was inside, so needed it brighter-ish)

• Aperture (I wanted some background separation, but not the kind of blur that makes everything vanish

• Test shots - shoot anything five or so times and review your settings

That was the stack I ran through to get my shots.

Action Stacks are Mini Repeatable Project Plans (checklists, kinda)

An action stack is a repeatable project plan. For instance, you could use one for “before I leave the house” or one for “packing my suitcase for flying” or any situation where you’ll likely repeat the activity more than once or twice.

The only real difference between an action stack and a regular checklist is intentionality. A checklist can be a “to do” list, or can be a one-off, where an action stack is built for you to use repeatedly.

I write mine and store them in Obsidian these days. You could use Google Keep or your Apple Notes, or whatever PROVIDED you intend to use it more than once. Make a copy before you go checking it off, dude.

It’s Ego That Gets In The Way

There’s a story (might not even be true) of famous cellist Yo Yo Ma caught practicing his cello a day or two before a performance. The person who came upon this scene said, “Practice? You don’t have to practice. You’re Yo Yo Ma.” Ma said back, “I am Yo Yo Ma because I practice.”

People who don’t operate from Action Stacks tend to be those who think, “I’m smart enough. I’ve got this. I don’t need a list.”

It’s the entire premise behind the article from Atul Gawande that later got turned into the book, The Checklist Manifesto. (Shhh. The article’s better.)

Give Your Brain Back It’s Juicy Energy

If you stop forcing your active brain to remember every single thing in every instance, you’ll free up compute power for more important efforts. The fact that I could run through my action stack for photography prep meant that when the time came, I could focus on my two goals: get shots that depict the action, and get “hero” shots of players standing out from the rest of the crowd.

Working from action stacks means you can focus on the important tasks, not the repeatable ones. It means you can get through the drudgery parts and move to the parts where you have to dig in and think.

And if right now, you are about to tell me how practicing to remember all your tasks is how you stay smart/spry/anything, we’re going to disagree. But you do you, boss.

Make An Action Stack

Think of any recurring task, personal or business related, and make an action stack for it. Maybe it’s your morning routine. Maybe it’s how you sit down to compose a newsletter. (I have an action stack for these letters to you, btw.) Just try one. You’ll get into it, if you see them in action. So freeing.

One Last Thing (An Offer)

Right before we go, I wanted to tell you something: it appears I’ll have my next project and work starting up again soon. Don’t ask. I don’t want to talk about it til I have proof of banking that I’ll be getting paid. However.

That means I’ve got some time over the next few weeks to do some one-on-one coaching with you, if you want to do a Q4/Q1 review, if you want to go through some of your harder decisions, if you want to work with me as a coach before I get bogged down again.

My rate to YOU (not bigger companies) is $350 USD for the hour. If you’re interested, just hit reply. We’ll do pre-work where you load me up with info. Then, we’ll talk, and I’ll write plenty of notes, and then you’ll have a direction to point your efforts and move forward.

If you’re NOT in the market for any coaching, just hit reply and tell me what a cool idea Actions Stacks are, or that you think my roller derby snaps came out good enough, etc. It’s all good.

But if I can help you improve your next few quarters, make some decisions, and tune some of your intentions and choices and efforts, then let me know.

Good?

Chris…