So far my attempt to maintain an empty inbox is working out pretty well. One of the most effective things that worked was to get rid of folders. Previously, I was a folder freak: my email was "organized" into a bewildering, ever changing, hierarchy of folders. Rather than making it easier to find stuff, it was actually much harder. Before I could find something quickly, I had to try to figure out which folder I had decided to put it into. I draw a comparison between this and usage of, say, Google Search vs. a directory service like dmoz . Directory services categorize the web into a wonderful hierarchy. But in practice, it's almost always more effective to just search the conceptual single folder containing the whole web via google search. I now have a small number of folders. Apart from the inbox, trash, and sent folder, the remaining folders can be categorized as: A single @Respond folder . Messages that I need to respond to, but can't do so immediate