A combination of various interpretations of the "zero inbox" strategy combined with the Get Things Done ([GTD][1]) process.

 1. **Self-Discipline**: Only view your inbox a few times a day - when you start work, shortly before you finish work and a couple of times in between.
 2. **Mailfile organization**: Have two "special" folders in your mail file: *basket* and *soft-trash*. Then have folders *work* (and maybe *private*) with various sub-folders for projects / topics.
 3. **Process**: Whenever you open your inbox, deal with all mails, starting at the top and not finishing until the inbox is zero. Depending on the amount of mail, go over the inbox iteratively until empty.

Possible actions per mail are:

 - delete immediately to the trash of the mailbox (things you definitely do not need anymore)
 - move into *soft-trash* folder (things you might need in the short future)
 - move into *basket* folder (things you want to keep)
 - move into a dedicated folder beneath either *work* or *private* folders (things you want to keep and are important enough)

**Difference between *basket* and dedicated folders beneath *work***

Try to put everything into *basket* and just use the search feature. But maybe there are certain topics / projects / issues that you want to group together and be able to view in their entirety - so you put them in a appropriately named folder.

Another tip for the *basket* folder - depending on your mail application - is to use tags for enhanced search features.

**What to do with the *soft-trash* folder**

Delete mails from the *soft-trash* folder regularly, e.g. mails that are older than 3 months. This gives you a certain amount of backlog mails when you find out, that you need that mail that you deleted 2 days ago, b/c you thought you would never need it again...


  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done