Email did save my life.  Well, no it didn't.  What it did do is make my life significantly easier.  When email became widely available in the workplace I was in my 30's and completely in love with the idea of planning lunch with my girlfriends with ONE email.  Not six phone calls, to be followed by four phone calls, to be followed by five phone calls.  One email.  Done.  Who could not love  that?  (I suppose you were thinking I was going to talk about time savings at work, weren't you?)

Well then email evolved, now we have email inboxes bringing down servers because they're so full.  What are they full of?  Clutter!  Bah!  The same old evil in a new form, clutter!

Dealing with a cluttered email inbox is a little different from a physical cluttered space.  Before you start in on decluttering your inbox you must have a plan.  Browse through your emails and write down categories they would fit, make the categories broad.  You don't have to go through your whole inbox, just the last week or so. 

Now make files for each of the categories you have identified.  If you're using Microsoft Outlook and don't see your file list on the left of your screen, go to View, and select Folder List.  you will then see a list of all your files in Outlook.  To create a new file, right click on the email you wish to file, select Move to Folder, select New, type the new file name, hit Okay.  It may ask you if you want to add this file to your Outlook Bar, that's the list of files to the extreme left.  If you use the file daily it would be a good place for it.  Then click ok, and ok again.  You've just filed an email!  YAY!

Keeping your emails in files instead of your inbox is good for you because you will be able to find them a lot quicker if you're not scrolling through hundreds of emails.  Come on, you can do it.  I know you can!

Life with an almost empty inbox in bliss.

Tricky Duck Tip:  Schedule yourself a half hour a day to go through the old emails in your inbox, no more, no less.