Hmm - do you have a folder for stuff you probably won't need again, but there is a small chance you might? Cause you could move the stuff you would otherwise delete to that folder...

I say (with all due respect to TB, of course) screw the folders and delete every email you can possibly delete. And, most especially, have only one immediate attention folder, no matter what feels right to do with those messages after that.

eta: x-post with TB's second post about a "probably won't need this" folder. I can get behind that! (but give it an expiration date - if you haven't needed it in umpty months...?). What I don't love is the neverending inbox of "I must save every email I've ever gotten".

Other email-wrangling tips:

• if you have another app that handles it better, use that -- never, ever keep to-do's or calendar items or knowledge base stuff in email. Never, seriously ever, keep email just for the attachment. File the attachment or copy the relevant to the app that's designed for it, and delete.
• if it's already stored somewhere else, delete. This applies to anything that comes to you through a mailing list, ticket tracking app, or anything with 10 rounds of replies (if it's an FYI thing, keep only the last one with the whole history copied)
• if it's expired, delete. (This one is a big thing for me -- I'm good about deleting the things that say "I'll be in at 9 today", because those are in the top few screens when 9:00 rolls around -- the ones that say "this is my schedule for the next 10 days while I'm away" stick around for 6 months because they're too far below the fold to remember.)
• if a co-worker is offering food, GO GET IT NOW. It'll be gone before the next time I review email.

Part of the problem is we have SHITTY documentation. Right now? Most of my documentation is in email. Which, I know, I should turn my email into docs. In the meantime, everyone knows that should I get hit by a bus, they get to inherit my email.

Taking the time to sort is almost more than I even have. It's nuts.

Seriously? My sympathies on the shitty documentation, and I really hope your cow-orkers have alerted the bus company to the DO NOT HIT SARA directive. And all email advice is offered in that spirit. (I'd still dump what's needed for doc to txt and clear out the email file, but I have a freakish allergy to keeping a lot of email around.)

You know, can't there be an anti-scumoftheearth law so we can just hold people like Joe Francis in jail forever? Seriously. Isn't the world just a little bit nicer without him walking free?

Two words: Extreme rendition.

See, the volume in my email account is unlimited and the search function is SO much more efficient than the alternatives, hence the insane email boxes. But I do hope to get a lot of it online, and outta my box. It's just... I haven't had the time to do that yet. I'm 6 weeks in, fighting against a behemoth of...something. Learning, writing up stuff that isn't written down, just trying to keep up.

I'm an advisory against internal jobs, I swear.

The evening news is comparing the SoCal fires to Katrina in terms of evacuees etc. But I'm betting no one will argue against rebuilding the neighborhoods that are in fire-prone areas. 'Cause those people have money.

'Cause those people have money.

And I really wonder about the illegals agros who are hopefully going to shelter, and not just ducking the fed presence and thus dying.

screw the folders and delete every email you can possibly delete.

I used to do this, but I got bit on occasion. Hard disk space is cheap. My feeling is never throw away any emails except spam and the most trivial. Keep em all. But keep em out of the way. Just make archive folder, and have an "I probably won't need this, but just in case" for each year, or quarter or month depending on volume. That way your folders just have the emails you know you'll need. Any yeah transfer all dates to calendars. But in a work environment, I'm against throwing out emails. Just get ones you probably will never need to look at out of the way of the ones you are likely to.