What Is Your Email Organization Strategy?

[Jon Westfall]

Email is my life. Friends contact me through email, work associates pester (uh... I mean inform) me through email, my spouse sends odd stories to me through email, and people I'd rather not email me send me forwards through my email. Heck, the only person in my house that doesn't email me is my cat, and I think that's due to the fact she doesn't check her fan mail from her <a href="http://www.sleeplikeacat.com">website</a> very often due to other sleep-related commitments. So how do I handle all this email? Simple. I read it, mark any appropriate categories on it, and send it to a folder with the month's name (Actually number and name, so it displays in order in Outlook. For this month, the folder is "07 - July"). My inbox is always empty when I'm done reading email, just like I like it.<br /><br /><img src=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall-clean-inbox.jpg><br /><br />But recently I've become very aware that not all people are like me in this regard. A colleague opened Outlook Web Access a few weeks ago and I was amazed to see her displaying 1400 PAGES of email (at 25 per page). Just in her inbox! Sure, finding email was pretty quick as it was all in one folder, but I couldn't imagine having an Inbox that cluttered! In October 2005 I got an email response via an internal mailing list from a fellow PPCT Team Member to an email that had been written to him in November of 2004 (Before I even joined up!)! He was "cleaning out his inbox" and finally got around to sending out a reply. While I commend his diligence in replying, I marvel how he can get work done with that much email in the inbox - the folder he views every day!<br /><br />How do you handle your email? Does your Inbox overfloweth? Or do you file things away like I do? And I guess the question I really want to know is <b>Am I just really weird that I need a clean inbox???</b> :)

[JamesM]

You are not weird. I cannot imagine 1400 pages of email in my Inbox. That would drive me nuts.

I use the GTD Outlook Add-in from NetCentrics http://gtdsupport.netcentrics.com/home/ to help me with my Getting Things Done implementation. From any email I can delegate, defer, create a task, file it, or connect it to a project. It's very helpful. I have files set up to mimic my active projects to hold all email related to that project.

For searching all my email, I use Lookout, but it seems to be unavailable.

-James

[Robb Bates]

I use my Inbox and my task list. I get an email. If it needs action, I leave it in my Inbox until I have completed it. Otherwise I delete it. If I need to find some particular email from someone a long time ago, I use the advanced search feature on the Deleted Items folder.

Works for me. My boss does the 1400 pages in his inbox thing. Bugs the hell out of me everytime I see it.

Sounds like this thread needs a poll.

Robb

[SteveHoward999]

I use message rules in Outlook Express to automatically filter work, newsgroup and other messages.

I have a SPAM filter that automatically routes SPAM to a junk folder. I browse that onece or twice a week just in case something got filtered by mistake. Then I delete the contents of the SPAM folder.

Anything unfiltered by rules ro SPAM filter ends up in the in-box. Usually it's personal mail, junk, or something I need a new rule for. Most I read and delete. Some get a quick response. I might create a new rule, or drag a mail to an appropriate folder if I don't really need a new rule.

Any unread messages are addressed when they come in. Sometimes I need to respond later, so I'll flag and/or mark the email as unread, then I know I need to get to it later.

There's a few more details, but that's the main meat of it. I get well over 100 email a day, ignoring SPAM, so I need to be this anal about my email!

[Kash76]

I'm a clean inbox guy. Like users above, I work my inbox like a task list. Once I reply or do whatever I am reminding myself to do, it's gone.

I guess if that's weird there are a few of us that are weird here :)

[Urban Strata]

I get way too many e-mails -- 300-400 per day -- to try and continually sort them. It would drive me absolutely batty. I also never delete an e-mail for records purposes.

Instead, I'm huge on flagging e-mails for follow up. Everything that comes into my Inbox gets a quick scan; if it requires action, I immediately flag it and move on to the next unread e-mail. I do this until I have a short reprieve from new unreads, and then go back and act on each flagged e-mail until it's time to start the process all over again.

By the end of the day, I (ideally) have no unreads and no flagged e-mails. Since I keep all e-mails for the "paper trail," I archive them on a monthly basis in a separate .PST file.

[whydidnt]

I'm the opposite of previous posters -- not a clean inbox guy. I keep everything in my inbox - about 3000 messages right now. I tried the folder thing, but too many of my messages belonged in more than one folder and I could never remember which folder I stuffed it in. So, I installed Copernic on my desktop, and it indexes my inbox. Whenever I need to find something I simply search in Copernic, very simple, and much easier than looking through multiple folders IMO. For items that require additional work, I flag the item for follow up, rather than using tasks like I used to. Just seems easier for me to have everything in one place.

[Don Tolson]

I'm with you, Jon... my Inbox is cleaned out pretty well 'real time' as the stuff comes in. I sometimes keep an email there to remind me of something I need to address or get back to them on, but generally it's got no more than 4 or 5 entries in it MAX. Fortunately, my company has a 200Mb limit on Inbox, so that provides me with an incentive to move reference stuff out to folders.

I make extensive use of Appt notices and future-dated Tasks to keep on top of what I need to do from day to day. Without my PPC, I'd be completely lost.

MY DEAR WIFE, otoh, is the exact opposite. She keeps EVERYTHING in her inbox, and like your friend, relies on the Search capability to find stuff. She's got, like 4 to 5 THOUSAND entries in her inbox and accumulates 100 to 200 a day -- most of it junk, and she has to spend probably 2 to 3 hours sometime each couple of weeks to clear it out a bit -- again, because of corporate policies regarding inbox size.

[Jon Westfall]

By the end of the day, I (ideally) have no unreads and no flagged e-mails. Since I keep all e-mails for the "paper trail," I archive them on a monthly basis in a separate .PST file.

I'm also a huge flag for followup person - although sometimes my flags linger up to a month or two depending on if it's something I Just don't want to address yet ( :) ) or if it's something I"m waiting on. I archive to PST every 2 - 3 months, although monthly PSTs are probably not a bad idea. One thing I hate about PST archiving is the "Sent Items" folder. I usually forget to include it and then when reviewing archived mail, I have half the conversation / attachments!

[Gerard]

For some reason I've always started to get nervous if my inbox starts pushing 100 count. Somewhere around 70 or 80 there's a little tickle whenever I look at the total count displayed on the bottom bar of nPOPuk, the only email program I use. If that goes into the 90's it's time to spend a while sorting things into saveboxes, deleting what's no longer relevant, and replying where necessary. So my inbox is sort of a task list, with the total number giving me a little push to deal with things before they get too old. With roughly 20 real letters oer day (and 50 or so spam to delete) the load isn't too bad. Tends to result in a few smaller sorting sessions per week to deal with more pressing business emails, then my roughly once-per-week major sort and delete session takes a bit longer as I respond to letters from friends and family (who have more patience than clients tend to do).

nPOP didn't used to be so convenient. There was only the one 'SaveBox' besides 'Inbox' so that made me a bit more likely to save email out into folders as TXT files. However convenient that is for archival purposes, it's not quite so intuitive nor as convenient to search through archived text files and respond to folks, or to follow up on an old conversation. The newer versions which allow a lot of folders (actually DAT files, which can easily be read in any good text editor without using an email interface if desired) encourage me to just pile things into categories, then I can archive those as blocks of text in a more readily searchable format than one-file-per-email archiving. nPOPuk offers filters and such, but I tend to cope with things manually, to avoid mistakes or missing an urgent correspondence.

[CorporateJay]

I say that 90% of my emails contain useful information but do not require a task for me to do. For that reason, I use my email like a reference guide similiar to this forum.

The threaded view helps to put together a forgotten conversation. I rely heavily on an indexed search to find an email. I archive email programmatically since my company server does have a size limitation.

I defer emails by using the follow-up feature in Lotus Notes. This is similiar to categorizing the email as "follow-up" and setting a priority and possibly a due date. I never mark a read email as "unread" to defer a task.

[SteveHoward999]

I'm the opposite of previous posters -- not a clean inbox guy. I keep everything in my inbox - about 3000 messages right now.

My total email archive is around 4 Gb. I have a couple of hundred folders, many of which have way more than 3000 emails. That represents around 5 years of emails.

I have periodic cleanouts where I get rid of emails with large attachments, separately archive dormant or dead client files etc. There is just no way I could keep anything straight without organising the email into folders!!!

[jerryd]

I'm a clean inbox guy, like many previous posters. I'm more likely to have 1400 folders than let my inbox get much above 10-20. I also use it for task reminders.

[Mark Kenepp]

Categories, Categories, Categories...

Then everything gets dumped into master folder where all my email resides (unless it is archived).

I would use multiple sub folders but as was mentioned earlier in this thread, too many of my emails would fall into multiple categories. Thus, I just assign multiple categories :D

I used to keep my inbox almost completely empty but I have been lazy as of late.

I am not a search guy, if I did not file an email appropriately so I can find it browsing through my list, I just don't bother looking for it.

I have been trying to use email less and less. I am tired of getting emails from the person in the office next to me. If I do, I do not reply, I get off my butt and go ask them what they want :bangin:

[fresh-popcorn]

I have all my e-mail accounts forwarded to my gmail account.
This is my central station as I call it that gets fed e-mail from multiple business domains I have, some other business related domains, and all of the other junk I have.
There is not enough time in the day to have to go into every single e-mail account I have and read through them all.
It is much easier.

When i get a very important e-mail I flag it with a star (gmail option)
gmail usually is good with filtering all of the junk/spam so most of the time I am left with semi- to important emails.

I also have a gmail notifier on my computers (work and home) and when i get web orders in they are sent directly to my phone via sms text message and also to my gmail box.
This way I can log to my commercial web admin and flag it processing.

The worse thing that can happen is that I don't get any notification that I have a pending order.

all in all I get close to 500 e-mails a day but most are subscription e-mails from companies I buy from.

[Lex]

A clean inbox is a sign of a sick mind. Sorry, gotta go move some spam to my inbox...

[looneytoone]

So, let me relate this back to Pocket PC. I used to be able to manage my home inbox well because I would move messages and delete messages on my Pocket PC with ease. Everytime I active sync'ed, all would be well. I have since moved to a company with Exchange and am able to keep the work inbox clean but can't synchronize folders with the home machine. I wish that I could have it both ways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kiwi]

I have the inbox with about 4 sub categories.

Hence my inbox is about 500 emails. I delete/purge/file every other month

[Eriq Cook]

I categorize ALL emails. Between 20 email subfolders and around 70 email categories I can keep my sanity. I run 2 full time businesses and 3 PT so it's a must that I categorize everything as soon as they come in. I also have about 20 Outlook rules that automatically categorize certain messages and move them to a specified folder.

Because my hosted Exchange service only supports one email account/address, I setup all of my various email addresses to forward to my one Exchange email address, then I setup a rule in Outlook that automatically moves messages with [[email protected]] in the [Sent To] field to a specified subfolder to keep them organized by each business.

I also categorize all of my contacts, but I don't use subfolders because my Windows Mobile phone doesn't support contact subfolders. I have nearly 800 contacts in Outlook and keep them in the main Contact folder. But I categorize the contacts something like this:

Business - Clients: TEQ Media
Business - Clients: TEQ Computer
Business - Clients: TEQ Outlet
Business - Subcontractors: TEQ Computer
Business - Vendors:Technology
Family
Friends
References
Microsoft VoiceCommand

And so forth. I use the "Microsoft VoiceCommand" category and name contacts for the information I want to find. For example, when I make deposits at my bank, I created a contact named "Bank account for [CompanyName]", so I just pull out my phone and say "Show bank account for [Company]". I do this because it's impossible for me to remember every account number. I even have a contact named "Clubs and Lounges" where I copied a list of all local jazz clubs and lounges into the notes portion of the contact. So when I'm downtown and looking for something to do, I just say "Show Clubs and Lounges" and the contact (list) pops up.

I also have hotkeys programmed to automatically assign my most used contact categorizes by pressing ctrl F2 - F5.

Yes, I'm sick with organization on the computer. Maybe I should be a consultant :idea:

[Jon Westfall]

A clean inbox is a sign of a sick mind. Sorry, gotta go move some spam to my inbox...

It just may be. I've TREID to allow my inbox to be more of a task list as some here have described it. But as much as I try to do it for 2 - 3 days, the stress of NOT having a clean inbox gets to me. Right before the panic attack I move everything to a folder and all is better. I think it's an obsession on being "on top" of things. Oh well, it hasn't interrupted my daily life too much... unless you count moving email from my inbox to a folder after a middle-of-the-night bathroom run being a bit extreme obsessive.

[alanjrobertson]

I'm an 'almost empty Inbox' kinda-guy! My general rule is to try and keep it to approx. 20 items at most - whatever level is required to ensure there's no scroll bar in Outlook! I find if things drop below the bottom of the screen I tend to forget about them.

I've got a couple of discussions lists I'm involved in through committee I'm on and they all get filtered into a separate folder on arrival.

Any other incoming mail gets read and then dealt with and filed appropriately. If it still needs to be actioned it stays in the Inbox - red-flagged if really important (don't really use the other flags). Anything that has been dealt with but still needs me to ensure is followed-up goes into an Inbox sub-folder called Pending (e.g., awaiting reply at a future date once more information available, online orders awaiting delivery) - I check through this at least once a week (similar to how I manage my real-world papers - Inbox, Pending reply, For filing!).

In addition to sorting into folders I also use Copernic for searching - just find it much quicker than Outlook 2003 (I've got 2007 on my laptop but haven't upgraded the main machine yet).

Cheers

Alan

[Mark from Canada]

One thing I haven't seen here that I do as part of my e-mail routine are auto-delete folders in my Outlook.
In addition to misc archive-folders and my to-do Inbox, I have a set of other folders I use to put stuff in:
1) Keep 1 Month
2) Keep 1 Year
3) Keep 2 Years
Whenever something comes in that I don't need right now, but might need at another time (but not forever like computer specials, some short-term information), I move it into these folders.
If I need it, I can always find it with the search function - otherwise I have Outlook set (through Auto-Archive) to delete contents in these folders after the set period of time.
I read about it in the Lifehacker book and after sorting through my large Inbox I noticed that much of the stuff I had in it was not needed any more. So I decided to use this system as part of my routine.
...now if it just would be that easy with paper documents...

Mark

[ctmagnus]

Everything goes to the Archive folder with appropriate categories. Anything that needs to be dealt with, I'm waiting on, or just want to reference, a copy of it is left in the inbox with either the Action category, Hold category, or no category. After I'm done with the item in question in the inbox, it is deleted.

I sure hope that Microsoft implements Category syncing for email in a future (the sooner, the better) version of ActiveSync/WMDC/Exchange.

[Rob Alexander]

I use my Inbox as kind of a rolling task list. If it needs later attention, or I might need the info later then I leave it there. Otherwise, I delete it. The task list aspect of it is automatic, what you might call 'push' technology... that is, if it's something important, the person will email me again later and then I can say 'I was just about to get to that' and go ahead and do it. If it wasn't important enough for them to email again, then it wasn't really that important after all. About twice a year I go through and delete all the old messages, pleased with how much time I saved by ignoring all the trivial stuff people wanted me to do that I never did. :jester:

[sweb3028]

I like to be the empty-Inbox guy, but I end up being the somewhere-in-between guy. Work is very email intensive. I delete and file as much as I can on the spot. About once a week I go in and totally clean out the Inbox. I have a mobile email store about 200MB in size. I also have an archive of about 1GB dating back quite awhile.

Great Question!

[bbarker]

I guess my approach is different from others'. I use a combination of the inbox, folders, and Outlook 2007's tasks, appointments and fast searching to manage my email: When I read an email and I'm through with it, I move it to the appropriate folder. I seldom delete.
Emails I haven't yet read or finished with stay in the Inbox. I currently have 1,160 items in the Inbox, going back 6 months (after which time I have Outlook automatically archive them). It doesn't bug me because I can see only the newest 20 items or so unless I scroll down. Who cares what's not visible?
When an email comes that requires a reminder, I drag it to Tasks. This creates a Task that will sync with my Pocket PC (email reminders don't sync as far as I can tell). Same with emails that require an appointment. Then I drag the email to the appropriate folder. (Except that Tasks aren't synching since I upgraded to Outlook 2007. But that's another story.)
Outlook 2007's fast searching is terrific. When I'm looking for something I go to the folder where I think the email is located and type a word or two into the Search field at the top of the email list. Within a couple of seconds I can see all the matches in that folder. If it doesn't show up I click "Try searching again in All Mail Items". In a couple of seconds I have matches from all my folders and my archive files. This searching capability has made me much more productive.

[Gen-M]

If a messy In-Box is a sign of a messy mind, what is a clean In-Box the sign of? :D

Really, Jon - you are just weird :devilboy:

[Mr. PPC]

I only keep emails until I've actioned on it, then I delete it.

In addition, on a company level we automatically delete emails older than three months. We can do this because we have a seperate archive system that captures all incomming/outgoing (internal included) email seperate to the Exhange 2007 system we use. This solution allows staff to search, forward, print etc. their archived mail via a web page.

[austinflash]

Having an organized mailbox is not about the need to be... well organized. It is all about being productive and not spending so much time finding your way through things. Without sounding like a sales pitch, the Nelson Email Organizer change my life a couple of years ago and I have never gone back to the original GUI of Outlook. It works with Outlook and Outlook must be open for it to work, but thats where the interaction with Outlook ends for email. It is a tasks list, category folders, prioritizer, and everything else I need with an easy to set up main screen that show everything I need to see. If you want a new life with email, give it a try.

[Richard76]

My inbox is like my desk. If it is messy and there are papers all over the place, it drives me crazy and I can't concentrate on the task at hand. The longest an email will sit in my inbox is 1 day. If I haven't been able to action it by the next day (usually this is because I am waiting on answers or information from my Head Office), I put it in a "pending" folder where it very rarely stays for 2 or 3 days.

[ecsk2]

I get way too many e-mails -- 300-400 per day -- to try and continually sort them. It would drive me absolutely batty. I also never delete an e-mail for records purposes.

Instead, I'm huge on flagging e-mails for follow up. Everything that comes into my Inbox gets a quick scan; if it requires action, I immediately flag it and move on to the next unread e-mail. I do this until I have a short reprieve from new unreads, and then go back and act on each flagged e-mail until it's time to start the process all over again.

By the end of the day, I (ideally) have no unreads and no flagged e-mails. Since I keep all e-mails for the "paper trail," I archive them on a monthly basis in a separate .PST file.

Thank you, you saved me the hassle of typing this out, even the numbers 300-400 match, I reply and such mainly from my main device and then BCC that reply to my main inbox so I have a copy of everthing thereby I can delete it when I need/want to from my mobile device.

I use soonr.com and google desktop that way I can access ANY email at ANY time and if needed fwd it to myself on my mobile device :)

My "flaging" consists of NOT REPLIED to on the mobile device :) or saved in some special folder on that device (which btw automatically backs up online, thats a feature of the device), I also end up having to split up the PST files per month and/or quaterly.

[Jason Dunn]

I *love* having a clean inbox, but unfortunately it just never seems to happen for me - in fact, I'm probably the team member Jon is talking about in his post replying back a year later. :oops:

I can't nail down the problem exactly - I use my email as a task list to some degree (though using Outlook 2007 I've been creating tasks and giving them categories) - but I think the real problem is that there's just too much stuff flying in. If an email is simple - delete, reply, etc. - then I'll do it right away. The problem is all the OTHER emails where I have a task to go along with it...when I get 100 of those, man, it's hard to get them out of my way. :?

I think maybe I need to hire some of you people as consultants - clearly you know what you're doing. ;-)

[rebel_leader]

If an email is simple - delete, reply, etc. - then I'll do it right away. The problem is all the OTHER emails where I have a task to go along with it...when I get 100 of those, man, it's hard to get them out of my way. :?

That's exactly my problem. I use a mixture of all the techniques you guys haven written about here and I found it really interesting! :)
I also learned some new things and discovered the tool "NEO" and SoonR which were new to me.

I'll go on tracking this topic.

[Theo]

I swear by two addins for Outlook.

The first is Lookout which you can still find out there. M$ bought them out and have incorporated the application into Outlook 2007 (I believe). Basically is a search engine, but with its filtering and cross PST indexing means I can find anything within a second e.g. from:theo to:john filetype:doc email archive

will find all the emails from theo to john which contain a word docs attachment with the keywords email and archive in it. There are a number of other parameters as well.

The second is an addin which learns which folder to file emails in. I wrote an email to a friend which explains how I use it. The emails below.

novomind iMailLight http://www.imaillight.com/

I've spent the morning and some of last week getting to grips with it; hence my learnings:

1. Create a load of folders (they call them catagories) and put emails relavent to that folder into it; put them all under one master folder. App likes more than 20 in a folder; I've not done that but retrained over time.
2. move all remaining emails out of your inbox
3. Install the app.
4. Set up the folders and train the app
5. move the emails (from 2) back into inbox a few at a time. It will move them into the folders via its rules. You cna tweak the training this way.

I've also set up 2 Search Folders:

1. One which covers all the folders in use - you can set this up in the master folder you created in 1 and tell it to include all sub-folders :-D
2. Once of the main good things about an inbox, is its fills up. With this tool you loose that hence don't know when its getting out of hand; see what's come in today etc. Hence I've created a search folder like 1; but only showing emails from today.

With both these search folders I've changed the view to include the "In Folder" from the "All Mail Items" in the view. That way I can immediately see if its in the wrong place. You still need to move to that folder to retrain; but over time it gets better.

Hope that helps - what other addins are you all using?

[ecsk2]

I swear by two addins for Outlook.

The first is Lookout which you can still find out there. M$ bought them out and have incorporated the application into Outlook 2007 (I believe). Basically is a search engine, but with its filtering and cross PST indexing means I can find anything within a second e.g. from:theo to:john filetype:doc email archive

will find all the emails from theo to john which contain a word docs attachment with the keywords email and archive in it. There are a number of other parameters as well.


Google Desktop does that so nicely and not only through emails but any other document or file on your computer, and when you team that up with soonr.com it's really nice, you can actually get away with not having all your emails with you "physically".

[Brad Adrian]

MY DEAR WIFE, otoh, is the exact opposite. She keeps EVERYTHING in her inbox...
That reminds me of my dad. He saves any document he creates in his My Documents folder. No subfolders. Just two bazillion files in one My Documents folder.

And he complains when he can't find a file.

[Phillip Dyson]

I never keep a clean inbox. But I do use a combination of inbox rules and archive.

At work, I have inbox rules based on who the email was sent to. In other words if an email is sent to a particular distribution list, it gets moved to the applicable folder.
My mailbox (including subfolders) archives every two days. And I roll my archive once a month.

My home email uses inbox rules based on who the sender is.

[Thinkingmandavid]

I used to keep my inbox organized by moving stuff to specific folders, or deleting, forwarding, etc.

However, I have gotten lazy about keeping organized and now I have too many emails-and I wish I would kept organized because now I have more work in email.

I recently have trouble someone breaking into my email (again...it used to be hotmail but now it was my yahoo) so now I am thinking about opening a new email, forwarding everything and organizing from scratch.

I want to get to the point where I have no more than ten old emails in my inbox, or only new emails.

[Tony Rylow]

I have a 2008 folder, and in that folder I create a new folder for every month, and after i'm done reading email in my inbox, I move it to that month. I keep an extra folder for my banking and another for any emails that deal with purchases, such as confirmations and tracking numbers. I need to in the habit of exporting to .pst more often, so I don't lose any mail when Jon is fiddling with out Exchange server. The only items I keep in my inbox are ones that I want to keep there for followup or information.

[ionen]

Now I switched to the online interface of Gmail for its flexibility, but I also use Thunderbird for my work account.

I work with email on a read-(delay-)solve-archive/delete basis.
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[Brad Adrian]

... In October 2005 I got an email response... He was "cleaning out his inbox" and finally got around to sending out a reply.

Sorry, Jon. I just realized you were talking about ME, weren't you?!!? :confused:

You'll be happy to know that, since reading "Getting Things Done," I've developed a MUCH better system for tracking all of my e-mails, to-do lists and projects!!

[[email protected].]

I use my Inbox and my task list. I get an email. If it needs action, I leave it in my Inbox until I have completed it. Otherwise I delete it. If I need to find some particular email from someone a long time ago, I use the advanced search feature on the Deleted Items folder.

Works for me. My boss does the 1400 pages in his inbox thing. Bugs the hell out of me everytime I see it.

Sounds like this thread needs a poll.

Robb

I do the same exact thing. I am not a clutter bug and cant stand when friends come over to my house, check email and I see their pages and pages of email that they don't even clean up before they log out. Shoot, some of them are from years back that they have yet to read...I just tell them to delete it; if it was important...it's not anymore.

[Zman]

Having your inbox filled with email is working against the interface, the inbox is there for stuff that needs your attention, if you have all of your email in it then how do you know what needs looking at, even if you use the read/unread status, eventually things will fall through, its a dumb way to manage email.

If you are using tags for email (which are slower than folders, but makes it easier to find stuff later), then there is no reason to have any folders with dates and such, simply delete the mail and store all old mail in the Deleted Items folder (be sure to set it so it doesn't automatically purge or backup this folder). Putting items by date in a folder gains you nothing and is a waste of time. I find tagging things take too much time, so I put things in general category folders, which is probably overkill.

Email rules:
Clean inbox.
Only check email once per day or less.
Delete all attachments (email is a messaging tool, not an archive of files).
Delete all chainmail, jokes, cards, etc.
Backup email once a month.