I use Gmail for email.  I am able to use Gmail as a nexus between my 4 email accoungs (2.5 of which are actually regularly active).  This cuts down on the amount of places I have to go to check my mail.  I have 4 accounts that move through that account.  I get LOTS of mail.  After watching Merlin Mann of 43 Folders, I was inspired to simplify it a little bit.

1.)  I archived everything in my inbox.  It now shows zero.  It looks weird but has the potential to be relaxing.

2.) I am making extensive use of Gmail’s filters.

• Labels:  Myspace and Facebook communications and notifications constitute alot of traffic in my inbox (I am a youth director and keep up with lots of folks this way).  I have filtered all Myspace and Facebook messages to be automatically archived but also labeled as FB/MS.  When I check my mail, I can see them in the labeled area, but my inbox is still relaxingly zero.
• Dealing with Automatic Emails:  Everytime I get a piece of automatic mail from a retailer I do business with or some interent thing I’ve signed up for I create a filter.  I either 1) have it automatically deleted or 2) have it archived to view at my liesure.  
• Re-Zeroing:  I make decisions about what I will do with each piece of mail each day.  It gets responded to, forwarded, deleted, filtered, or archived.

What does this do for me?

• It makes me feel cool
• I makes sure that when something shows up in my inbox, that it will be worth my time.
• It reduces the amount of junk that shows up as unread mail, therefore, makes me comfortable checking it less to see new mail.
• It allows me to look at my email at the end of work day or period of productivity in a “day in review kind of thing” as I make decisions about what I need to do with the email.
• There is just something relaxing about not seeing your inbox full, the number of unread messages in the double and triple digits, and knowing that you are in control!