You've probably heard the phrase:  E-mail Bankruptcy.  Busy professionals all over America are considering the idea of declaring e-mail bankruptcy.  Basically, this is when a person completely loses control of his or her e-mail account, and sees no option other than shutting down his or her existing account and starting over again.  (I've even heard rumors of people leaving their well-liked jobs simply due to the stress of their e-mail inbox.) 
 
Hundreds and even thousands of old e-mails (both read and unread) start clogging their inbox and destroying their productivity.  And, with tens or hundreds of e-mails coming in every day, how can you possibly keep up, not to mention getting caught up?
 
It really doesn't have to be impossible.  Following some smart, fundamental time management and organizational strategies, you can keep up with the new e-mails coming in, as well as start knocking down those existing e-mails just sitting in your inbox.  In my speaking and training programs on this topic, I've helped users with literally thousands of e-mails get down to ZERO e-mails in their inbox in very short periods of time (and without them simply and aggressively using the "Delete" button!)  And I've pulled them back from the brink of e-mail bankruptcy.  Here's how:
 
I recommend following a simple, but thorough, "decision tree" with each and every e-mail received.  By following this decision tree, you can quickly determine exactly what to do with each and every e-mail received, then take the designated action, and then move or delete the e-mail out of your inbox.  Let's look at the details of this process:

1. Follow a "One Look" rule with each and every e-mail received.  I learned the "One Look" rule nearly 20 years ago from David Allen, Mr. Getting Things Done.  Using the One Look rule, you basically promise yourself to only look at each e-mail one time, and before you move on to something else, before you close that e-mail, you determine what the embedded task(s) are for you to accomplish in that e-mail.  Never open an e-mail without determining the task (including deadline), as well as how long it will take for you to complete the task. 
2. Use the Three-Minute Rule.  If, when you look at the e-mail, you determine that the embedded task is something "quick and little", meaning something you can get done in three minutes or less (another David Allen gem), don't save it for later - DO IT NOW!  You don't want to "stack up" quick, little e-mails, because, by the time you look at them the third time, you've basically doubled the time it would take to have gotten the task done in the first place.  BE RUTHLESS with quick little tasks.
3. If longer than three minutes, PRIORITIZE.  If you look at the embedded task and determine it will take longer than 3 minutes, then I recommend you add the task to your task list (on paper, or in Outlook or some other task-planning software).  Give it an appropriate due date, and fit it in with the other key projects and tasks that you have to get done, giving you the opportunity to accomplish the task when (and if) you need to.  You could also simply print the e-mail, and stack it with other open tasks and deliverables in a "Priority File", with the most important and/or urgent tasks on top, and the least important tasks on the bottom.  Spend the majority of your time working on the highest priority stuff and you'll probably do just fine in your work and life!
4. Once you either DO IT or TASK IT, file or delete it!  Why are you keeping e-mails in your inbox that you've either gotten done (3-minute rule) or that you've added to your task list?  All this does is increase the likelihood that you'll come back to that e-mail later and read it again, when you've already taken the necessary action of doing or tasking.  Re-reading a "done" e-mail is a pure waste of time!  That e-mail, once tasked or completed, should either be filed or deleted.  I recommend having a series of subfolders in your e-mail software tool where you move or file messages that have archival value, but don't keep those same "completed" e-mails in your inbox. 
5. If you don't have a file for the message you want to keep, CREATE IT!  One of the biggest reasons I hear that people don't move their messages out of their e-mail inbox is that they don't have a smart file folder structure to which they can move their messages.  This is a pretty empty argument.  MS Outlook and other e-mail system users know that creating a new file folder within your e-mail software is a simple two-to-three step process - a process that only takes a few seconds.  The argument that you don't have time to move your archival e-mails is an empty one when you consider how much time you are unnecessarily re-reading "completed" messages.  And you can pretty much have an unlimited number of folders.  File the message, and create the file if you don't have it!