Windows Phone Thoughts: What Is Your Email Organization Strategy?

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 website 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.



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!

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 Am I just really weird that I need a clean inbox??? :)