Thomas Oppong disparages “Inbox Zero” and links to Zach Hanlon’s recommended email setup:
The system that saved my sanity requires only five folders:
Inbox: the inbox is a holding pen. Emails shouldn’t stay here any longer than it takes for you to file them into another folder. The exception to this rule is when you respond immediately and are waiting for an immediate response.
Today: Everything that requires a response today.
This Week: Everything that requires a response before the end of the week.
This Month/Quarter: – Everything that needs a longer-term response. Depending on your role, you many need a monthly folder. Others can operate on a quarterly basis.
FYI: Most items I receive are informational. If I think I may need to reference an email again, I’ll save it to this folder.
Not bad and makes more sense than working out of you inbox. I prefer to leave emails I need to respond to today in my inbox and shunt anything else to either OmniFocus (with a due date) or archive. Smart folders for the last 24 and 48 hours let me look back over that time period; anything older than that is either archived to off to OmniFocus.