I try to keep my main (work) inbox down to zero unread messages or as close to as possible. It has anything that's important, that I need to reply to with some

I try to keep my main (work) inbox down to zero unread messages or as close to as possible. It has anything that's important, that I need to reply to with some urgency. All of the cruft (mailing lists, people I don't explicitly deal with regularly, people I've never received messages from before) goes elsewhere. I only check email several times a day, at the start of the day I prioritise and schedule tasks based on emails, then later on I respond in batch, then check again in the afternoon and respond in batch before going home. It frustrates some people, but given that I actually get stuff done, the alternative is far worse.