my system: 1. make sure you don't check all the time, set specific hours. 2. Skim, respond right away if possible. 3. If I didn't have time to respond or it

my system: 1. make sure you don't check all the time, set specific hours. 2. Skim, respond right away if possible. 3. If I didn't have time to respond or it was low priority i'd mark as unread. 4. If it was high priority and I didn't have time to respond right then I would carve out time in my calendar to respond. 5. Review your queue of unread regularly but not as often as recent emails. Generally I could tell how behind I was when traveling by the unread mail counter in outlook. If I prioritized well this seemed to work for me. Folders and filters never seemed to be able to ensure I wasn't missing things.