I use GMail's Priority Inbox feature (Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type > Priority Inbox). Sections are 1. Important and Unread 2. Starred 3. Anything else Esse

I use GMail's Priority Inbox feature (Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type > Priority Inbox). Sections are 1. Important and Unread 2. Starred 3. Anything else Essentially, mail from anyone that isn't "important" (previously messaged contacts, ongoing threads, people I communicate with frequently in Google Talk, etc) is put into the Everything Else section. Occasionally, perhaps once a day, or once every couple of days, I will look through my Everything Else pile, and either Star the message, to read later, or mark the sender as important, so I get future communication sent to my Important and Unread section. I treat my Starred list as a sort of "look at this eventually and do something with it" list. My Everything Else section grows and grows and I just ignore it. It's great. I set alerts on my phone to only trigger when I get an Important and Unread message, and I find that I'm checking my mail a lot less than I usually would.