"Inbox Zero" is a guideline that translates to "at the end of the day, you should have zero emails in your inbox". Doing this is supposed to make your email more manageable and therefore allow you to manage your time better.

One rethought approach to email that’s appeared recently is the 10 Rules to Reverse the Email Spiral. Unfortunately there are several items in that list that simply would not work for most people. One can however easily manage mail better by using flags and not keeping anything in the inbox over a week old.

Using flags

In email, a flag is a special mark you can set to mark importance. What flags appear as depends on what type of mail you use. It can be a literal image of a flag, a checkmark, a star, and so on.

The flag is good to use because you can sort by flagged messages later when you need to get back to them quickly.

In Gmail, flagging a message is a star:

Unflagged

Flagged (by clicking the star)

Flagged mails are quickly accessed by clicking "Starred" on the left:

In Hotmail, setting a flag is literally an image of a flag:

Unflagged

Flagged (by clicking flag icon at far right)

Clicking "Flagged" under Quick views on the left sidebar in Hotmail quickly accesses all your flagged messages:

When you receive emails that you deem important, flag them, then move out of the inbox. No matter where they are in your email account, bringing up the Flagged or Starred screen will reveal them. And yes it will work for any existing mail in your account in any folder – including the Sent folder.

If you’re thinking, "So flagging an email is like bookmarking specific email messages?", you’re exactly correct.

Are flags recognized from webmail to mail client and vice versa?

YES. Mail flags are an internal part of how email works and not indigenous to any specific mail system. If you bounce around from Outlook or Thunderbird to webmail and back, such as with an IMAP-accessed email account, flags you set per individual message will synchronize.

Moving or deleting anything in the inbox over a week old

There is no good reason to keep anything in the inbox over a week old unless you simply don’t know how to use folders, don’t know how to use the Archive feature or don’t know how to delete an email.

Using folders

It is shocking to me how many people don’t know how to use email folders (unless in Gmail which I’ll talk about in a moment).

Folders have been in email for a very, very long time; even the earliest versions of Hotmail and Y! Mail had them and still do.

For whatever reason, there are a lot of people who simply freak out at the thought of moving an email from the inbox to another folder within their account. All I can say about that is no, you will not lose your mail simply by moving it to another folder.

Archive feature

This feature to the best of my knowledge is in Gmail and AOL Project Phoenix. In Gmail, anything archived goes to "All Mail". In AOL Phoenix, anything archived goes to a predefined folder called "Saved". Hotmail and Y! Mail do not have an archive feature, but you can alternatively create a folder called ‘Archive’ and simply drag/drop messages to that location manually.

Gmail does not do folders; it has what they call ‘labels’, so you’re required to use the Archive feature to get mail out of the inbox. AOL Phoenix on the other hand does do true folders.

Delete it!

Don’t need that email anymore? Delete it. Deleted by mistake? Not a problem, it’s in your ‘Trash’ folder, and nearly all mail clients and webmail systems retain what’s in the trash for at least 1 week.

Why should you try to achieve Inbox Zero?

Inbox Zero eliminates digital clutter, at least with your email. Clutter is annoying to deal with in any form. We all deal with it enough out there in the real world, so you might as well keep things tidy in the digital world as well.

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