If you feel buried in email, you may want to join the "No Email Day" movement. A group has proposed 12/12/12 as a day to shut off the constant influx of messages that keeps so many people from reaching the ultimate "inbox zero" goal.
The no-email campaign encourages people to not send any email messages one day a year. Instead of emailing, the organizers encourage you to do more "productive" things with your day, like talking face-to-face with colleagues.
Even if you can't shut off email for the day, odds are you can better manage how you use email. These tips can reduce the amount you receive and the stress it causes.
Opt out
Next time you buy something online, make sure you uncheck the box that companies often use to send you their latest offers. You may need to look closely at each form you fill out to find it.
Nix notifications
If you regularly check Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you don't need to receive emails that alert you when someone posts about you. You can turn these off under your account settings for each site.
Unsubscribe
Stop receiving all those newsletters and sale alerts that you don't read anyway. If you subscribe to online forums and want to get updates in an email, select the digest version instead of individual emails for each post.
Train your spam filter
Take a few moments to mark as spam emails that get through the existing filter. This will help reduce unwanted emails in the future.
Batch messages
Instead of sending six separate emails to one recipient, consider how you could group them into one or two. You'll also get fewer replies in return.
"CC" less
Carefully think about who needs to be included when you send the email. If they're not connected enough to the topic to be in the "to" field, maybe they don't need to be in "CC" either.
Drop out
Shut down your email application for a while each day so you can focus on the work at hand. The messages will be there when you return, and you will likely be able to focus better on what needs to be done because you've cleared your mind instead of watching emails accumulate. [See also: Wi-Fi and The Cloud Among Most Stressful Technologies ]