Back to the email thing: Have many rules to pre-process my email.

I create an email folder for any project I'm working on, and have a rule for all email that comes from any of the involved parties to move a copy of the email (crappy MS wording, not mine) to the appropriate folder. I sometimes create a rule to put a copy of any mail I send to any of the involved parties into the folder. I also have the Outlook option to keep copies of replies with the original email, rather than in the sent items folder. Unfortunately Outlook's version of this option specifies 'for folders other than the inbox,' but if you know how to do it for the inbox, I'd love to know.

I also have a rule to put all mail from 'junk senders' to the SPAM folder, and have button added to my toolbar to 'add to junk senders list.' Then I have a rule to put all mail 'where my name is not in the To: line, expept where it's in the cc: line' into the SPAM folder. These two rules used to get over 80% of my spam, now it's only about 50%.

I also have a few rules for specific domains that put their email into the SPAM folder. I do scan the SPAM folder, but very quickly. I also have the preview pane turned off for the SPAM folder. You have no idea how many viruses that saved me from.

This works fairly well as long as I monitor the other project folders using Outlook Today, or the folder list, so notihing gets by me. It does save a ton of time, since I don't have to process mail just to clear my inbox, and only have to address the project-specific stuff when I'm on that project.