For the sake of this article, we're going to assume that you understand the benefits of being a filer rather than a piler. If you'd like to get to an empty inbox, but are facing what seems to be an insurmountable pile, take heart; we've all been there. Even for people that are meticulous filers, there are times, such as returning from a trip, where the amount of email facing you seems impossible.

Sometimes when we get overly focused on the end goal we make our task seem impossible, and it doesn't need to be. There's a simple formula you can follow that will help you meet your goal of an empty inbox. If you decide to follow it, your inbox won't be empty today, or even tomorrow, but in a matter of days, most likely less than a week, it will.

It's called Inbox 0.5. The idea is to ensure that you get through at least half of the emails you are facing. Here's how it works:

It's day one, and you're looking at 700 emails staring you in the face first thing in the morning. It's your task to get down to 350 by the end of the day. It sounds hard, but here's the thing. Most of that email is bulk mail subscriptions and the like, or simply out of date. If you can group or sort based on email subject or thread, do so - it will help you dispose of a huge number of emails once you've caught up to date with the most recent one.

It seems like a lot (and it is), but you'll probably find that getting through the first 350 messages is the easiest batch you will face.