Our favorite way to keep your email inbox empty is a simple, three-folder system we call The Trusted Trio. However, if you're using Gmail and want to keep a clear inbox, it's actually a duo. Here's how to use two simple labels to consistently empty your Gmail inbox.

Managing the steady stream of email that gathers in your inbox every day can feel like an impossible task. Not long ago, I kept a lengthening list of folders in my email software to track messages by topic, sender, project, urgency and any other context that seemed relevant that hour. I'd spend lots of time carefully dragging and dropping every message from my inbox into the folder it seemed to belong in that day. After awhile I had so many folders the system was completely useless. Some of the folders - even after the work of creating and populating them - I barely ever opened again.

Each e-mail message in your inbox demands your time and attention. Filters and rules are great for reducing some of that demand, shunting easily defined mail such as e-newsletters and personal notes to their appropriate folders. But important e-mail messages are often hard to define and organize with automatic, rules-based management. They require filters and rules that reside only in your brain.

The Mac software ecosystem faces a plague. A plague of Everything Buckets. Indulge me.

If you search for “productivity” or “organization” software for the Mac, you’ll find variations on a particular type of application. These applications claim to be “your outboard brain” or “your digital filing cabinet” or similar. They go by many names: Yojimbo, Together, ShoveBox, Evernote, DEVONthink. There may be differences in their implementation and appearance, but these applications are all of the same sinister ilk. They are Everything Buckets.

When I first started using Evernote two years ago, I was really excited about the universal capture tool. But I've lost my love for apps like Evernote because, frankly, I don't think they work that well. Here's why.