A couple of decades ago written communication was slow, but ‘snail’ mail and fax allowed us to think about our response—and we could get things done while waiting for a reply. From the 90s onward email has taken their place. With the constant barrage of spam and marketing emails, as well as our personal and business correspondence, managing our inboxes has become a stressful task, however. “Instead of looking forward to emails,” points out business consultant Angeline Zaghloul from Peer Business Consulting in Sydney, “we’re now craving that elusive concept: the ‘zero inbox’—the state of nirvana when our inboxes are empty—and stay that way!” But is the zero inbox achievable? And how do we get there? Despite the approximately four billion email accounts that exist worldwide today, and the average 200 emails people receive daily, email management can be achieved—and sustained—if you apply some basic and practical principles. If your inbox is a complete mess you might have to spend some time doing an initial tidy. As you get things under control, it’s then going to …