Dealing with email tsunamis: any suggestions?

Don't dismiss this post as being entirely off-topic. It's about my perennial battle to cope with vast quantities of email that arrive every time I take a day off -- or even spend a few hours off-line when travelling by plane. I can easily receive over 200 emails a day and, in recent times, have frequently topped the 300 mark.

Intellectual property law is an area in which information-flooding is rife.  Apart from the fact that there are so many suppliers of information at local level -- publishers, conference and event managers, service suppliers, government departments and the like -- the global nature of IP protection and commercialisation means that we are always hearing from countries far afield, often countries with which our clients have little or no interest, whenever local law changes, offices close for public holidays, or recent commercial and litigious outcomes are reported. Then there are lists of fee-changes, both for office and private practice, solicitations, and lots more, The list is endless, or seems to be.

I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the world of IP who struggles to cope with incoming email and I was wondering whether readers of this blog -- most of whom probably don't have a secretary or assistant to screen their email before they get to it -- might have some useful algorithms, techniques or procedures for prioritising and processing larger quantities of incoming email than the eye can readily absorb and appreciate.  Suggestions, please!