Processing emails vs. checking emails

I can't believe I only have 2 emails in my inbox. I'm almost not sure what to do with myself. I'm hoping this is not a premature post since I really do not want to go back to having tons of emails sitting in my inbox. Over the past week I've been chipping away at the emails and processing the 20-30 new ones I get daily. This major clean is on account of a Facebook post by my new art marketing guru, Alyson B. Stanfield (I swear I'm not getting a kickback! I do really like her though, she's worth checking out if you haven't already).

Alyson suggested we'd save time if the clutter in the inbox was gone and who can't use more time? So I decided I was ready, since I also wanted to improve getting back to people in a timely manner. I feel it. The extra time, that is. Plus my mind is clear--you know the feeling when you take loads of old stuff to the Goodwill. It feels good. In the mornings after the kids are off, I make myself a cup of coffee and check email, the news, and a few blogs. I give myself about 20 mins to do this before I start my day. I would typically open emails and read them, then let them linger until I felt like revisiting. Often I'd miss opportunities with friends and sometimes deadlines because I had forgotten totally about the email. I'd open my email again thinking I'd address the old emails but instead get caught up in the new ones and continue the cycle. I'm involved with the community and with my kids so I have a lot of emails coming in with stuff that needs to be acted on. Not always when I open the email do I want to act on it right then. So I asked a few people how they managed their emails. One person told me he treats every email like potential mental clutter. He only wants to see it once, not continue rereading the email and taking up mental space. So I'm trying this, knocking out the ones I can quickly and then solving the others by the the end of the day, and I have to say I'm no longer stressed when I open my account. Gasp! I'm organized! Creating lots of folders--I think I have over 20--for emails I wanted to archive instead of chuck helped in this regard. So what am I doing with this extra time in the morning? Thinking about how to solve my registration problem.