Here is an interesting experience shared by Luis Suarez at Web2.0 in Berlin. Luis has been living without emails for 9 months. He works remotely, in Europe and reports to the States.
He went from 30 emails a day to 20 a week. He did it using social software. 9 months ago, he decided to use these social tools for business. He wanted to move to a public, transparent world, away from a closed world and political world (CC, BCC). He works with his communities using Twitter and other tools (just wondering which ones!). Luis recommends
You need to challenge the way you use email. Go where your communities are.