Color emails directly sent to me
I personally run Outlook with as few rules as possible, I think I have three at the moment and one is an Outlook 2010 default rule. I also try to use a few folders as possible - in the past I had my emails separated out Departments and then even in some cases by individuals.
Right now I'm running with only four folders (@Archive, @Follow Up, @Hold, Reference) and find it much easier to manage.
One trick I did want to share is something I've found pretty useful and that's making emails sent directly to me a different color than other emails.
My belief is if the email was sent directly to be, it's "likely" more important than emails that was sent to me because I was in a mailing list, they also more likely require some kind of action. To do this, do the following:
1. Click View (tab) > View Settings > Conditional Formatting
2. Click Add and then name it "Email to me" and then click Condition
3. Check the box next to "Where I am" and select "The only person on the To Line" from the drop down menu.
4. Click the Font button and set Outlook to highlight the emails sent only to you using whatever formatting you like - for me I have Outlook make the email Blue.
The above works for Outlook 2010. I would assume it works the same or somewhat the same for other versions of Outlook.