Email Tagging and Auto-Filing

I dislike sorting my email inbox at work. It isn't that it is difficult, I have more of a problem with the fact that is inconvenient. I have to notice that it has become overwhelming and then tediously sort through it (search helps). Perhaps, the answer is to sort right away. Well, I don't like that idea.

So, I have come up with an idea that I like better: creating tags for email topics and inboxes that auto-file based on them. Now, I know the Gmail conversation sorting solves part of this, mostly for personal emails. However, in the work email context some "projects" span multiple conversations. And I have folders for these projects/topics to file my emails in but I have to do it manually. And auto-filters are an imperfect and obtruse alternative. If in the initial emails (non-replies), one could tag the email having that tag carry through the subsequent replies. If it is a new tag, there might be some prompt for all contacts involved to ok it. And a similar prompt could be used when someone wants to change the tag. A tag would be synced to an email folder for all involved contacts (mapping would be automatic). Ideally, one could control the timing an email remains in an inbox before being auto-filed and an action flag could also potentially delay that.

This is just some random rambling about possible improvements to the current way email is done. And I know I am not the first to notice or attempt to solve the fact that email is broken.

Also, not to get ahead of myself but the syncing of contacts, projects and emails could be integrated across software and users in a much better way than it is currently. MS Office seems to still be the norm but I think its time we revolutionized our approach to this stuff. (Google?)