Rules Rule!
If you just got back from vacation, suntanned and windblown, and discovered to your horror that you neglected to set up any rules before you left, all is not lost. Before you spend a week staggering through the stuffed-up Inbox, use the Rules Wizard to sort the mess into manageable chunks (for example, flagging messages from the boss, or putting them into a separate folder). Set up your rules (see Figure 4), and then click the Run Now button in the Rules Wizard main dialog to execute those rules on the current contents of the Inbox. The rules may take a few minutes to run if you have lots of mail, but they'll tidy up the mess, and will continue to execute on new mail as it arrives until you turn off the rules.
Figure 4 Why handle problems yourself, if rules can take care of them for you?
Now, about that Speedo...