Well, the training they give you at MSFT is pretty introductory, but there's additional courses you can take.  Here's what I do:

1) All mailing list stuff gets dumped to a hierarchy of folders for mailing lists.  I occasionally go in there and mass delete unread messages.  If I havne't read it in a week, most likely it's dead information (or I can search an archive later)

2) All mail that is CC'ed to me goes into a "You've got CC" folder.  Woe be to the person foolish enough to ask me to do something and neglect to move my name to the "To" list.  I usually read this once a day if I have spare time.

3) A special "catch all" folder called "Not to Me" when all remaining email that is not directly addressed to me (or in a specified "whitelist"...my bosses, people in my bosses org, etc.) will get dumped there.  I occasionally refine the rule so that the stuff that gets dumped there is stuff really not directed to me (company announcements, newsletters, the usual crapulence).

Just doing these three things keeps my inbox VERY small.

Well, not quite -- I do get a lot of email in my Inbox folder.  If it's something that's unactionable, I delete it.  If I need to do later, I flag it with a date.  Everything else I reply to and then (typically) delete the message.

Personally, I don't use color-coded email.  I know lots of other people that do.  Whatever works for you.