How I Solved Newsletter Inbox Overwhelm

For Substack super subscribers, the problem is real.

Hey Aunties,

This is an unscheduled short post with a pro tip for those — like me — who’ve been struggling to keep up with all the Substack newsletter subscriptions. If this isn’t you, feel free to skip this one and we’ll return you to your regularly-scheduled Auntie Bulletin programming on Friday.

There are just so many great writers on Substack, it’s hard to keep my subscriptions manageable. Me, I need (and want) to subscribe to the newsletters of lots of colleagues who are writing about carework and community-building, and then there are also tons of great newsletters that I subscribe to just because they’re fun or useful and I like them. So I got a point where I was receiving like 80 different newsletters in my email inbox every week. It was impossible to keep up!

But I wanted to keep up. I created a system where all the newsletters I subscribe to went to the “Updates” inbox in Gmail, and then I’d keep them there unopened until I had a chance to decide: read immediately, save for later, or delete. But the ones I saved for later — often those I suspected would be a heavier emotional or intellectual lift — would pile up and pile up and pile up in my inbox, and then when I had time I’d try to make a dent, often in a sort of dutiful way. I kept losing more and more ground, and periodically I’d just go through and guiltily delete everything. It was not ideal.

Then about a month ago I went on a meditation retreat where I knew I’d be 100% offline for two weeks. And in order to save myself from total inbox overwhelm when I got back, I changed my delivery preferences to only receive newsletters in the app.

It turned out to be such a good move. Whereas previously I’d been relating to Substack posts more or less the same way I relate to personal emails — in essence, as personal messages that I need to read — now I started relating to posts more like the periodical journalism that they more closely resemble. I don’t feel guilty about the stuff I don’t read anymore. Now that I’m reading posts in the app, I feel so much more free to pick and choose.

So here’s my pro tip for solving newsletter inbox overwhelm: get the Substack app, then go to settings and change your delivery preference to “prefer app.”¹

Wait, don’t go! Hear me out, Aunties.

I know, it is so annoying to get another app. Me, I use my texting app and WhatsApp and that feels like plenty. I’ve strongly resisted acquiring the other apps that the tech companies want us to use for communicating with people (e.g., Facebook Messenger, Discord, Marco Polo). And I don’t have TikTok or Instagram or any social media apps other than Substack. So I’m the first person to be like, “apps, eww, no thank you.”

And maybe it’s easy for me to say this because I don’t have those other apps, but I honestly do feel like the Substack app is worth it. It allows me to spend a lot less time in my email app, and it’s really reduced my overall information overwhelm, which feels very valuable indeed in 2025. Switching exclusively to the app to read newsletter posts does mean reading on my phone — but honestly, I was mostly doing that anyway.

Unread newsletter posts no longer pile up unread in my email inbox, making me feel guilty. Instead, if I’m not ready to read something right away, I use the little “save” feature in the Substack app and come back to it later (if I feel like it).

As of September 2025, Substack doesn’t yet have a feature where you can pick and choose which newsletters you get in your email inbox and which you get in the app. This is what I initially wished for, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Substack adds that feature soon. But to my surprise, I also find that I like having everything be delivered to the app only. It keeps newer subscriptions on my radar and weirdly, it seems to make me more likely to open posts I might not otherwise gravitate toward. I’ve wound up reading a lot of great new writing this way.

I also no longer feel like I need to restrict myself from subscribing to new newsletters. Before, it was hard to hit that “subscribe” button because I knew it would lead to more inbox overwhelm. In order to subscribe to a new newsletter, I would try to make myself unsubscribe from something else.

Now, Aunties, I can subscribe with abandon. I’m currently subscribed to 154 newsletters (!!!) and I don’t feel overwhelmed at all.

I’ve been using the Substack app every day, and I feel fine — even good — about that. It fills the place in my life that I suspect is filled by social media for a lot of people. Because there are so many wonderful writers on Substack. I’m getting a delicious and nutritious media diet.

So here’s my recommendation if you’re getting way too many newsletter posts in your email inbox. Get the Substack app (I know), and stop receiving posts by email entirely. For me it’s been totally worth it.

I wanted to select something pretty for the thumbnail that accompanies this post in the Substack app, so here’s your chance to check out these gorgeous color woodblock textile motifs by the Japanese designer and painter Furuya Korin (1875–1910). This and many more are freely available in the public domain!

1. To be clear, Substack neither asked me nor compensated me to write this post.