Imagine starting your day feeling determined. You resist the urge to hit snooze and leap out of bed, energized and ready to tackle the day. After brewing your favorite morning drink, you check your email.

Your inbox is overflowing with stories from writers you admire. Each subject line captures your interest, and the snippets are incredibly appealing.

Many pieces are available for free, while others require a subscription. With limited funds, you must choose wisely.

Yet, you’re eager to read them all! However, life interrupts; you need to get your kids to school, head to work, or attend to various responsibilities.

The anxiety of missing out on great content—what some call reader's FOMO—sets in. Your time is valuable, and your budget is tight, making the decision of what to read feel overwhelming. Ironically, the time spent deliberating means you end up reading nothing.

Regret fills you as you notice your inbox has become chaotic. Important emails are buried under a mountain of unread stories.

While you know how to manage spam, this level of digital clutter is new to you. Unlike junk mail, you actually want this content, making it difficult to simply unsubscribe.

You begin deleting emails, trying to regain control. You remember that all these stories are accessible through your Substack feed, allowing you to read them at your convenience.

This reflects the bloated inbox anxiety I've faced with Substack.

Initially, the platform felt fresh and exciting. I subscribed to numerous writers and even shared my own work. The creativity and community spirit were invigorating.

However, there are significant issues with Substack that deserve attention.

I refer to this experience as digital content overwhelm—or perhaps digital bloat. I’ve even considered coining the term "content constipation."

The reading list keeps growing, and although I delete some emails, I hesitate to remove them all. What if I miss something crucial? I’ve become an email hoarder, and it frustrates me to see the clutter every time I open my inbox.

As I subscribed to more writers, it became clear that I needed to address my overloaded inbox.

I turned to Substack's settings to manage my email notifications, only to find the process more complicated than expected for such an innovative platform.

“Smart” Notifications Substack has become a popular platform for writers and creators, celebrated for its potential to transform the writing landscape.

As an erotic memoirist, I appreciate its features, like allowing readers to filter content types, helping us find one another.

Recently, I shared a light-hearted story about my partner and me enjoying our backyard trampoline, which attracted a new paid subscriber.

That's fantastic!

However, the constant stream of emails whenever a writer I admire posts something new has become unmanageable. I follow so many talented individuals!

There’s already an inbox within the Substack app to browse posts from subscribed writers. Why do I need those sent to my email too? It feels excessive.

I prefer to visit the app and choose my reading time.

Sifting through Substack emails became a daily chore. The time spent deciding whether to delete, archive, or leave them in my inbox cut into my writing time and drained my mental energy.

After some research, I discovered the option to enable smart notifications in the settings, although I’m skeptical about how “smart” they really are.

You can select a preference for email or push notifications, but this is merely a suggestion. Substack doesn’t guarantee that your email won’t still be flooded.

As an ominous disclaimer states, “If push delivery fails, posts may resume sending via email.”

Why would push notifications fail? Why can’t I have control over my inbox?

And why must it be an either-or situation? What if I just want to engage with the app at my own pace, without emails or push notifications?

What’s going on, Substack?

Reluctantly, I selected my preference for push notifications, which somewhat alleviated the email issue. Some still trickled in, but it was nothing compared to before.

In the meantime, I kept searching for a better solution and stumbled upon a humorous Reddit post.

> Laafheid: You could also set up a rule in your email to move every email from an address that includes Substack to a designated folder, so they don’t clog your inbox at least.

> whatatimetofuckoff: Can confirm this works. Been doing it for over a year. The folder I move Substack emails to is the trash because I blocked them.

I found that amusing. While I didn’t want to block Substack entirely, I was intrigued by the idea of creating a rule in my Gmail.

Learning New Tech Skills I’m not particularly tech-savvy, but after some effort, I figured out how to create a filter in Gmail.

It wasn’t too challenging, though I realized it was easier to do on my PC than my smartphone.

I’m also uncertain whether the criteria I set will catch all Substack emails. It’s early days, but I’m hopeful everything will be seamlessly directed to my new folder.

I wonder if I’ll ever check that folder. I might prefer to read directly in the app.

As a Substack enthusiast, I question why the notification/email/filter process isn’t more intuitive and user-friendly.

Subscription Bloat While Substack is excellent for building an email list, it poses challenges for readers and writers like me—those who can't afford endless subscriptions.

From movies to music and software, many of us already juggle too many monthly payments.

I pay $15 for a premium membership on this platform, giving me access to all the stories I want and the ability to comment, a feature unavailable on paid Substack newsletters unless you’re a subscriber.

If I paid for every writer I wanted to follow on Substack, my family would struggle to make ends meet.

Although some writers thrive with many paid subscribers, I find it hard to attract readers willing to pay for my $5 Substack—understandably, as they likely have numerous other subscriptions.

Despite the challenges, Substack remains appealing. Substack is a powerful tool for building an email list. Its direct messaging feature allows for personal engagement with readers and fellow writers.

Most of my stories are free, and as my subscriber list grows, I hope to promote my memoir when I finally write it!

Surprisingly, I have a small group of loyal subscribers who support my work—currently 15 of them. They occasionally receive paywalled content. Most are friends who want to support my writing, making their subscription feel more like a tip than a formal agreement.

And who doesn’t appreciate a good tip feature for creatives?

I value every one of my paid subscribers, even if I struggle to reach a broader audience. If my Substack can cover a gas tank each month, that’s a win!

I’m also hooked on Substack’s Notes feature, which allows writers and readers to interact directly. It’s an excellent way to promote stories, share links, and engage in discussions.

In fact, another writing platform I frequent would significantly benefit from such a social feed feature (wink wink).

Ultimately, there’s more to appreciate about Substack than to criticize. Perhaps I simply need to improve my understanding of the software to navigate its subscription management and notification settings more effectively.

Am I missing something? Or are other Substack users experiencing similar issues?

Regardless, every platform—much like every individual—has room for improvement. Hence, I share my thoughts.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to connect with me on Instagram or subscribe to my newsletter and podcast.