You subscribed to a few newsletters. Then a few more. Now your inbox is a graveyard of unread content, guilt-inducing red badges, and the constant anxiety of falling behind.
Sound familiar?
You're not alone. The average knowledge worker subscribes to 15+ newsletters but reads fewer than 5 regularly. The rest? Digital clutter.
The problem isn't newsletters themselves — it's where you're reading them.
Why Your Inbox Is the Wrong Place for Newsletters
Email was designed for correspondence, not content consumption. When you treat your inbox like a reading app, you get:
- Notification overload: Every newsletter triggers an alert, demanding immediate attention
- No prioritization: Work emails mix with reading material, creating decision fatigue
- Archive anxiety: You star newsletters "to read later," building a backlog that never gets read
- No unified view: Newsletters arrive at random times, fragmenting your reading flow
- Terrible discovery: Finding old articles means scrolling through thousands of emails
Email is push-based. Newsletters should be pull-based.
The Solution: RSS-First Newsletter Reading
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the original calm technology for content consumption. It's:
- Pull, not push: You check when ready, not when interrupted
- Unified: All content in one chronological feed
- Distraction-free: No promotions, no tracking, no engagement algorithms
- Searchable: Find any article instantly
- Private: No one tracks what you read or when
Most newsletters support RSS natively. For those that don't, you can convert them.
How to Move Newsletters Out of Your Inbox
Step 1: Find RSS Feeds for Your Newsletters
Many newsletters already publish RSS feeds. Check:
- Substack newsletters:
https://[newsletter-name].substack.com/feed - Beehiiv newsletters: Usually
https://[newsletter-name].beehiiv.com/feed - Ghost newsletters:
https://[newsletter-name].ghost.io/rss/ - Medium publications:
https://medium.com/feed/@[author]
Look for RSS icons in the footer or /feed in the URL.
Step 2: Convert Email-Only Newsletters to RSS
For newsletters without native RSS, use an email-to-RSS service:
- Kill the Newsletter (free): Creates a unique email address that converts newsletters to RSS
- Blogtrottr (free): Email-to-RSS with delivery options
- Substack's email forwarding: Forward any newsletter to your Substack inbox, then subscribe via RSS
Forward your newsletters to the service, subscribe to the generated RSS feed, then unsubscribe from the email version.
Step 3: Read Everything in One Place
Once you have RSS feeds, you need a unified feed reader. Options:
- any-feeds (free, calm, no algorithms): All newsletters + RSS feeds in one chronological stream. Chrome extension for easy subscription. Social discovery for finding new feeds.
- Feedly (free tier available): Popular but AI-heavy, enterprise-focused
- Inoreader (free tier available): Power user features, complex UI
- NetNewsWire (free, macOS/iOS): Simple, local-first, no cloud sync
Choose based on your preference: calm simplicity vs feature density.
Step 4: Build a Reading Habit
Switching from inbox chaos to a unified feed requires a new habit:
- Schedule reading time: Block 20-30 minutes daily for newsletter reading
- Process chronologically: Start from the top, mark read, move on (no FOMO)
- Unsubscribe ruthlessly: If you skip a newsletter 3 times in a row, unsubscribe
- Use folders sparingly: Too many categories = another form of clutter
- Accept incompletion: You don't have to read everything. The world keeps turning.
The Result: Inbox Zero + Reading Flow
After moving newsletters to RSS:
- Your inbox is for work again: Only correspondence, no content
- You read more, stress less: Pull-based consumption, no guilt
- You actually finish articles: Unified feed = better focus
- You discover connections: Chronological reading reveals patterns across topics
- You control your attention: Technology serves you, not the other way around
Start Today: 3 Newsletters, 15 Minutes
Don't migrate everything at once. Start small:
- Pick 3 newsletters you actually read
- Find their RSS feeds or convert them
- Add them to a feed reader (try any-feeds — it's free and takes 2 minutes)
- Read from the feed for one week
- If it works, migrate the rest
Newsletter overload isn't about too many subscriptions. It's about the wrong delivery system.
Fix the system, fix the problem.
Ready to escape inbox chaos?
Try any-feeds — a calm, unified feed reader for newsletters and RSS. No algorithms. No tracking. No complexity. Just your content, your way.
Free forever. Install the Chrome extension and start reading in 2 minutes.