The Publishing Spectrum

The Publishing Spectrum

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The Publishing Spectrum
The Publishing Spectrum
The 30/90 Rule: A Calmer Way to Use Substack Data Without Losing Your Creative Spark

The 30/90 Rule: A Calmer Way to Use Substack Data Without Losing Your Creative Spark

Learn a sustainable data rhythm that supports your storytelling, deepens audience trust and protects your creative energy.

Amanda B. Hinton's avatar
Amanda B. Hinton
Jun 08, 2025
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The Publishing Spectrum
The Publishing Spectrum
The 30/90 Rule: A Calmer Way to Use Substack Data Without Losing Your Creative Spark
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Thanks to everyone who joined me last week to explore the Writing Seasons. If you haven’t signed up for our Writing Seasons live session, you can do that here for free.

Today, we’re turning our attention to an important (and often overlooked) part of the publishing experience: how to work spaciously and effectively with your Substack data.

To me, data, subscribers and storytelling are all connected by a deeper thread — the insights of movement, motivation and belonging. With the right tools and mindset, we can learn to listen to data in ways that support our creativity, not compromise it.

If that sounds like your kind of balance in publishing, come join thousands of others reading The Publishing Spectrum — where we explore thoughtful strategies for resonant, sustainable growth.


Not All Data Is Meant to Be Checked Daily

When you publish on Substack — especially if you care deeply about resonance, not just reach — it can be tempting to monitor your dashboard constantly.

You want to feel the response. You want to know what’s working.

But that urgency rarely leads to creative clarity. And, speaking from experience, it usually leads to unproductive distraction. It pulls us away from the signals that really matter inside publishing.

So here’s what I practice — and what I encourage other creators to try:

Stop checking your metrics every day. Instead, check them every 30 days — and reflect every 90.

This rhythm — what I call the 30/90 Rule — gives you space to stay grounded in your creative instincts, while still leading with intention.

Let me share how I arrived at this practice, shaped by my experience as an entrepreneur and marketer.

What I Learned From Daily Metrics Monitoring — and Why I Want Something Different For Us on Substack

Before I launched this publication, I ran a small ecommerce business during the pandemic — a sensory shop that shipped calming products to healthcare workers and frontline responders.

It was a crash course in a new kind of pressure: ecommerce data.

In that world, you’re expected to watch — if not obsess over — metrics daily. At minimum, you need to know:

  • What’s selling

  • What’s stuck

  • What competitors are pricing at

  • How ad spend is converting, down to the SKU

At the time, I was less than a year out from an autism diagnosis — navigating sensory overload, emotional fatigue and isolation. The constant data monitoring felt unsustainable. It wasn’t creatively nourishing. It felt like sanctioned hypervigilance.

I loved the shop. But I knew I didn’t want to live inside data every day. I didn’t want my work to be dictated by false urgency, pricing battles, or performance loops.

Still, I knew data mattered. And I wanted to find a healthier way for it to live inside whatever I’d go on to build — including this publication on Substack, which I aim to keep thoughtful, effective and real.

Why Substack Needs a Different Rhythm

That experience of data overwhelm shaped many of the resources inside The Publishing Spectrum, like:

  • What if data helps us ask the right questions?

  • Substack audience data: insights from my Substack reader survey that will help create context for your launch or pivot.

  • What the activity rating means on Substack.

I believe authors and creative entrepreneurs thrive when we embrace what I call disciplined spaciousness — where we allow data to guide and inform, but never control the creative process. Where we use it to listen, not to chase.

What does disciplined spaciousness mean to you in writing or publishing on Substack?

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After years in marketing agencies (where weekly reports were the norm) and after running several of my own businesses, I can confidently say:

Sustainable strategy doesn’t come from constant monitoring. It comes from aligned reflection.

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