The Subscription Trap
$2,800 a year and nothing to show for it
I did a financial audit earlier this year.
Cloud storage, Apple Care, AI tools, websites, Adobe, workout apps, password managers — the list kept going. Twenty-three subscriptions deep, I was handing over $2,800 a year to software companies. The worst part? I don’t actually own any of it.
That number was shocking.
The Audit
I’m not against paying for software. I never have been. I’ve always been happy to support developers making tools I use daily.
But somewhere along the way we went from paying for a handful of useful things to paying for everything as a subscription. And when you stack $10-$20/month across twenty-three different services, the math gets uncomfortable fast.
I cut $800 worth and felt great about it.
Then I looked at what was left and a harder questions crept in:
What happens if I cancel the rest?
Do I lose my photos?
My website?
My passwords?
The Feature Loop
Even after trimming the fat, I had to be honest with myself. Was I actually more productive with these paid tools, or was I just stuck in a feature loop?
I’ve spent years championing what I call “boring productivity”, using the free, built-in Apple apps and showing people how to build systems with them that rival paid alternatives. For most people, it just works. Apple Notes and Reminders has been a surprisingly compelling combination compared to any paid PKM tool I’ve tried.
But I still fall into the trap. I recently went deep on Obsidian, convinced I was “missing out” on something because my notes weren’t saved to a local hard drive I fully controlled. A million plugins and hours of lost writing time later…
What did I actually accomplish?
Nothing.
Except trading the ability to be productive for the feeling of looking productive.
The Death of Ownership
This isn’t just a personal productivity problem. It’s systemic.
Security updates, new features, heated car seats, even treadmills, everything is a subscription now. We’ve lost the ability to own things. Purchased iTunes libraries gave way to streaming. Despite having a “buy” button in most digital stores, you don’t own anything.
And yet, the counter-argument is real. Small teams behind apps like Readwise, Snipd, and Athlytic are building genuinely valuable niche software.
I want to support them.
The tension is uncomfortable and I don’t think it fully resolves.
What I Actually Changed
I wasn’t going to burn it all down. But I could be smarter. Here’s what I did:
Dropped ChatGPT and Notion AI subscriptions
Swapped DayOne for Apple Journal
Downgraded my extra iCloud storage and bought more hard drives for my NAS
Took the discount nearly every time a cancellation screen offered one
The hard truth is that I didn’t cut things I dislike. I cut things that were fine — but not worth the cumulative cost of renting them forever.
The “Enough” Philosophy
So what survived the audit? The tool I use most, Apple Notes.
You might question that choice. Platform lock-in. Perceived lack of features. But it beats Notion, Obsidian, and every paid alternative I’ve tried. And I’ve tried almost all of them.
Why? Because it’s genuinely enough.
Everything I need, nothing I don’t. No databases to configure. No plugins to manage. Low friction is the killer feature as well as widgets, Shortcuts, voice commands, Quick Notes across every Apple device. No third-party app comes close to how many ways I can get information into Apple Notes.
The data lock-in concern is overblown too. Apple now lets you export directly to Markdown, and multiple third-party tools exist for migration. It’s Apple, they’re not going to nuke the Notes app overnight without an exit ramp.
Figuring out what “enough” looks like for you, then sticking with it and finding peace in the simplicity, that’s the move.
I’m still learning. I always reserve the right to get smarter. But I’m done paying rent on tools that promise productivity while delivering distraction.
I made a full video breaking this down — you can watch it here:
What’s up next?
Press Pause Guest Episode 2
The Apps behind 8 Billion Views
Switching from Apple Notes to Obsidian
State of To-Do List Apps