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Maintaining Privacy and Safety Online: Tips & Tools To Use

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stackedbooks.org

 

Last fall, I shared 7 tips for maintaining your safety online. That post was really well-received and made its way onto BlogHer. Because this has become a topic I’ve fixated on over the last year as my own work has become much more public online, I thought it’d be worth revisiting and offering up another series of easy-to-implement things you can do to protect your privacy and safety online.

First and foremost, I need to recommend a book.

smart girl's guide to privacy

Violet Blue’s The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy was recommended to me by numerous people and I’m really glad I bought it. Swapna talked about it over on Panels, and I echo her sentiments: this is a book that anyone who does work on the internet or invests in social media on the internet needs to read. While it’s geared toward women, anyone can walk away with really valuable tips and tricks. There’s a privacy checklist in here that I plan on revisiting on a regular basis to ensure that things don’t slip under my radar. The checklist, as well as other tools and resources, are available on Blue’s tumblr, too.

Many of the following tips, tricks, and tools I am going to recommend came up as I worked through her book. I discovered and tried a lot of these on my own with solid results, based on what Blue suggested checking for. In other words, she suggested paying attention to what you’re allowing on your Twitter timeline, and I tried out a handful of tools to see what worked best for me and my level of comfort. So, your mileage may vary, depending on your needs, but these were all good bets for me.

You are absolutely welcome to share this, print it, whatever you want. I appreciate credit, but it’s not required. These are simple things you can spend 10 minutes doing and I highly recommend not only doing them for yourself, but recommending these things to others looking for help being more private and safe online.

A Quick & Dirty Primer to Safety and Privacy Online

 

  • Get Out of People Finder Websites: Opt out of things like Spokeo. Search ALL of your names and nicknames, including maiden names or full names if you go by initials, and pull them all out. Look up all of the places you’ve lived before and cross check. You can opt out of Spokeo here: http://www.spokeo.com/opt_out/new. Do this with as many people finder sites as possible. I found myself listed under multiple states, under multiple names, and I pulled it all off. The process takes about a day, but then it’s gone. 

 

  • Make a Burner Phone Number to Give Out: Created a Google Voice phone number. This is free. You can forward it to your real phone. Perhaps you want to pick a number no where near where you live. I made one for a large metropolitan area and it will forward to my real phone. I’m comfortable sharing this one online. Bonus: doing this will save you from those inane sites or apps which require a phone number or which use your phone number for innumerable data mining reasons. 

 

  • Make a Burner Email To Give Out: Set up a burner email account. You can forward it to your real inbox. I created burner emails for Kimberly and I to have individually through our domain, but we share an inbox for Stacked, too. Anything worthy of our real email addresses we’ll reply to from them. This makes me feel good giving out my email on social media, to enter contests, to sign up for anything. Basically, anyone you don’t want having your direct line, give them this. 

 

  • Your Address: Get a PO Box. I noted this last year, but it’s become incredibly worthwhile this year, as it’s cheap and let me give an address out to people and places without ever feeling insecure. PO Boxes are tax deductible if used for business (freelance writing counts!). Check with your post office for forwarding options, as sometimes you can set up a PO box to come to your home. Also, you can, I believe, set up a PO box in a town you don’t live in.   

 

  • Check Who Has Your Address: If you own a domain, especially through a place like GoDaddy, your address is out there. A quick Google search for me turned up all of my information very publicly. Change the WHOIS info for domains registered to you to include as little identifying info as possible — this is where a burner phone number, a burner email, and a PO Box are invaluable. Do the same thing with TinyLetter (which will publish the address you enter at the bottom of each email, so make sure it’s your PO Box), MailChimp, or anything else that requires a public-facing mailing address. GoDaddy will let you pay a fee to keep this information totally private, too, if that’s preferable.

 

  • Deep Dive On Google/Yahoo/Other Search Engines: Google your phone number, address, date of birth, social security number, screen names, logins, and email address — with multiple variations. See where these things are and ask for them to be removed where possible. If you can, delete as many comments on blogs or websites with that information as possible. In the earlier days of blogging, many required an email address in the comments to be entered into contests. Go back and delete those comments. You’ll also want to do a Google image search of these same bits of personal information and remove anything you don’t like or aren’t comfortable with people having. Delete any social media profiles you no longer use or want available, too. You’d be surprised what pops up. 

 

  • Create Multiple User Names: If you have accounts around on different sites or social media and you want to keep some things private/unfindable, have multiple user names. My Etsy user name, for example, has nothing to do with my name or the user name catagator, which I use in most places. I don’t want people finding me on there because it’s none of their business what I’m buying or looking at. You don’t owe people your information, even if you love them and trust them. Sometimes it’s your business and yours alone.

 

  • Unsubscribe From Email Lists: The best thing I did for myself over the last year or so was unsubscribe from every pesky email list I don’t want to be part of. Why do I need eight emails a week from my eye car provider? Why do I need eight emails a day from B&N telling me about deals? Why am I on some publisher’s email list that I don’t care about? Unsubscribe when anything pops into your inbox you don’t want or don’t care about shows up. Those companies are profiting by having your information and giving you little or nothing in return. After doing this, I no longer struggle with my inbox. I used to wake up in the morning to 40 or 50 emails, but now, I wake up to 4 or 5 at most, and they’re almost always things I need to take care of or from people I want to talk with. If you can’t part with some of these lists, use your burner account for them!

 

  • Tape Over Your Computer Camera: This one is straight from Blue’s book. She has good reasoning behind this, as cameras can be hacked quite easily. If you need to use your computer’s camera, you can simply untape it. I used a small piece of a post-it note and taped over that, which will keep the lens from getting sticky.

 

  • Use A Blocking Tool on Twitter: Go beyond Twitter’s blocking. Use a tool like BlockTogether, which lets you create block lists and share them with other people. This is useful if, for example, you blog with many people and you all deal with spam periodically. You can share the block lists and save time. This is free. You can also use it to set up parameters on blocking — so you can have young Twitter accounts blocked, those who have Tweeted fewer than X-times, etc. You can go through and unblock anyone who falls into these block parameters because sometimes you accidentally block someone who you don’t mean to block. 

 

  • Delete Old Tweets: There’s a great tool out there called Tweet Deleter which you can use to bulk delete your Tweets. You pay $15 a month, but you can cancel after one month if you do this smartly. When you pay the $15, you’ll upload your Twitter archive, and you can search it, choosing tweets to block. You can delete entire months or entire years — don’t want people to find your Tweets from 2009? Delete them all. Do a search for any info you don’t want public, like emails, town names, family member info, etc. This does auto-renew, so remember to cancel the service when you feel comfortable.

 

  • Remove Fake Followers: Neat thing I learned, and by neat, I mean, annoying — you can get follow spammed on Twitter. Someone can pay to have hundreds or thousands of fake Twitter accounts follow you; this looks fishy on Twitter’s end, and when they think you’re paying for followers, they will block your account. I recommend seeking out and blocking fake accounts following you on Twitter. Pay $15 for https://fakers.statuspeople.com/ to delete all of the fake followers you have. This doesn’t auto-renew, so keep it just for a month.

 

  • Check Privacy Settings Everywhere: Go through all of your social media accounts and make things private where you can and completely delete the apps from which you can’t rid yourself of public-facing information you don’t want public. You don’t NEED LinkedIn if you don’t want it. Same with Pinterest or any other social media account. Check Twitter’s privacy settings to see what apps have access to your account and make sure you’re okay with what they have access to. Revoke as needed. I ended up deleting LinkedIn because it was spam most of the time, but more importantly, it did not let me delete some information I REALLY wanted deleted. So, I just got rid of the whole thing. If I need it again in the future, I’ll make a new one. 

 

  • Make Yourself Unsearchable On Facebook and Check Facebook Privacy Settings Everywhere: Change your Facebook name if you don’t want to be searchable. You need a real name, but you can shorten your real name or use a first and middle name only. To adjust your Facebook privacy settings, go to the dropdown menu on the upper-right corner. Select “privacy.” Under “Who can see my future posts?” select Friends or Friends Except Aquaintances. Next to “Review all your posts and things you’re tagged in,” select “Use Activity Log” and remove any posts where you’re tagged and don’t want to be. Under “limit the audience for posts you’ve shared…” select Limit Past Posts so your past posts are no longer public. Go through each other setting and select the option best for you, and check back in once per quarter because FB’s privacy settings change often.

 

  • Don’t Be Location-Enabled: Turn off ALL location-enabled options in all social media. If you don’t care, someone you may be with might care. Do it for their privacy if not your own. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other places do this for you — take away their ability to know where you are. I keep nothing on location except one private account for me which tracks my walking (and which I would never share with anyone, even people I know and love). 

 

  • Audit Your Social Media Photos and Locations: Go back through your Instagram feed and remove any pictures that give clues to where you live (neighborhood signs, street signs, your mailbox, house number, etc.) or that include the license plate on your car. You’ll be surprised how often your car sneaks into pictures you’re trying to take of snow or your kids playing outside. *This tip came from someone else and isn’t mine, but it’s fitting with the ones above, so I’m leaving it! 

 

Any other tips you’d add to these or the ones linked to in the post from last year? I’d love to hear them and share them with readers who are interested.

One of the things Violet Blue says over and over in her book and I want to reiterate here is: once you start doing this, you might find yourself overwhelmed and freaked out. This isn’t bad — it means you now know what you can do to make it stop, right now.

 

“Kelly, how about an update?”: On the 30-Day Shred, 3 Years Later

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The most popular post on STACKED in our history is not about books or reading or teenagers.

It’s about the 30 Day Shred workout.

That post, written a little over 3 years ago, reviewed the workout and offered my tips and tricks doing it. Since then, I haven’t written an update nor have I followed up with the video and my thoughts on it now. I’ve been asked to give a follow-up, so it’s time.

I should note this: I haven’t done the 30 Day Shred regularly in close to a year. And it’s not because I think it’s a worthless program. The opposite is true — it’s because of commitment to the 30 Day Shred that I made a complete lifestyle overhaul when it comes to fitness and working out. I’ll still pull out this stand by periodically to do a workout, but I have added new workout routines into my regime, and I’ve changed up the ways I’m doing things.

I talked earlier this year about struggling with depression. One of the things I learned while being treated for it was that I had put myself into a really unhealthy place with my diet. Where many people would, without hesitation, look at a woman my size and think she’s fat because she eats too much, my problem was the opposite — I wasn’t eating enough. My body was holding on to weight and fat because I wasn’t giving it enough. You cannot succeed at weight loss if you restrict your eating too much. Three meals a day, composed primarily of vegetables and vegetable-based foods, is not enough calories, even if it’s packed with enough vitamins and minerals. Following that discovery, I upped my eating, focusing primarily on consuming more protein. I don’t eat red meat and never had, so much of this change came through incorporating more protein bars (with no sugar, a thing that’s difficult to find) and drinking a protein-powder shake daily. These two things I was told would be best done immediately following a workout, since my body was using so much energy in a high-powered workout.

What does this have to do with The Shred? Well, it’s learning about how working out as hard as I do, especially as a larger-than-average woman, does have some considerations to keep in mind. It’s learning that my body requires some different things than others might. And it’s to say that what you see on the outside is not necessarily at all what’s going on internally. I am quite fit and I am quite healthy, but I have food-related issues I’m working on that counter the fat-people-need-to-control-their-eating narrative popular in our world, and there are potentially underlying metabolic issues keeping me from losing weight, despite how well I eat and work out.

kickboxingI’m doing Jillian Michaels’s Fast Fix Kickboxing DVD 3-4 times a week now.  Structured like The Shred, there are three levels, with multiple circuits each. The circuit lengths vary a bit, with some running through six different exercises and others just three. But the workout is a 25-minute ass kick. The first level is a complete cardio workout, the second level is a lower-body workout, and the third level is ab-focused. All three deliver a hard workout, but every time I get through one, I feel incredible. I feel strong and solid and powerful — exactly what you’d want to feel after kickboxing. Jillian, as we know, isn’t easy and she doesn’t take shortcuts. But that’s why it’s so effective and leaves me feeling the way it does. I love this workout to bits and pieces and would recommend it. Though fair warning: it can be a bit confusing and disorienting for those unfamiliar with kickboxing. You’ll feel uncoordinated and like you’re doing things backwards. This is normal, and you’ll eventually get the hang of it if you stick with it. Those with any injuries who can’t do a lot of jumping or kicking would be best to avoid this one, since it is a lot of movement. Level three includes a modified burpee, to give some idea of what intensity of jumping is involved.

When I was working through The Shred, I upped my hand weights from 2-pounds to 3-pounds to 4-pounds. I worked my way up to a total of 6-pounds in each hand, which I thought was incredible process. The kickboxing workout uses hand weights only in the first workout, and I started in with 6-pounds and would easily go up to a higher weight, if I had a second hand weight that was larger. It’s on my to-do list, but going to 8 seems really manageable. My strength has improved tremendously, and doing things like standard push-ups now are easy enough. Same with planks. They might not be enjoyable, but doing them doesn’t kill me like it once did.

But it’s not just kickboxing that I do now. Last fall, right before my birthday, I did my first ever 5K. I walked it, since I can’t run due to previous ankle injuries, and so part of my workouts then began incorporating long walks many times a week. On days I didn’t do a DVD, I would walk. And I have signed up for another 5K this fall to keep this part of endurance up. Incorporating a challenge like a 5K keeps me going.

In addition to those two cardio-based workouts, I also have included some kettle bell strength work and a resistance band workout — both of which I do through Fitness Blender, a free series of workouts online. For anyone who wants to start working out and doesn’t know where to begin or what might work for them, I cannot recommend Fitness Blender enough. You can try out a ton of things and get a fabulous workout. It’s not as tough or as intense as Jillian, but sometimes you don’t need that or want that.

I aim to work out 6 days a week, though I consider 4 or 5 days a week a complete success, too. I really listen to my body on this one: when I am hurting, I don’t work out. When I am feeling spent or am mentally depleted, I don’t work out. If I know I haven’t eaten enough to get through a workout and won’t re-up on eating after, I don’t do it. Some days, all I want is a quick walk and other days, I know I need to get in a sweaty kickboxing session. Sometimes, I need to take three days off in a row and not beat myself up about it because I know when I go back to working out on day four, I will be more present and get more out of it.

Learning how to work out with The Shred and having a dedicated, focused regimen helped me discover that I really LIKE working out. I function better in all regards when I work out, and I find myself eager and excited to try new work outs. I like challenging myself and seeing how hard or far I can go — on vacation last week, I walked an average of 5 to 10 miles PER DAY around Toronto. It was amazing to know I did that without dying and it was amazing knowing that all of my hard work paid off to allow me to do that.

In terms of physique, I have definitely toned. Because of previously mentioned challenges, losing weight for me is incredible difficult. But I see great definition in my shoulders and traps (an area that, I learned, I have to work on untangling and stretching since it’s where I carry all of my stress). I can see definition in my abs, especially my lower abs. And my legs? They are rock solid muscle. I’ve always liked my legs, but now I really love them because they look good, they feel good, and they can take a hell of a work out.

I may no longer be doing The Shred, but it’s 100% thanks to doing it that I found working out to be an enjoyable, worthwhile part of my life. I learned by doing it that I can work hard and succeed, and that my body isn’t an object to conquer but rather an amazing tool to work with. Doing The Shred helped me mentally so much that it was certainly part of the reason I found the bravery to seek help for a serious mental health issue I wasn’t taking seriously. It was also part of why I got help for other challenges when I wasn’t seeing results from my life that I should have — and why I can say with ease that isn’t life-altering or shattering, either.

In many ways, The Shred was the program I needed to learn about myself. And it was the program I needed to teach me about the value of personal health and fitness. While I did a lot of working out in high school, participated in athletics, and excelled in PE classes, I never quite understood the value or purpose of personal fitness. We aren’t taught those things; we’re taught the value of competition. And the thing is, health and wellness aren’t a competition. They’re personal, and you have to find a way to work it into your life that works with your life, with your body, with your needs, and with your own goals in mind. When we build everything up as competition, we’re eager to judge ourselves based on those around us, rather than listen to ourselves and our own unique bodies. It’s why an average person might look at a person like me, at my size, and immediately think about how I am a lazy slob who will die of a heart attack in no time — and those things aren’t true.

The Shred was a reminder to keep my eyes on my own paper and focus on improving myself FOR myself.

I still 100% recommend The Shred. It works for those who can handle an intense workout, whatever your fitness level. But the value isn’t necessarily in the video itself. It’s in discovering a routine that works for you and it’s in discovering the cues your own body gives you when it comes to prioritizing fitness in your daily life.

Committing to Diversity When You’re White: A Primer

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I used to read pretty white. And honestly, despite paying a lot of attention to what I’m reading, I still read a lot of white people. My goal is roughly 1/3 of my books being written by people of color this year, and though I think I am on target — half of the books I read in July were by authors of color — I know 1/3 is still a small target.

Making a commitment to diversity as a white person is hard, but it’s essential. For people like me who are gatekeepers in some capacity, it’s vital to be aware of the entirety of the world around you, not just your immediate space.

 

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Intersectionality is essential. I’m privileged, and I have no problem saying as much. I’m white, able bodied, cis gendered, and present heterosexual. I fall on the lower end of middle class, but I can pay all my bills and afford the small things I want in life without worrying how dinner will get on the table. While I’ve got mental illness to contend with, I’m able to afford medical care and treatment to make them manageable. The biggest roadblock for me anywhere is that I’m female and that I’m fat (a social disadvantage that yes, indeed, has ramifications, but it’s not insurmountable). I take it as my responsibility, then, with this level of privilege to make sure I shut up and listen to those dealing with any disadvantages I don’t have. Black women are faced with racism and sexism, and if they’re queer, that’s a third intersection of disadvantage they contend with. It’s not feminism or being an ally to only consider one of those aspects as societal disadvantage. The challenges are amplified through those intersections.

I’m not an expert by any means, and there are plenty of people who have written about this, but because race and consciousness of race have been on my mind lately, I thought it would be worthwhile to write a quick and dirty primer to better committing to a mindset that thinks about, embraces, and promotes diverse voices, creators, and writing. Many of these ideas can be applied across topics, too; that is, if you want to be a better reader or ally to the LGBTQIA community, many of these should be applicable, as well.

1. Set Reading Challenges

I’m 100% conscious of who and what I am reading. At first, this was tough. I was used to picking up whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But when I became conscious of who I was reading, things began to change. It wasn’t that I had to sit and research the background of the author of any book I considered reading. Rather, as I began reading more diversely, I naturally gravitated toward more diverse reading.

At some point, this clicks.

One easy way to better diversify your reading is to set a challenge for yourself. My goal is 1/3 of my books being written by people of color. It might sound daunting to do the math here, but it’s not: that’s one out of every three books. And when you start noticing that every third book you read is written by an author of color, you begin to just pick up books by authors of color when you’re doing your book shopping or borrowing from the library.

This is, of course, challenging when you’re faced with the realities of a world where authors of color aren’t as prominent or advertised or marketed the way white (especially male) authors are. In those cases, go to those authors of color you know and read through their backlist. Jacqueline Woodson, for example, has a marvelous backlist. Same with Walter Dean Myers.

Likewise, really pay attention to debut authors. When debut groups begin popping up for each new year in YA, I look through the author lists and pay special attention to those who identify as authors of color. I give those books priority because I know how many challenges are already present, on top of being a debut.

Here is the thing with this, though: you can’t pride yourself on being open and aware of who you’re reading. It cannot be your selling point and it certainly doesn’t make you an expert when you’re white. Rather, you need to do this because you need to do this. I read diversely because it’s my responsibility to do so; setting up parameters is how I keep myself in check. No one is holding me accountable here except myself, and I’m not going to ever expect another person to pat me on the back nor congratulate me for doing what I am responsible for doing.

2. Diversify the voices in your every day life

If you’re on social media, look at who it is you’re following. Do all of the people look the same? Sound the same?

Are they all white?

I follow a broad spectrum of people in my social media life. I don’t keep the same people on all social media accounts, either — I follow some people in one place, some in another, and yet more in other places. This makes sense for me and how I work with and within social media.

I don’t interact with all of the people I follow, in part because my responsibility as a white person in most cases is to shut up and listen. With racial tensions high in this country, I want to know what it is people who aren’t white have to say about it. I want to listen, rather than talk, because I have been granted so much permission to talk throughout my life. The history I learned in school — while progressive, especially in college — still was written from the perspective of white people doing the right things for and by the minds of white people. Black history was a subset of a history class once in a while, or it was an elective you could take. I remember zero classes on Latino/a history, Japanese history, Indian history, or the role of Native Americans through the course of American history. Women’s history lessons were very white, as well, even when relegated to elective, once-in-a-while when-we-have-time sessions.

I’ve heard enough of that. It’s my responsibility as an adult to educate myself, and in doing so, I sit back and listen. If I have a question from something that a person of color says, then it’s also my responsibility to do research about it.

No one is responsible for my education but me.

What’s amazing is that when you begin listening to more diverse voices through the course of your every day life, the more you also gravitate towards reading more diversely because you want to and need to better educate yourself.

3. Amplify diverse voices and perspectives

Something I am conscious of, and I know that Kimberly here is, too, is that when we write a book list or create a genre guide, we do our research before reinventing the wheel. There are so many people writing incredible blog posts and creating great resources for readers that we’d be dumb not to take advantage of that work and share it with our readers. I try to do the same thing on Book Riot, especially when I write about diverse issues.

One of the most annoying things for me to see is when a white person, especially someone with a large platform, misses an opportunity to amplify diverse voices when being asked for recommendations for reading. Is it that hard to find a person of color who has written a killer book list on diverse urban fantasy? Nope. Is it hard to find a person of color who has developed a list of comics creators of color? Nope. What about lists of diverse YA books created by authors of color? Also nope.

The reason this matters is because no matter what you’re doing, you’re probably not the first to do it. And more, it was probably — and continues to be done — by someone of color first. Don’t shout over them. Instead, give their voices the opportunity to be heard before sharing yours.

The more resources that other people have at their finger tips, the more exposure artists and authors of color are able to get that they might not otherwise get. It’s simple. Blog readers don’t read everything on the internet, so for bloggers especially, taking the ten minutes to do research before diving into a post can be hugely beneficial to those voices that you take the time to link to. They are given new audiences, and then those new readers have a new go-to resource to help better educate themselves, to help hear more diverse voices, and in turn, read more diversely.

4. Put your money where your mouth is

I do not buy books by white men.

I read them, absolutely, but I make a point to only check them out from the library, rather than plunk down $20 or $30 for one of their books.

Instead, when I go out to buy books, I make sure I am only buying the work of people of color or women. This is because that $20 or $30 makes a much larger difference to their career than it does to the career of a white man, already benefitting from a system where he’s a winner.

And here’s the best part: I have yet to be disappointed in this shopping experience. It forces me to look harder, to browse more deeply, and to pick up books that may otherwise fall outside my comfort zone.

We all know, or at least should know, that what’s available in the chain bookstores is hardly representative of what’s actually being published. The most diverse section in the YA area is, without much question, the non-fiction area — which is also the most undermarketed, under seen, section of the store.

So sometimes, what putting your money where your mouth is means walking out of a bookstore without buying a book and instead, going home, doing some research, and buying the book online. I keep a running list of titles that catch my attention; when I can’t find something in store, I’ll pick up one of those titles online later.

Like the other tips on this list, this particular one makes a huge impact. It might not seem like buying one book by an author of color matters, but that’s one sale not otherwise had, and it’s a book that then gets put into your reading rotation, which then becomes a book you talk about, which then amplifies a voice which otherwise might not be heard, which then encourages more people to pick up the book.

It does matter.

5. Be prepared to be wrong — and be okay with that

The biggest, most important, and yet hardest commitment to make when you choose to be a better ally is that you’re going to be wrong and you’re going to be called out for it. It absolutely hurts. But being told you’ve misstepped in something you’ve said or shared or that you could do better is absolutely nothing in comparison to being told your life is wrong or has less value than a white person’s.

A few years ago, an author of color contacted me privately about a review I wrote that hurt her. I didn’t say anything offensive, but I conflated discrimination against fat people with racism. Both are types of discrimination, but she noted in conflating the two, I didn’t take into account the long-standing history of racism.

And you know, she was right.

That was not my intention in the review, but when I went back with her concerns in my mind, I 100% saw what she saw, and I realized it mattered to do right. I apologized profusely, I listened to her criticism, and then I committed to do better. She in no way owed me the head’s up, and she in no way owed me a kind private email about it. But she did those things.

I’m often wrong on a lot of things. But I am comfortable enough with that. I’d rather try and screw up than not try at all. This has made me many enemies over the course of my life, but I believe in my convictions strongly enough that I know those who choose to walk away weren’t really there with me from the beginning anyway.

6. Read non-fiction, essays, and other personal works by people of color

This is a bit repetitive of numbers 1 through 3, but it’s important enough to pull out on its own. We’re in an amazing age of communication and sharing, especially when it comes to long form essays and personal anecdotes on the internet.

The number of people of color who are given platforms remains small, especially compared to white people and white men especially, but those voices? Listen to them. Read them. Share them. Engage with them thoughtfully and purposefully. Sometimes the best course of action is to share them and offer none of your own insight or reaction out loud. Rather, the important take aways are the internal ones that you and you alone wrestle with.

If you don’t know where to start — and this can be hard because knowing where to begin is intimidating when you’ve never purposefully set out to change your reading and thinking habits as an adult — some suggestions include The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coats, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. Once you read one of these books, finding more isn’t difficult and it becomes almost imperative. Because these are the stories we don’t hear on a daily basis, and they’re stories and insights we simply do not get in our white media.

Once you read more non-fiction, once you dedicate yourself to listening to these personal stories online and off, and once you begin investing time and money into diverse reading, you will change your life and you will change your approach to interacting with different people in your life. Writers don’t share their stories or perspectives just for fun. They do it because it is important and because if they don’t, no one will do it for them.

When you open yourself up to the possibility you are wrong, that you’re biased, or that you could do better, you will do better.

Likewise, when you open yourself up to those possibilities, you better believe the stories people of color tell you, you better believe their life experiences, and you’re better able to be an ally to them, rather than an ally for them.

Because here’s the thing: I am only responsible for the truths in my life, and the truths in my life are that I’m pretty privileged. And it’s by being privileged I could choose to ignore the truths of other people’s lives. But I can’t.

I believe everyone’s truth matters, and I want to better understand those truths.

Looking for more ways you can be a better advocate for diverse voices and stories? Here’s a round-up of other people talking about actionable and mental steps you can take. These are not posts on why, because there’s no reason to even ask the question. They’re posts on the how:

 

 

 

  • Malinda Lo’s look at perceptions of diversity in professional reviews should be required reading for anyone considering reviewing books, either professionally or as an amateur. I think about this series of posts every time I read a book that’s not about a white girl/boy.

 

 

 

 

Getting Things Done with Bullet Journaling

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Taking a day away from talking about books and reading to instead talk about the art and science behind how I get organized and stay productive. Part of it is being inspired by folks like Jane from Dear Author who talked about this at the start of the year, and part of it is that I’ve really taken to bullet journaling and have had a number of people talk about how they want to get into it and don’t understand how it works.

I’ve always been a list keeper. I have notebooks upon notebooks of to-do lists, stretching back to college and earlier. They’re still sitting in boxes and in closets around the house, in the event I need to do something like see where I was in wedding planning back in 2006. Just incase, I guess. I’ve kept a notebook of every book I’ve finished reading since 2000, which sits on the book case in my living room.

When I worked outside of the house, I kept numerous notebooks for lists. Some were for work. Some were for inspiration. Some were for random note taking. For a few years — recent ones — my list keeping and note taking got out of control. I not only had numerous notebooks going, but I also became an unabashed post-it note user. The great thing about post-its is how easy they are to move around, put into notebooks, rearrange, and, as it turns out, throw away. Where I cannot get rid of a notebook with lists, tossing a post-it of tasks I’ve completed away felt like an accomplishment. I enjoyed that.

The downside to throwing out post-its, though? Not being able to see at a glance what sorts of productivity I can achieve within a certain time frame. Am I getting ten things done a day? Three things done a week? What sort of long-term projects require weeks, instead of an hour? Quantifying productivity with post-its and numerous journals just doesn’t work for me.

Enter bullet journal.

If you’re not familiar with the bullet journal, take the three minutes to watch the video which gives an overview of the theory and system:

After watching this, I had more questions than answers. It felt overcomplicated for my own needs while also feeling too simple. Can I really keep numerous lists in one place? Why do I need multiple calendars within the journal? Do I need the journal AND a calendar? Will it make sense to mix up my work-related tasks with my personal tasks? Blog tasks? How will I make sense of all the little symbols and notations?

In short, I watched the video and felt like it was a lot to take in. But I wanted to try it anyway.

A little bit of backstory here: I noted being a journal and note book nerd, but I didn’t mention the level to which this exists. Back in the glory days of Livejournal, I was a member of numerous notebook and journaling communities, and even after, I connected with many folks who were into that, too. Is there something more nerdy than talking about how you journal or stay productive? About what kinds of pens you prefer? About where to score really great notebooks (…and yes, I have preferences on the note books I use and for what purpose)? I knew there’d be people out there showing off how they bullet journal, and while there are some great examples on Tumblr, I knew where the gold mine would be: Pinterest.

Here’s a quick and dirty set of search results for “bullet journal” on Pinterest. While many follow the formula of the original, many diverge. If you spend some time digging around through people’s posts, you’ll find so many variations on the standard bullet journal, and it was through a few hours of time, I was able to cobble together a system that absolutely, positively works for me.

Yes, I am 100% analog in my tasking and I foresee this being the case for a long time. I am better at remembering things when I write them down than I am keeping them in my head or on a digital calendar or document. I have no more post-it notes in my life, and I keep only two notebooks now. One is for almost everything I do (that’s the bullet journal), while the second is my notebook for keeping track of work scheduling of social media, meeting notes, and generally uncategorizeable note taking. I use a large Moleskine with a grid format for the journal, while I use a Chronicle journal for my note taking (this one right now). I am very, very committed and devoted to both of those products for those very specific reasons. It’s partially about size, portability, and quality. Likewise, they sit together neatly on a shelf when I am finished with them, which is important, since I refer back to many of the note-taking notebooks frequently.

This is how I organize my bullet journal, and as the year has progressed and my projects and work have shifted and grown, you’ll see my methods have evolved, too.

I began like the video does, by numbering my pages and creating an index at the front of the journal. This method lasted for approximately 15 pages and two days of January. I don’t care about being that organized. If I do, I can go back later and fill in those gaps. I did end up making a yearly calendar at the beginning of the journal, month by month, with key dates highlighted and marked. I haven’t referred back to this much since creating it, so it’s stayed blank. I’d probably ditch this in future iterations.

At the beginning of each month, I write out a rough events calendar:

This is nothing more than the dates of the month on the left, along with events or important things I ned to remember beside it. On dates with more than one event, I just separate them but put them all on the same line.

On the next page, I keep a single-page monthly task list. This is a list of things I need to do during the month that don’t necessarily have a due date or need to be done by a certain point. I refer back to this every day when I’m working on my daily task lists (getting there in a minute) in order to build those daily to-dos.

Following those pages, I like to make myself a place to track my monthly workouts. Some people do things like Fit Bit or Polar Vortex (which isn’t the real name, but that’s what I call my husband’s fancy tracker). I think I’ve made it clear I’m a paper person.

Following those three key pages, I then flip to the following page for a two-page spread which becomes a place where I keep track of two things during the month: blog post ideas, as well as books I’ve read and books I’d like to read that month. I don’t get to everything on the “to read” list, but that’s become a way for me to keep up with what I’ve been thinking about or wanting to read so when I do finish something and wonder what next, I have a place to turn.

After that, I give myself 3-5 pages which I’ve so creatively titled “miscellaneous.” This is where all of my monthly catch-all to-dos, lists, and other things I can’t forget or want to refer back to end up. Sometimes it’s literally a note about something I need to mention in an email or it’s an address. Something I don’t want to lose or misplace and would want to maybe refer back to at some point. I didn’t include pictures because all of those pages have personal stuff on them, but the important part for me is they exist and they’re there before the daily task lists.

One of the key features of bullet journaling per the video is that people can use a special key to track their events and tasks. This…does not work for me. Instead, I make a running agenda for every single day and mark things off as I go. For important things, like an appointment or call I have to attend to, I usually put a star to note that to myself. Otherwise, it’s a straight list, and I keep the daily task lists to half of a page. That’s all I can reasonably do in a day. Or rather, it’s all I expect myself to try to accomplish in a day that needs to get written down. Some things are so routine, I don’t need to mark them.

Generally, I write out a week of dates at a time. Sometimes I’ll go further. I don’t usually put the day of the week beside the date, but I have done that to keep track periodically. What’s been key for me here is this: I list things I need to do, or a memory cue for them (like “Pinterest” and “Goodreads,” which are things I do for Book Riot) and I mark them off as I accomplish them. When I see there are things being unmarked and unaccomplished, I move them to the next day.

Some people believe in very specific tasks being written. I alternate between specific tasks (“Write a Tumblr post for work about this event doing this”) and cues (“Goodreads,” which simply means do a few things on Goodreads that need to be done that day). It works for me because some things require specific information and other things do not.

If things don’t get done within a week or so — depending on what the task or memory cue is — I reevaluate the task. Do I need to do it? Will I do it? Or is it taking up unnecessary space in my life and it’s time to let go? If something isn’t on my monthly task list and has just been taking up space on my calendar, it’s time to either do the task (like go to the post office, which is a notorious one I hold over) or get rid of it and not think about it again.

By keeping my daily task lists to a week or so planned out, I force myself to make these decisions regularly. I don’t have time to waste writing things down again and again if I’m really not going to do them or if it’s a thing I just need to do and finish.

I keep all of my to-do list in one space. I do not separate out work tasks from personal tasks. I am very good at budgeting my time and energy during the day, so I know how to proceed with those multiple sides to my daily life. I practice energy management as opposed to time management, which I know is a touchy-feely way of getting things done, but it works for me. And since I work from home with an unconventional schedule, I find this method of taking care of things every day really works for me. Basically, I don’t plot things out in time chunks. I plot them out by energy. I know I am more likely to get certain things done in the morning and other things done mid-day. So I look at my lists every day and go from there. (This also tends to be why I am generally very fast at responding to emails or messages I get: as soon as I have the energy for it, I’m tackling it, rather than planning to go at it in one period of time.)

And that’s all.


I don’t do anything else with my bullet journal. I have no fancy secrets or knobs or gadgets. I use the same black ink Pilot pen on every single page. I reevaluate the monthly task lists as I go, and sometimes things get knocked off when they’re accomplished or I know it’s not going to happen.

I’m sold on this method of tracking my life because it’s analog and because I love having both the feeling of accomplishment that comes with marking things off and seeing how much can and cannot get done. More, I have a lot of opportunities to make choices with my time more regularly now that I see how my energy works with me, rather than against me. As a person who has to have control in her life, this is the biggest benefit. I know when and how I can get things done when I see it like this.

Keeping a record of books read, workouts finished, and blog post ideas keeps me motivated. I like seeing those pages full visually. And it’s always nice to know there’s a pile of blog post ideas sitting in line when I feel like I have nothing to work with when I sit down to write.

My bullet journaling came from trial and error, looking at what other people were doing and what would work for my own life. If it’s something that appeals to you but feels overwhelming, I cannot emphasize looking around at how others adapt them and then doing the same for yourself. I started with some idealistic notions on what I’d do with this, but then I let them die away as I realized the key component of bullet journaling for me, aside from organization, was decision making. Where do I invest my time and where do I let things go?

Other resources for getting started in bullet journaling:

Maureen wrote about her own personal methods of bullet journaling earlier this year. As you’ll see we all have methods that work for us. The beauty of bullet journaling is the adaptability of the format.

There’s also a Facebook group for bullet journaling. You can hop in and show off, ask questions, and get ideas for how other people use their journals here.

Bullet journal ideas and examples from Pinterest to get you started.

How Do You Keep Track of YA Book Releases?: A Resource Guide

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A popular question I get in my inbox or on social media from people is how I find and keep track of book releases. I thought rather than keep answering that question, I’d write about it so more people can keep tabs on upcoming YA releases. My method isn’t perfect and it’s not consistent, but I can offer the wheres and leave the hows up to how they work best for you.

There are three main sources from which I collect YA release date information: publisher catalogs, YA Lit/Bloggers/Goodreads, and Tumblr. There are a couple of other places I peruse, as well, which I’ll note at the end.

Publisher Catalogs


I spend a little time every single week going to Edelweiss. From there, I look at the center column to see what the most recently added catalogs are. If there’s a catalog from a publisher I like to peruse, I’ll make note and spend a little time with it when I can allot an hour or so.

It’s really easy to remember the big five publishers, and all of them — Hachette, Macmillain, Simon & Schuster, Penguin/Random House, and Harper Collins — are on Edelweiss. They each do a good job of separating out their children’s catalogs from their general and adult catalogs. Generally, though not always, the catalogs come out during three seasons: winter, summer, and fall. Some of those publishers do four catalogs, one for each season, and some do a spring catalog instead of a winter. They tend to come out about six months in advance, if not more. That means, I can look at Fall 2015 catalogs now for most of these publishers and it probably won’t be too long until Winter/Spring 2016 catalogs hit.

Mid-size publishers are recognizable on Edelweiss, too, though they’re not all there. Publishers like Scholastic are easy to find, as are Abrams, Candlewick, Chronicle, Disney, and Sourcebooks. Smaller publishers, those which are ensconced within bigger houses, can be more difficult to find because you have to know the name of the bigger house. For example, Carolrhoda LAB books are found in the Lerner catalog, Algonquin Young Reader books are found in the Workman Press catalog, and sometimes Harlequin Teen is within Harlequin. I find the Harlequin catalogs very difficult to figure out on Edelweiss, so I tend to instead go to their website and do a search there.

Not all publishers are on Edelweiss, so I know that I will have to do some searching elsewhere. Amazon publishing, Switch Press, and Flux, for example, don’t have a presence on Edelweiss, so I have to go to their sites specifically to look. Flux, I should note, is finally getting onto Edelweiss, but I still like to cross check.

Edelweiss catalog use is a time investment, but I am okay spending the bulk of my research time here. I can, as noted in the link above explaining Edelweiss, be efficient in my searching by release date or keywords. That makes an hour or two there not feel overwhelming. Likewise, I find looking at the available digital review copies helpful, too. But that’s more for immediate information rather than long-term planning.

YA Lit/Bloggers/Goodreads

One of the best non-publisher resources, one that I tell every single person to keep tabs on, is YA Lit. Kari and Stefan have been running this site since 2006, and it’s a straight up compilation of YA books by release dates, with links to appropriate retailers. You can see upcoming releases for a few months ahead of time, as well as look through already-published titles. It’s that simple and straightforward. Since it’s curated by a librarian, I trust the information being correct. If I had to direct general readers to one place for book release information or those who have little time but want to stay ahead of the game, it would be YA Lit.

I don’t read as many blogs as I used to and a number of blogs I used to read aren’t running any longer. But there are still a few that do excellent round-ups of books that they’re excited about and looking forward to. The Book Smugglers do this in their weekly “On the Radar” feature and Leila at Bookshelves of Doom does this through her “By The Catalog” posts, her “New Books” posts, as well as her previews over on Kirkus.

I don’t tend to use a lot of Goodreads lists, since they’re crowdsourced and people don’t tend to keep them well managed, but I do peruse the 2015 YA books lists periodically. This is especially useful for smaller press books AND for being conscious of what books look like they’re going to be extremely popular. There’s also a nice list of diverse YA/MG titles out in 2015 and debut 2015 YA novels (though sometimes this one in particular isn’t always correct).

Tumblr


I love Tumblr’s book lists. There are some really solid ones, and there are some that come out each and every week. Though I often know about the books from the publisher’s catalogs, these do tend to fill in some holes or cover some titles I miss. And what’s great about Tumblr is I can share the lists easily and return to them when I need to do some research.

Two of the best Tumblrs for book lists: Paperbacked’s monthly new releases post andRich in Color’s weekly roundup of new diverse books being released. I read a ton of other Tumblrs too, including Diversity in YA and Disability in Kid Lit, though they don’t tend to offer up regular new/upcoming books features.

Another really solid Tumblr is the Pickerington Public Library, which regularly does reader’s advisory for brand new or upcoming YA titles, which helps me sometimes place who a book might be for before I’ve even read it. They do some excellent graphic reader’s advisory, too, with flow charts and read alikes.

Other Resources


A few other resources I take advantage of, but to a much lesser extent, include trade reviews and the handful of debut novelist websites.

I don’t tend to love trade reviews. They’re often reviewing things I know about already or that are already published, though not always. I like to peruse Kirkus in particular, in part because I love the honesty of the reviews (though I sometimes think they love and pan the same authors/styles over and over) but more, they’re reviewing well in advance of publication. They pick up on a lot of mid size and smaller presses I might otherwise miss. You can read the reviews by those recently posted, those which have the books out already, or those books which are coming soon. That ease of navigation works for me.

For monthly debut YA novel roundups here at Stacked, alongside the other tools above, I make sure to check the Fearless Fifteeners site and the Class 2K15 site. I use their author profile/book links on site, then I do a search by month. As a side note: if you run a site like this, either now or in the future, the best thing you can offer to those who aren’t insiders is a way to quickly find relevant information about publication dates. I’ve seen sites in the past where the publication dates haven’t been easy to find and I don’t spend time trying to figure it out. This is my last stop, so by this point, I’m only picking up what I’ve missed and double checking what I’ve got.

Once in a great while, I do look at the previews on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but since those tend to be the biggest books of the season or are paid for by publishers, I generally already know about those books.

How I Organize Information


I have a really good memory for book titles, release dates, and especially covers. So when I read catalogs or blogs or reviews, I’m able to make mental notes that get them on my mind well enough. Things I am personally really looking forward to reading or that I think I might forget I tend to pop onto Goodreads in my “to read” shelf.

When I know I’m going to write something specific relating to book releases, such as a big roundup on Book Riot or the monthly “on the radar” posts here, I write book titles, authors, and month of release down (see the photo above). Usually it’s in a notebook dedicated to my notes about books or reading, and sometimes, I’ll open up either a draft email or a draft blog post and take notes. Sometimes, perusing catalogs leads me to seeing a thematic trend, and I note those things down, too, to think about later. Since migrating from post-it notes to using a bullet journal for my day-to-day planning, I’ve made use of one specific notebook for taking these notes and returning to them at a later date to think about.

I know of folks who use spreadsheets to track book releases, particularly when it comes to the books they’re receiving from publishers. I tried to do this, but I found it overwhelming and ineffective for me. It would take me more time to do that than it would to do research when I can dedicate time to it and it keeps me from actually reading the books.

So what about you? Do you have any sources you frequent when organizing information about upcoming YA releases? Anything I should know about?