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Peggy's Pages Blog 

Lost and Found— When electronic devices make decisions for you and how to work around it


Does your computer make decisions for you? Decisions like which messages come into your primary box, your social box or promotion box? Does facebook want to tell you who your best friends are? Does it suggest who you should friend, and what memories you should post?

At first glance, I was happy that my email account sorted my messages into boxes. I could look at the promos later, keep up with the social media emails when I had more time, and get right to the ‘primary,’ or more important emails. Then days, weeks or even months went by and I finally took a look at those ‘less important’ messages in the other boxes. Here’s what I found today:

Personal messages from friends in both social and promotions boxes

Important messages from KS/MO SCBWI (Society of Children’s Writers & Illustrators) in my promo box

Newsletters in my social box

A free webinar for children’s writers that I missed out on

Contests with deadlines that I wish I’d seen sooner

My main problem is that I don’t check all of my email ‘boxes’ often enough.

Facebook has its pros and cons, but I still find it the easiest social media site to use online. I love to share author events and new books written by other children’s authors who I know—it’s easy to ‘click’ and ‘share.’ And there are some great groups for children’s writers on facebook.

I always thought that I was a very organized person. I still think that, but sometimes I need to step back and re-evaluate my time. Excuse me for brainstorming here on my blog! Here are some things that (I think) (might) will work for me—

Check my email Social box daily—if I do this every day I can see at a glance who is posting on twitter or facebook and what I might want to share on those sites. It probably wouldn’t take very long if I keep up, and if I use a timer I could keep it reasonable.

Check my email Promo box weekly—I’d catch any ‘misplaced’ messages, and I might find some deals!

Check the children’s writing pages on facebook every other day—if I check one or two each time I should be able to keep up. Some of the pages for children’s writers that I follow are:

ICL—The Institute of Children’s Literature

KidLIt411

KidLit TV

TeachingAuthors

The C.I. Guide to Publishing Children’s Books

Children’s Book Insider

Fans of SCBWI

Kansas/Missouri SCBWI

St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance

There are many more facebook pages related to children’s books and writing, including author, publisher and agent pages. Do a search to check out your favorite authors and books!

One hour a week—become more familiar with twitter and Instagram.

And schedule time to write every day! If I put it on my calendar I will do it!
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