An App to Help You Stay Sane While You’re Staying Woke

Ever since the election there’s been a cloud of impending doom hanging over many of us. If you’re like me, dread has a not-so-healthy side-serving of obsession that goes along with it. I’ve gone from being a casual facebook user to checking multiple times a day, scanning for evidence that everything is going to be ok. This a big time-waster – because, really, there is never enough good news on facebook to reassure me. Just as bad — it causes a big stress buildup which is both mentally and physically harmful.

Kick the “Breaking News” Habit

So I’m going to go all out to kick the habit. But if I don’t follow the news all day – and there seems to be “breaking news” every few minutes – how will I stay woke (shorthand for: how will I fulfill my responsibility to fight for our democratic ideals)?

Get Countable!

If this dilemma hits home to you at all, I have an App to recommend that will help you streamline your efforts. The App is called Countable. It’s a great little tool that brings together all federal legislative happenings in one place. Yes!

Here are the key advantages: It gives you a weekly briefing on what bills are coming up for vote in Congress. It tells you how your senators and representatives have voted. I recently learned through this that my congressman has simply not voted on a number of recent bills – which raises a red flag right there. And it gives you a one-touch way to connect with those representatives.

There are lots of other nifty parts to this that provide more detail. You can customize to shape the info you receive. Daily postings of news articles on issues that interest you. Connections to organizations working on those issues.

Stay Strong!

Of course, in the end, gathering info, no matter how streamlined, is not enough. You gotta make those calls to your elected representatives to let them know your concerns. But take action to avoid post-election burnout. Stay strong!

Share your tools for streamlining your news.