[Philip Bump posted a guide for][1] The Atlantic Wire on how to use encryption to hide your activity from the NSA. Except it’s a pretty shit guide. [Instead Micah Lee has a great guide][2] for the Freedom of the Press Foundation and [Tactical Tech has another nice outline][3] with guides for good secure software usage.
The latter two guides are far better than the first, but the gist of all of them (and [as I have said before][4]) is that truly secure communications is hard, cumbersome, and requires both parties to be using it. That latter is the hardest obstacle to overcome.
[1]: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/07/so-you-want-hide-nsa-your-guide-nearly-impossible/66942/
[2]: https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/encryption-works
[3]: https://alternatives.tacticaltech.org
[4]: https://brooksreview.net/2013/06/encrypting-stuff-against-starbucks-hacker-bob/