How to stay productive as an animal advocate.

Cruelty never sleeps and neither should your work as an animal advocate.

That doesn’t mean you have to constantly work and not play or rest, but that you must learn how to stay productive and smart.

In my 6 years of doing this work, I have tested various ways and ideas that got recommended to me, but only a few stayed. Only a handful actually turned out to be helpful.

I want to share these with you. My hope is that our voice is never silent and always heard by someone somewhere on the internet. Because the internet never sleeps (same as cruelty which sometimes goes hand in hand but let’s not go there today).

This post is mainly being written for those who use social media and/or write a blog to spread the awareness of animal abuse and exploitation. Maybe it could work for others as well but that’s for you to judge.

To give you what you came here for here is how to stay productive as an animal advocate:

• Innovate and expand.

Talking about the same damn thing over and over again can certainly take away the joy you felt in the beginning.

To avoid the resentment towards your work that could creep inside your heart, get curious. If you always talk about slaughterhouses and dairy farms, try creating content on the topic of lab experiments, puppy mills or exploitation of honey bees.

Or talk about mental health, share recipes and make daily vlogs about your vegan lifestyle. Just go out there, away from the comfort zone that bores you, and talk about shit that you’ve never talked about! 

You are more productive when you are enjoying the work you’re doing.

• Schedule.

Back when I was still an avid user of Twitter, I used Buffer and Hootsuite religiously.

It took me less than 20 minutes to schedule my feed for a month in advance. Afterwards, I was free to focus on things that actually made me happy and I would only log in when I wanted to post a message in real-time or to check if anyone retweeted me.

Now, I only automate my posts which are sometimes scheduled for months ahead – this post is being written on 19th of August 2020 at 02.31 by the way and who knows when it will go out. 

There are many great online tools out there – many with free plans as well – that you can try for yourself. Don’t be scared of automation, it’s the future after all.

• Don’t be fake.

Who can be productive if they have to first perfect the persona that will be projected into the world?

It’s one thing to be private and not wanting to share your personal thoughts, but nothing brings you down more easily than pretending to be someone you are not (yet).

What are your values? Like those really important values that you live by every day? Are you living according to them every day?

If you continue playing a role you will eventually forget the pose and be exposed. If you are struggling with productivity now wait until you lose everything because of your fakeness and have to start all over again.

• Listen to your brain, not your body.

There are days when you probably feel tired af. 

You want to sleep all day, watch romcoms and not answer your phone. That’s all fine but is this what you need or what you feel like you need? Or are you just not motivated and you are masking laziness with tiredness?

Be aware of the real reasons why you procrastinate and if you realize that tiredness is just one of many tricks your brain has in store, get up and do the job.

You can wait for motivation and inspiration, or you can start the work, push yourself through it and then the will to act will return.

• Make notes.

Do you have a phone? Do you own a pen and paper? Excellent! You have everything you need to become more productive.

Wherever you go, stay conscious of the ideas that pop into your head. Write them down and use them when you are creating that piece of art that only you can do so well.

What a waste of your imagination and knowledge if you forget all the brilliant things you come up with when you are hiking, shopping or borrowing books in the library.

Write everything down, let no idea go unnoticed.

I can promise you that if you just give a few weeks of testing to one of these ideas you will find yourself to be more productive. 

I am very inspired by Earthling Ed who seems to be always working and coming out with new ideas all the time to help our fellow animals. It is because he figured out what makes him productive – what works for his personality and goals.

This planet is in desperate need of people who will not give up. It craves leaders and motivators and visionaries. Not just those who have millions of followers and huge companies, but people like you and me. 

Find your way. Search for your green light and when you find it, follow it. 

If you want more tips like these and if you are interested in creating a sustainable eco-vegan lifestyle please make sure you are following me on Pinterest and Instagram.

Tanja