Working in nonprofit marketing and communication teaches us many things, but perhaps most importantly, that we’re all in this together. No matter the size or type of our organizations, we face similar challenges every day. As a nonprofit marketer we strive to advance our missions with limited budgets and manpower, juggling multiple priorities and often battling misconceptions about the value of good marketing.

Some days are tougher than others. On those challenging days, it can be helpful to recall a few key affirmations that have helped me through my years in nonprofit marketing:

I am a Nonprofit Marketer and…

1. “I can do hard things.”

This might sound a bit cliché, like something out of a motivational poster, but it’s a vital reminder. We are stretched thin at times. Have competing priorities. Outlandish external expectations. A new process, project, software, audience, or leadership idea. Every new challenge seems daunting at first, but remember, it’s always hard, until it isn’t. Remind yourself why the work is necessary, focus on the goal, and push through the discomfort (within reason). It’s through these challenges that we grow.

2. “I was selected to be here.”

You’re here because you have something valuable to contribute and because you understand this discipline—perhaps better than anyone else in your organization. Often, as nonprofit marketers we find ourselves defending our work, budgets, strategies, or the necessity of our roles, especially in nonprofits where the importance of marketing and communications can be underestimated or misunderstood. Embrace your role as the subject matter expert in communications and marketing.

Remember, you were chosen for this position to offer crucial insights and drive your organization’s mission forward. Even if your role is multifaceted, remember that someone trusted you to manage this vital area. Own it, nurture it, and speak with authority.

3. “Spend the money.”

When you are a nonprofit marketer, it’s natural to want to save as much as possible to direct funds towards your cause. However, investing in the right tools, education, and marketing strategies is crucial. Effective outreach requires resources, and being too frugal can mean missing out on opportunities to amplify your message and impact.

4. “Embrace failure.”

Not every initiative will be a success, and that’s okay. Each failure is a lesson in disguise. If you’re not failing, you’re likely not innovating or pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Recognize that every setback is a step forward in disguise, giving us lessons that can refine your strategies and improve future outcomes.

For instance, if a fundraising campaign doesn’t meet its target, instead of viewing it as a setback, see it as a chance to analyze what didn’t work and why. Perhaps the promotional methods didn’t resonate with your audience, or the timing was off. Remember, the path to success is often paved with lessons learned from failure—embrace it as part of your growth journey.

5. “My mask first.”

Working as a nonprofit marketer often means putting others first, but you can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself, set boundaries, and ensure you’re not heading towards burnout. It’s not selfish; it’s necessary. Make self-care a priority, not an afterthought. By maintaining your well-being, you ensure you have the energy and clarity to give your best to the causes you champion. Just like in airplane safety, securing your mask first is essential before assisting others.

Remember these affirmations, especially on the tough days. What you do is crucial, and sometimes, just reminding yourself of these simple truths can provide the strength to persevere. Say it with me: “What I do is important and necessary!”

If you need a little more support, check out 10 Easy Ways to Lower Your Stress Levels or more tips on Balancing Mental Health in Nonprofit Marketing

I recently talked about multi-tasking and why it’s one of the forces working against your productivity) and tips on how to stay focused on a single task instead of bouncing around from one thing to another.

One way to stay on task is day theming.

It isn’t a new concept, but it’s pretty simple – each day is dedicated to a specific theme with specific tasks that fall under that theme.

This helps you stay focused on that task or set of tasks without being pulled in a million different directions.

To get started:

1. Decide on the broader categories of your work (see the ideas below)
2. Assign those categories to a day of the week
3. Write tasks for each theme (this breaks down the theme into smaller chunks making it more manageable)
4. Add the themes and tasks to your calendar

Day Theme Ideas for Nonprofit Communicators

• Content Creation Day
• Meeting Day
• Measurement/Metrics Day
• Email List Management Day
• Brainstorming Day
• Specific Project Day
• Working with Development Staff Day
• Plan/Strategy Day
• Big Picture Thinking Day
• Editorial Calendar/Scheduling Day
• Internal Affairs Day
• Technology Day
• Administrative Day
• Research/Reading Day
• Professional Development Day

While this is a great idea for a lot of people, you may need to adapt if you find it’s not working. You may need some of these themes every week while others only need to be looked at every month. You may need to save a couple of hours for miscellaneous things, etc.

But even if you can’t allot an entire day to one thing, you should still try to block out large chunks of time where you focus on one category and tasks related to that category.

The goal is to change our mindset around multi-tasking to prevent the burnout, inefficiency and all the other bad things that come with it. Day theming can help with that.

More resources:

• Day Theming Could Be The Productivity Power Tool You’ve Been Missing
• Theming Your Days
• How To Use Day Theming For Productivity
• Day Theming: What It Is, How It Works

There are lots of tools and best practices on productivity out there. I’ve written a few myself.

And there are also lots of people confusing productivity with being a workaholic. If you have been around Nonprofit Marketing Guide long enough, you know we preach a CALM not BUSY approach to nonprofit work. That includes peaceful time management and productivity.

Let’s just start with a simple fact you need to understand: You will never get it all done, and it’s time to be OK with that.

But it’s not you. It’s the workload, nonprofit culture, and how we’re trained to think about time management.

Instead of looking for the next best tool, today we are going to talk about how so much of today’s culture is designed to work against your productivity.

You need to be aware of the battle going on for your attention, focus, and energy before you can tackle any time management issues you may have.

Here are four of the biggest forces working against you:

1. The Myth of Multitasking

Our brains are not designed for multi-tasking. And yet, we proudly declare we are multi-taskers in job interviews or in meetings.

But we aren’t really multi-tasking, we are just jumping from one task to another back and forth over and over again until we maybe complete a few of the things we started.

Unfortunately, studies have shown when we multi-task, we are more likely to make mistakes and we are less efficient. Stress hormones are also released when we multi-task.

You can learn more about the dangers of multi-tasking in my post 9 Tips to Help You Celebrate Single-Tasking Day This Year.

2. Capitalism and Toxic Productivity

The culture of the United States is very results oriented. The best qualities in a business are growth and speed.

If you don’t achieve your goals, you’re told it’s because you weren’t working “hard” enough.

The truth is there will always be more work to do. You will never finish it all. You have to find out what your “enough” is.

Find out more in these posts:

• Toxic Productivity: Is There Such a Thing as Being Too Productive? 
• Are You Enough? When the Need for Self-Improvement Becomes a Bad Thing 
• Burned Out from Talking About Burnout 
• We Need to Talk about Our Toxic Obsession with Productivity

3. Software and Social Media Mind Games

Project management apps and social media especially are pushing you to spend more time on their apps or software. Whether it’s constant notifications or infinite scrolling, they want you to stay on their app.

Time spent on these platforms is a widely tracked metric used for ad buys and investor reports. This means the more time you spend on them, the more money they make (but the less time you spend actually working).

4. Nonprofit Martyr Culture

You are expected to make less, but do more because you work for a nonprofit. Your passion for the mission is what is supposed to sustain you. If you push back, you are told you don’t care enough about the children, environment, sick people, your community, etc.

For more on this, see Kivi’s post Cutting the Workaholic Martyr Crap Starts with You.

As you can see, the odds are stacked against you to be productive. Stop judging yourself when you can’t manage your to-do list. Focus on your capacity and not your productivity.

My car and porch are covered in pollen so spring has officially sprung. Time to clean out those cabinets, pantries, closets, and workspaces!

Yes, whether you are still working from home or not, it’s important you include your work area in your spring cleaning plans.

According to 7 Office Spring Cleaning Tips to Boost Productivity Happiness at Work, an organized work space can lead to:

• More Productivity
• A Happier Mood
• A Better Overall Impression

Here are some spring cleaning tips for work from Simple Steps to Spring Clean Your Office and 10 Tricks To Spring Clean Your Office:

1. Divide Your Workspace Into Zones

Organization expert Peter Walsh suggests you set up zones based on the different types of work you do daily – a work area with your computer, another area for research, and another place to store your supplies. Of course if you only have a desk in a cubicle you will need to have pretty small zones, but this theory will help you stay more organized regardless.

2. Declutter Files and Papers on Your Desk

Throw out sticky notes you never read and reports you don’t need. Use folders or binders to keep papers you do need organized. Use a bookcase or wall file to keep them off your desk.

3. Keep Only What You Need At Arm’s Length

Cluttered desk, cluttered mind, right? Time to take some inventory on what you keep on your desk. Keep extra supplies you don’t use often or paperwork you don’t need in their established zones off of your desk.

4. Create A Daily Paper System

Speaking of paperwork, separate it based on what you need to read, what needs action, and what needs to be filed. File baskets or even color coded folders can help you streamline this process. They suggest you then pick days of the weeks to tackle each type or paperwork so you don’t get overwhelmed.

5. Establish Limits

This is especially helpful if you are short on space. For example, give yourself one bookshelf. When it’s full, you have to get rid of a book. (I can hear some of you gasping, but chances are you do not have a bookshelf full of books you look at for work every day.)

6. Organize Your Desk Inside and Underneath

Throw out pens that don’t work anymore and put away those random loose paper clips. Wipe down those dusty cables under your desk and try a cord organizer if they are really messy.

7. Don’t Use E-Mail As A To-Do List

Time to take a look at your digital clutter too. Use filters or follow ups to keep your inbox manageable.

8. Streamline Your Desktop Icons

If your entire monitor is covered in icons, you may need to reassess. Create a digital filing system and keep the icons to those things you use daily.

9. Keep A Basket Or Drawer For Short-Term Storage

I appreciated this tip as it does allow you a bit of a catch-all for those things you still need, but don’t make the cut for the previous tips. This can be for things like magazines, your gym bag, tennis shoes for walking, etc.

10. Disinfect Regularly

For this post, I did some research on how dirty laptops can be aaaaand I really wish I hadn’t. [Leaves to go grab disinfectant] As I was saying, clean your laptops, phones, light switches, etc regularly. This will most likely lead to you also taking care of anything else that doesn’t belong on you desk.

I come across a lot of unusual “holidays” when creating the Monthly Nonprofit Writing Prompts email newsletter. While some of them are silly, they can still make good writing prompts like Optimist Day (February 3rd) or Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day (December 8th)

And then there are things like Wave All Your Fingers At Your Neighbors Day (February 7th) or International Cherry Pit Spitting Day (July 1st) which I can’t really do anything with.

As someone who usually has at least two browser windows with multiple tabs open in each at any given time, Single-Tasking Day (February 22nd) got my attention.

I want to share the principals behind it since we are constantly told multitasking is the ultimate display of productivity. (Keep reading to learn why that isn’t true)

The idea behind Single-Tasking Day is to focus on one thing at a time. Take a task, break it down, and be intentional about finishing it. While you can take a break, the goal is to minimize distractions and interruptions until the task is complete.

You can complete more than one task on this day, but you should only be focusing on one and finishing it before moving on.

Why is this important? Well because despite employers looking for people who can “multitask”, multiple studies show that multitasking is less productive and leaves us more exhausted:

• Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work from the Cleveland Clinic
• The Myth of Multitasking by Christine Rosen
• Multitasking makes us a little dumber by Jim Sollisch
• Multicosts of Multitasking by Kevin P. Madore, Ph.D. and Anthony D. Wagner, Ph.D.

(You’ll notice all of these articles are years old at this point and yet we still can’t get over our multitasking ways!)

In the article The Real Cost Of Context Switching [And How To Solve It], Dominic Kent says that every time we try to focus on two different things at the same time (content switching), we activate our “working memory.” Multitasking uses up the limited capacity of our working memory. This causes not only our brain to become fatigued, but our entire body to become fatigued.

“Think of losing focus every time you context switch like an injury.” ~ Dominic Kent

These constant switches in focus have an adverse impact on your brain. You aren’t being productive, you’re just confusing your brain!

So this Thursday, February 22nd, let’s celebrate Single-Tasking Day!

Here are some tips to transition from multitasking to single-tasking:

1. Tell others what you are doing so they can leave you alone.
2. Only have one browser tab open. (Or if you are doing research, etc only have those with relevant content open)
3. Shut down email.
4. Turn off your phone (or at least silence it).
5. Turn off all other notifications.
6. Do a Brain Dump.
7. Group and prioritize your tasks.
8. Or pick that “ONE” thing you just can’t seem to stay focused on, but needs to get done.
9. Use the ol’ Pomodoro Technique. (Focus on a single task for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break.)
10. Take breaks away from your computer. (Do not use this time to check email, etc or your will get distracted).

For a lot of us, this is completely foreign way of doing things and will take some practice. Your brain is incredibly good at learning patterns meaning it will interrupt your train of thought because it thinks you need to check your email or look at your phone.

You may need to retrain your brain. Time how long it takes for your brain to interrupt you single tasking for a few days. Then start setting a timer for a few minutes longer that that for each task. The theory is your brain will eventually go longer and longer between distracting you with thoughts of Instagram and text messages.

Eventually single-tasking can become something we do all the time and not just on February 22nd!

PLEASE NOTE: The purpose of this article is to help those who do not normally think about their mental health and remind those of us who already deal with issues to pay attention to signs we may be burning out and need a break from work. If you feel like you may be dealing with more than just stress at work, taking a mental health day away from your nonprofit won’t be enough. Please, please, please contact a professional who can help you.

I originally wrote this in 2019 and would like to think that we are better about caring for our mental health than we were back then. But then I saw this survey that says only about half of us feel that mental health days are “absolutely necessary.” And Boomers are most likely to feel that way (51.7%) and Gen Z is the least likely to feel that way (36.4%) completely throwing me for a loop. So much for all those videos making fun of Gen Z for not working just because they didn’t feel like it.

Anyway, no matter your age, your mental health should be as important as your physical health. You wouldn’t go to work with a fever so you shouldn’t go to work if you are suffering mentally either.

Why should it be as important? Well take a look at how workplace stress can affect your health:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Depression
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Obesity and eating disorders
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Weak immune system

So workplace stress can lead to actual physical issues that will most certainly keep you out of work. And as nonprofit communicators, you also have the added pressure of “saving the world” – the martyr complex is strong within our industry. But are you really doing your best work if you are stressed all the time?

We have lots of studies showing that breaks actually help you stay fresh and get more done.

Breaks are Essential to Employee Engagement

What workaholics can learn from triathletes about being productive.

Worried About Productivity? Studies Suggest Taking More Breaks

The advantages of taking work breaks to boost productivity.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Benjamin Franklin

When You Should Take a Mental Health Day

Here are a few signs it’s time for a mental health day.

• You’re exhausted or you can’t sleep.
• You dread going to work every day.
• You can’t turn off your mind when you get home.
• You’re more anxious than usual.
• You can’t focus.
• You are irritable or impatient.
• You don’t care about your job anymore.
• You are distracted by something outside of work that needs attention.

You should not use a mental health day to avoid your boss after you made a mistake or just don’t feel like listening to your co-workers. That’s a whole different article.

Resources:

Signs That You Need a Mental Health Day

9 Signs You Need a Mental Health Day

The Signs That Say You Should Take a Mental Health Day — and How to Do It

8 Signs You Need To Take A Mental-Health Day Right Now

How to Know When to Take a Mental Health Day

What to Do on Your Mental Health Day

If you have decided a mental health day could do you some good, here are some things you can do to make the best of it.

• Schedule it ahead of time and tell your co-workers.
• Take it after completing a big project. (If you do it during, you’re just going to stress about it at home.)
• Find out what you need most. (Are you exhausted, tense, angry? How you spend your day should help relieve your biggest issue)
• Make a plan, but not necessarily a to-do list (Don’t use this day to get your car worked on, etc).
• You can still rest, but get out of bed if you can.
• Eat breakfast and lunch.
• Get moving – exercise, go for a walk.
• Learn some breathing or meditation techniques.
• Get outside if you can.
• Meet friends.
• List things that drain your energy at work and see if you can remove them.
• Make an appointment with a therapist.

I also have 18 more specific things you can do on your mental health day.

Resources:

The 12 Best Ways to Spend a Mental Health Day (According to a Therapist)

When and How to Take a Mental Health Day

Here’s Why You Should Take Mental Health Days

Recharge with a planned mental health day

How to take a mental health day.

6 Ways to Take a Better Mental Health Day