My name is Hope Dlugozima and I run community and social media for the Mother Nature Network. My work specializes in the environment, sustainability, conscious living and protecting the Earth. I have a passion for anything locally grown, carved, forged, brewed and crafted. I use Flipboard because it represents the best of visual thinkers from throughout the Web.  With a few clicks, I have access to the most relevant, deeply read and recommended topics in many verticals. The first few sites I read in the morning include Flipboard, Slate, The Guardian, The Atlantic, the Nature Conservancy, and, I admit, Little Things. The purpose of my work is to share stories of people working to support the Earth—and offer practical advice for all of us to participate. What makes Mother Nature different is being on the front lines of sustainability and environmentalism, we have a great optimism for what’s ahead. We know who’s fighting for the planet and we have great trust in them. The best article I read all week was “EU soars past its 2020 carbon cutting goal 6 years early.” You might think my favorite topic on Flipboard is the environment, but it’s actually self-improvement—making yourself strong makes the world around you stronger, too.   Someone I admire from a different discipline is Elon Musk because he creates instead of just bemoaning. A unique productivity tip of mine is to drink your one cup of coffee at the right time of the day. Don’t waste it at 6:30 in the morning…drink it at, say, 9 and you’ll have a surge of creativity until lunch! One issue that needs more attention concerns strong communities. You need to make sure your dollars go into building that community. Stop going to discount stores to save a buck on another T-shirt (that you probably don’t need anyway). Instead, spend that dollar on a business or service that you believe strengthens your town. If I could offer one piece of advice to my younger self, it would be go off the grid, leave your jobs behind, become self-sufficient, live in a solar-powered log cabin—those were the dreams of my younger self and are the dreams of my present self, too! ~ShonaS is curating Media Message