Of course if you are the type who is easily distracted, hate where you live, and the concept of time management escapes you easier than quantum physics, well then, working at home can be a personal hell for you. And worse yet, for your boss if you are not producing results. If he doesn’t catch on to your game right away, he eventually will.

For me personally, self-motivation and loyalty to my job and coworkers are some of my strongest traits when it comes to work, which makes a person a good candidate for telecommuting. (It also doesn’t hurt that everyone here at YNOT trusts each other to do their best work and leaves them to it!) So yes, working at home for people like me is a perfect case scenario where the job is concerned. But what about your personal life and physical and mental well-being? Perhaps you enjoy your work too much and are never able to just “shut it off” sometimes. This can be detrimental in that you can suffer from burnout, blur the lines of home life and work life, and worse yet, let your health, physical appearance and general happiness fall by the wayside.

I enjoy social interaction greatly but need to stay focused when on the job to make sure that deadlines are met and that the work is top quality. I am also prone to falling into ruts just like anyone else. This week I have put together a list of tips to help get you (as well as myself) back on track for the healthiest at-home work environment. Considering I still find myself from time to time not eating or showering until well into the afternoon hours, but am making a point of doing some form of exercise and outside social arrangement a few times every week, habits can be hard to break!

1. Make sure you are stocked up on supplies.

Chances are you won’t need them very often (especially if you work in a truly paperless environment), but pens, paper, stamps, envelopes, etc… having general office supplies at home is always a good thing.

2. Stay in constant contact with your coworkers.

Whether by email, phone, ICQ or whatever, it always helps to let everyone know what you are up to from time to time. I’m not saying that you should have to give everyone constant updates and status reports (unless of course it is requested of you) but just because you are out of sight shouldn’t mean out of mind. Besides, at the very least, joking around with your coworkers or business associates or simply picking up the phone occasionally can provide a nice break in the day and at the very least let everyone know that you are alive. The productivity should speak for itself.

3. Take care of yourself.

I’m not saying go and get a gym membership, or count your calories necessarily, but skipping breakfast and sitting on your ass all day can have long term detrimental effects to your metabolism, health and general well-being. Get up from your desk every few hours. Take a walk. Buy hand weights. Eat small meals throughout the day as opposed to one or two huge ones. If you lead a strictly sedentary lifestyle, rationing out your caloric intake over the whole day is much better for you than taking in a few thousand in one sitting.

4. Turn it off.

If at all possible, designate a time period (not talking about when you are asleep either!) where you don’t check emails, voicemails, stats or chat boards. Reserve that time for you, your family and your friends. If all of your friends are associated with the industry maybe you should try to work on some outside interests and hobbies so that you have some friends who aren’t involved with your work. If you really do want to have a balance between your work life and your personal life while working at home, shut down your computer from time to time, get out of the house, and do something that doesn’t involve your computer or physical workspace. I personally like to clean up my work area, shut down my computer and put a dust cover over my monitor. Reminds me to take a break and focus on other things important in my life.

5. Go to the office.

Yes, I am guilty of this one, big time, especially in light of the fact that YNOTMASTERS recently acquired a beautiful Los Angeles office. So, if you do have the option to go to an office, do it! If it’s an issue of making your space at the office ready to go (supplies in order, computer hooked up, important files and software loaded, etc.) find time to get everything set up. Designate at least one day a week to go to the office.

6. Befriend your tech guy.

If you aren’t the technical sort, be prepared to feel very isolated if you encounter any technical problems. There’s nothing worse than feeling helpless when your ISP is down or you are having email problems, or your system crashes, or something else wrong happens that you simply can’t figure out. Not only does it cut into productivity, but stressing out about it can make you sick. Believe me, I’ve been there. Be sure to back up everything important, install anti-virus and firewall software, don’t ever open up any suspect files, run disk cleanup and defrag from time to time, and basically just use common sense. If troubleshooting isn’t your thing, you are best advised to have a list of phone numbers for tech support, whether it be someone in your company, a good friend, or whomever knows more than you do.

7. Get ready.

It’s always good to be ready. Ready for what? Ready for anything! Maybe you might have a last minute lunch meeting, or perhaps some other social opportunity. This is another concept I am especially guilty of not following. I have found that it saves you lots of time (and makes you feel better) if you shower and get dressed in the morning whether you plan on leaving the house or not that day. Sure, there are days that I get up and go straight to my computer at 7:00 a.m. and there I sit until 2:00 p.m., working before I take my first break and do anything hygenic or something not work related. Okay, before I give away too much information here and disgust you further, I’m sure you can agree that this can be an easy rut to fall into.

8. Reconsider if you have too many distractions.

If you are the type that can’t miss a Springer episode or Days Of Our Lives given your freedom, or perhaps you can’t stop playing with or trying to manage your kids now that you have fired your baby sitter, you may want to reconsider whether working at home is your best option. If you don’t have an office to go to, you may want to get a laptop and plug in at a café, or perhaps look into renting or sharing space outside of your home with someone else.

I hope these tips work for you whether you are brand new to working at home, or an old pro at it and looking for a primer to help you get back on track. Either way, refer to this article often… I know I will!

In this week’s issue we have a powerhouse of contributors… some people whom I greatly respect and love!

For starters, we have attorneys Larry Walters from FirstAmendment.com (and now the newly launched AdultIndustryUpdate.com) and Richard Chapo from AdultInternetLaw.com, with an industry update for March and important information regarding law enforcement against online pharmacy sites, respectively. Both of these articles pack a serious wallop and should be devoured by every adult Webmaster out there. At the very least both of these guys have a great sense of humor (yes, attorneys can be VERY funny!) that comes out in their writing style and should be enjoyed by everyone.

Also this week we have two major KSEXRadio.com personalities: my good friend Wankus (who also manages TopProTalent.com), who is on the air every day of the week and supplies us with a very interesting political article, and my new found friend Flexx from NubianX.com who has a show on KSEX and gives us his inaugural YNOTNews article dealing with marketing to fans of ebony erotica. You can learn a lot from these guys, as well as always having a good time in their presence. Which reminds me… I need to drag my ass back up to the KSEX studios. It’s impossible NOT to have a good time up there.

Don’t forget to check out our exclusive interview this week with Kath Blackwell, newly appointed Senior Writer for Klixxx Magazine. She is a real gem in our business. Be sure to send her gifts congratulating her on her new position and get on her good side if you haven’t already. Remember, it can never hurt to send gifts and offer perks to editors and writers of major adult Internet publications! (HINT, HINT…)

As always, be sure to check out our smoking hot models of the week, and all of the submitted press releases and announcements that come our way. There’s a lot going on in our industry at all times, so there is no excuse to be missing out! If you have any comments or suggestions about how YNOTNews can better serve you, or just have some general feedback, you can always email me at editor@ynotnews.com.

And finally, I’m looking for writers interested in helping out with covering seminars at the upcoming Phoenix Forum and NYC Expo for YNOTNews, and getting some free advertising to over 10,000 double-opt-in Webmasters! Again, hit me up at editor@ynotnews.com to find out how.

Enjoy this issue! – LAJ

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOTNews and the Communications Director for YNOTMasters and enjoys working from home. Chances are if you talk to him during the day he’s still in his underwear. Jay can be reached at editor@ynotnews.com and jay@ynotmasters.com.

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