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According to dictionary.com one of the meanings of productivity is 'producing or tending to produce goods and services having exchange value' but when you held down a 9 to 5 job out there in the real world the chances are that any reference to productivity that you might have heard had more to do with how hard you were or weren't working.

For managers and business owners productivity is important and if an employee isn't producing the goods ... whatever they might be ... then he's not earning his wages and the bottom line of the company or business is going to suffer. So the heat is always on to get employees to work hard and be productive.

Of course all that heat that gets applied to employees is one of the reasons that so many people want to leave their paid jobs and come over to adult marketing. The rest of the world seems to think that life here in adult marketing is much more relaxed ... you don't have to work 9 to 5 ... you can work at your own pace ... and you don't have supervisors or business owners breathing down your neck to be more productive.

It must look like heaven to those people stuck in low-paying high-stress jobs and when they get here they try to live that lifestyle that they've always dreamed about. Sadly though it really is only a dream and the reality here is quite different.

Here in adult marketing we really do need to be productive because if we don't work to earn the money then no one else is going to pay us. There's no paycheck at the end of the week or the end of the month if we've done nothing to earn that money and even if we do work hard there's no guarantee that we're make any sales or earn any money at all.

So, rather than freeing ourselves from the need to be continually productive, if you want to succeed here in this industry you have to become even more productive than you might have been before. Instead of leaving the worry of productivity up to someone else over here being productive is something that you have to keep in mind all the time.

Get serious
So how do you be productive? Well for a start don't be fooled into believing that this is anything but a very serious business and it's one that you really do have to work at. If you think you can be an adult webmaster and do all your work from a laptop on the couch in front of the television then it's time to take a cold shower.

You need to work somewhere that you won't be disturbed by the other things that are going on in your house or apartment. The more distractions there are going on around you the more chances you have of making mistakes and the time taken to go back and correct those mistakes is time wasted and when time is money you're basically wasting no one else's money but your own.

Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't go back and correct your mistakes; it just means that you should try to work in an environment where you can concentrate on what you're doing and have minimal distractions.

Get comfortable
You also need to work somewhere that you're comfortable and that does not mean that you should be working on the couch. What it does mean is that you should work at a desk or table that is at the right height for you and you should use a good office chair that can be adjusted to suit your particular physical requirements.

You're going to spend a great deal of your life sitting at that desk or table and in that chair so make sure they're comfortable and support your body. Working at a table or desk that is not the right height for you and using a chair that is not suitable for the use you're putting it to can damage your body and severely limit the amount of work you can do in a day.

Most of the damage that can be done in this way cannot be repaired and can lead to a lifetime of pain and there is nothing more damaging to your productivity than pain.

Give yourself a break
Remember to take regular breaks every hour. I know it's so easy just to stay glued to your monitor and keyboard ... and we all do it ... but our bodies ... and especially our eyes ... can't cope with that continual workload. So get up out of your chair every hour and take a 10 minute break right away from the computer.

Do some housework, wander around the garden, goof off ... just do something that's completely different to what you had been doing so that your body has a chance to have a break and prepare itself for the next hour of hard work.

And that's where I'll leave it today. I've really just touched on a few of the points about productivity that we all should be considering - there are a lot more to come. And if you're thinking that productivity is just not something that you have to deal with in this industry then don't be surprised if you don't last long because, when you're self-employed, productivity is one of the most important aspects of your survival.

I'll be back tomorrow to talk some more about productivity.