I hope you’re off to a super-productive new year! The following is the first guest post from my colleague, mentor and sister, Shari Voigt, marketing director for our team collaborative Zero To Sixty Marketing LLC. Look forward to many more insightful posts from Shari soon.

Checkered flag.Every successful entrepreneur quickly learns that busyness is easily confused with productivity. But they’re not the same thing – not by a long shot.

For me, productivity means that I’m producing something billable, working on a website marketing strategy, developing a product, or brainstorming with a client or team member. Busyness is all the stuff that wants to happen in between. I’m sure you’ll agree – there’s a lot of ‘stuff’ we can all easily get caught up in. Most of it does nothing to move our businesses forward.

So how do you stay focused on the important, and keep those ‘busy’ distractions to a minimum?

Start With a Task List

The tried and true task list is a good place to start. Just don’t make today’s task list a mile long. What are two or three things that MUST be accomplished today?

Use a Timer

I have a countdown timer on my Android and it’s in use constantly. Before that, I used a simple kitchen timer. I use it to limit the time I spend writing blog posts – 10 minutes to free write, 10 minutes to polish, 10 minutes to fuel up for the next blog post. Thanks to Ed Dale for that tip. Works like a charm.

Also use the timer to limit time spent on Twitter and Facebook. I need to follow my own advice here, but 10 minutes in the morning and another 10 minutes at the end of the day is enough to make a difference.

One hour chunks of time work best for client work and product development. Set the timer, turn off all distractions, and close your office door if necessary. It’s the opposite of multi-tasking, and much more effective if the goal is to improve your productivity.

How do you stay focused? Please share your best tips and tools in the comments below: