For quite a while now, I’ve been fascinated by Elon Musk’s (as well as his teams’) ability to accomplish incredibly difficult things — often on a ridiculous schedule.
As the founder of electric vehicle companies Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink his net worth exceeded $185 billion recently and become the world’s richest man. Now the question comes, how to be as productive as Elon Musk. That is what we are here for. We will reveal some of the things Elon Musk does to be more productive.
Let’s get straight to the point.
- Start by doing the most important thing
For Elon Musk, the important thing to do in the morning is replying to the email. Many people may not understand why replying to email is an important thing. Being the leader of multiple companies, Elon Musk fully understands he is responsible to set the milestone of every day’s work for his teams. If the teams fail to receive the response or clear direction from him, they will not be able to have a productive day to meet the schedule. Therefore, Elon Musk will start replying to email around 7 am every morning to answer questions, give orders, direction, set goals for the day and have a clear work distribution. This allows not only himself to work effectively through the day and his team can also have a productive day under his command.
2. Sincerely accept feedback and criticism
Most people don’t like having their flaws pointed out to them. But the fact is that other people often see our shortcomings more clearly than we do. Being a leader and with lots to achieve, Elon Musk doesn’t have time wasting on things that are not workable or meaningless. Therefore, he sincerely accepts feedback and criticism to figure out ways to improve. He also loves to hire experts who can constantly provide high-quality feedback and facts to help them improve. In this way, Elon Musk and his teams can focus on the right thing and develop on the right track.
3. First-principles thinking
First-principles thinking is one of the most effective strategies that can be used to decompose complex problems and generate original solutions. This may also be the best way to think creatively.
In 2002, Elon Musk began looking for a way to launch the first rocket to Mars. After visiting many aerospace manufacturers around the world, he discovered that the cost of buying a rocket is astronomical, up to 65 million U.S. dollars. Considering the high price, he began to reconsider the problem using first principles: What is a rocket made of? and What is the value of the material in the market? Facts have proved that the rocket’s material cost is approximately 2% of the price of a rocket. Therefore, Musk did not buy finished rockets for tens of millions of dollars, instead, he decided to create his own company and build the rockets himself. In just a few years, SpaceX has reduced the price of launch rockets by nearly 10 times while still being profitable.
Musk used first-principles thinking to decompose the situation into basic principles, bypassing the high prices of the aerospace industry, and creating more effective solutions. First-principles thinking is the act of simplifying the process to the basic parts of the truth that you know and rebuilding from there.
4. Use asynchronous communication
Simply put, asynchronous communication is when you send a message without expecting an immediate response. For example, you send an email. People open and respond to the email several hours later. In contrast, synchronous communication is when you send a message and the recipient processes the information and responds immediately. In-person communication, like meetings, are examples of purely synchronous communication.
By using asynchronous communication, people can have better control over their time. They can choose the right time to respond without being interrupted. Also, people have the time to think through a particular problem or idea and provide more thoughtful and high-quality responses.
5. Strategic multitasking
Some people think multitasking hurts more than it helps. Research has also shown the more you divide your attention through multitasking, the more your productivity decreases. For Elon Musk, who with a lot on his plate, multitasking is unavoidable. He will first find out the tasks that have to be done throughout the day, prioritise and plan what can be grouped and handle them as a batch. The tasks requiring the same mindset will be put into one group. This is known as batching. This enables your brain to focus on a single type of job. For example, you can tackle all the tasks related to communication in one sitting. Like you can make calls and at the same time, check your emails. Basic tasks like eating can be done in between these. The right way to multitask may achieve great results and minimise distraction.
6. “Time Blocking” Method
Being the chief of three big companies isn’t an easy task. He has to optimize his time to get the most efficiency out of his work. Using the time blocking method, Musk intentionally plans his day out in five-minute increments or ‘time blocks.’ Each time block is assigned with a specific task or activity including replies to overdue emails, meals and work meetings. This is known as Elon Musk’s 5-minute rule to many people.
He will also use 20% of his time the day before to plan for his 80% work time. Therefore, the moment he leaves his bed, his day is already pre-planned in advance. There’s no room for random interruptions and there are no blocks of time left unscheduled.
7. Set challenging goals
Elon Musk is famous for setting unbelievable goals for himself and his company. Even to this day, Musk isn’t satisfied with his achievements. There’s still a better way to do things and always room for improvement is what he thinks.
For setting goals, he will usually rate and scale the difficulties for his current goals, then increase the rate in order to make these goals a lot bigger and more difficult. He believes this will result in mind-blowing inventions and change people’s minds. This could also help prevent staying in the comfort zone and keep doing the same things repeatedly. If you’ve set 5 challenging goals, but you can only achieve 2–3 of them, you’ve also surpassed those who didn’t even try or think about it at the beginning.
8. Spend time alone
Elon Musk said he “gets a lot of his ideas during long showers or late at night pacing around the house.” Especially if you have thought long and hard all day about a problem, jumping into the shower can turn into what scientists call the “incubation period” for your ideas. The subconscious mind has been working extremely hard to solve the problems you face and now that you let your mind wander, it can surface and plant those ideas into your conscious mind. Therefore, enough with the reading, go take a walk and spend some quality time alone with yourself, creativity and productivity will start following.