Elon Musk has great ambition and drive, and is smarter than the average person. But we - mere mortals - can incorporate some of his productivity secrets into our daily lives.

Here are Elon Musk’s top 10 productivity tips and how to apply them:

1. Start your day with key tasks

As CEO of three companies - Tesla, SpaceX - Elon Musk has a lot to do every day.

That's why he starts his day with the most critical tasks. For Musk, this means working on the important emails he needs to deal with in order to unblock the work and progress of others.

He usually starts working at 7 a.m. and spends at least half an hour answering important emails. Musk carefully filters out all unimportant content and only focuses on the most important items.

In his own words, USC commencement speech:

“Focus on signal noise. Don’t waste your time on things that don’t actually make things better. . ”

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Find the most important task and tackle it first. Your priority should be the only thing you can create that will have the greatest impact on your work.

For example:

My most important task is to write great content. So I always start writing by sitting down. I don't move on to the next task until I've written at least 10?00 words.

What is your most important task? Use the 80/20 rule to help you figure it out and get into the habit of doing it before you do anything else.

2 Use feedback loops

Musk has a very tight schedule and usually works in a different location every day. That's why he's always working to optimize his time.

While admitting he hasn’t read a book on time management, Musk shared some insightful advice on how to get better:

“I think it’s It's very important to have a feedback loop where you're constantly thinking about what you're doing and how you can do it better. I think that's the best advice: keep thinking about how you can do it better and question yourself.

Musk not only incorporates his own feedback, but also other feedback: While it may be painful at first, he urges entrepreneurs to get more out of it. p>

He also focuses on hiring the best people in any field who can provide consistent and authentic feedback

Shortening feedback loops increases efficiency, speeds implementation, and improves product quality.

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The great thing about Elon Musk The secret to productivity is that it works for both your professional and personal life

Gather your team and ask for feedback on a specific product, feature, management style, business process, or whatever you are currently trying to improve.

“Don’t tell me what you like, tell me. What you don't like. ”

You can do the same exercise with a friend. Even though the negative feedback may be wrong, you know they are just trying to help you and that it means well.

3 Reasons for First Principles

A first principle is a basic assumption that cannot be derived from any other proposition. It is the only certain thing in a complex problem.

Horse. sk reasons from first principles rather than by analogy (e.g. previous experience). This way you build your reasoning from scratch:

"You look at the first principles and then build your reasoning from them , and then see if you have a conclusion that works or doesn't work. This may be different from what people have done in the past. However, it is difficult to think this way. ”

Here’s an example of first-principle reasoning, from Musk himself: “What are rockets made of?” Aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, plus some titanium, copper and carbon fiber. Then I asked, what is the value of these materials in the commodity market? It turns out that the material cost of the rocket is about two percent of the typical price. ”

Instead of buying rockets for millions of dollars, Musk decided to buy raw materials at cheap prices and then build the rockets himself in his own company.

SpaceX was born .

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First principles reasoning forces you to think differently about root cause problems. You must break down the problem into its essential elements. .

Applying this thought framework can be broken down into three main steps:

Identify and define your current assumptions: When faced with a problem, write down your current assumptions.

< p> Break it down into basic principles: Find the most basic facts or elements of the problem.

In the words of Musk: "Bottom things down to their most basic facts and say 'OK, what do we believe to be true'...and then extrapolate from that."

Create new solutions: If you followed the first two steps to deconstruct the problem, you are now ready to create a new solution from scratch.

4 Use Asynchronous Communication

This first productivity tip gives you a tip: Musk likes to communicate on his own terms. This means that two asynchronous communication methods, email and text, are used by default.

In his own words:

"I do like email. I try to communicate asynchronously whenever possible. I'm really good at email."

Him You also make it difficult to reach people outside your company by using an obscure email address.

This allows him to focus on the actual work of the company.

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Progress comes from focusing and performing deep work. This means living as asynchronously as possible and minimizing distractions between colleagues.

Here are three solutions to get started on your terms (in order of difficulty):

Turn off notifications: Turn off all notifications on your phone, computer and any other gadget you use notify. If it's really important, people will call.

Say no to a meeting: Do not agree to a meeting unless there is a clear agenda and you know the expected results. If possible, please use email instead.

Remote work: A noisy office means distraction, while working from home means silence. If that's not possible, seek a private office.

Minimize distractions in your daily life so you can make progress on meaningful work.

5 Master Communicators

When Musk is not building rockets or changing the auto industry, he can always be found in one place: through email. He joked at a conference: "I email a lot - I'm very good at email. That's my core competency".

He writes emails very clearly, concisely, and directly. For example, read the email sent to all employees about the use of abbreviations.

He frequently sends updates to his entire company on how to communicate, the company's vision and mission, and to improve productivity.

"People work better when they know what their goals are and why. It's important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy their work."

He is also a public speaker A master who uses real sounds to translate complex concepts into easy-to-understand language. Musk often uses the present tense when talking about visionary topics, a linguistic technique that inspires listeners to feel the future.

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According to Carleton University research, a “typical” knowledge worker spends one-third of their work week on email. That's why mastering communication via email is an art form.

You want to be concise while still getting your message across. In email, every word counts. Here are some tips on how to master communications via email:

Keep it short: Don’t write ten sentences when two will suffice. To practice, write an email in the normal way and then edit it to half the words

Avoid slang: Avoid using passive voice or any adverbs that waste your and your recipient's time Create confusion by writing "I feel", "I'm not sure", "maybe"

Know what you want: Think about the desired outcome of the email and first address it in plain language Make an overview. By way of exercise, this outline is your email

Emphasize the important: If you need a reply from a specific person in a multi-person thread, put their name in bold plus the action item and time Wire.

Rules of conduct for forwarding: Never forward directly in a huge email chain without a few bullet points as a quick summary explaining why you are sending it and what you need from the other person Action items.

6 Batch Tasks

Strategically execute multiple tasks. Whenever possible, he combines multiple tasks together. The productivity experts are called batch processing. For example, he answers emails while eating or in a meeting at lunch.

Here are Musk’s quotes on the subject:

“But I found that I could be with my kids and still use email. I could be with them , while still working…if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to do my job.”

Another example is going through emails and invoices during a conference call or interview.

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Research confirms that multitasking is generally less efficient than single-tasking. The brain takes time to adjust when navigating different tasks, also known as task switching. Switching makes you tired and not working, not the tasks themselves.

However, if you batch similar tasks with a similar mindset you can effectively multitask without losing your workflow. In other words, your brain focuses on one task type at a time.

Here are a few examples:

Overview all blog posts for the next week in one go

Handle all emails, Tita, phone calls, and other communications all at once

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Update several related worksheets at the same time

To find more activities that stack together, write down all your regular activities throughout the day and week, and identify activities that can be grouped together. Try the batch several times and reschedule the tasks if necessary.

To process batches faster, use the Pomodoro Technique or the Tita Work Platform.

7 Scheduling

Running three companies is no easy task, which means time is of the essence for Elon Musk. He's been trying to use feedback loops to optimize his time.

Like many other ultra-productive and successful people, he follows a very detailed and specific daily schedule. He breaks the calendar into five-minute slots, and finding your way into one of the open spots is difficult.

He prioritizes engineering, design and manufacturing, spending 80% of his time in these areas.

"I don't spend a lot of time thinking about high-concept things; I spend time solving engineering and manufacturing problems."

By dividing his daily work into 5 minutes, Musk Try to fit more tasks into your schedule at work.

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The most productive people work from their calendar, not their to-do list. Calendars are finite and give you a better idea of ??time, making it easier to determine how much needs to be accomplished during the week.

Breaking your work into small chunks and scheduling tasks on your calendar can increase productivity. But you don't have to use 5 minute chunks. I've found that the most effective way to organize my work is to divide my time into 30-minute chunks. Find the schedule that works best for you and your work.

And make sure you schedule everything: checking emails, calling clients, lunches, and meetings. Everything is on your calendar.

Work according to a plan rather than a calendar. Please use the Tita work planning tool;

8 Embrace goals

One of Musk’s most notorious personality traits is his tendency to set incredibly ambitious goals to complete company projects. Deadline. His approach to using stretch goals to change perceptions:

"The first step is to determine that something is possible, and then the probability will happen."

This is from a former SpaceX executive One story: "It's like he had everyone working on the car, which meant traveling from Los Angeles to New York on a tank of gas. They would work on the car for a year and test all its parts. Then, when they When setting out for New York after that year, all the vice presidents privately thought the car was lucky to make it to Las Vegas. What ended up happening was that the car arrived in New Mexico twice as long as they expected. Long is still pissed. He gets twice as much out of someone else as he does ” (emphasis mine)

That last sentence illustrates the power of stretch goals. Even in the face of failure, your goals are so outrageous and unattainable that you praise your small achievements because you expect nothing will come of it.

Tesla’s original plan was to start selling the Roadster in 2006. The company pushed back that deadline several times until 2008, when the car actually became available. Even though they released the car nearly two years after the deadline, Tesla delivered the first fully battery electric car.

In his own words:

"I say something, and it usually happens. Maybe not as planned, but usually it happens."

Musk's stretch goals give us a world where one of the best cars you can buy is an electric car and we finally have reusable rockets: 'When Henry Ford ) to build cheap, reliable cars, people said, 'Ah, what's wrong with that?' He made a big bet, and it worked.

Setting goals to maintain the status quo does not get you a reusable rocket.

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The purpose of setting stretch goals is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. Growth doesn't happen when you keep doing what you've done in the past. It comes from failing while trying to make progress. If your goal is to achieve five big things and succeed in just two of them, you will be better than everyone who has never tried.

Stretch goals require more work and quality than regular goals and force you to innovate more. In the process of pursuing it, you improve your skills to where they need to be done.

At first, you won’t know how ambitious your stretch goals should be. Through trial and error, learn how far you should push your limits. But the most important thing is to start trying. Then adjust on the go.

The next time you make a plan for work, take a few minutes to complete a stretch goal. Try forcing yourself to do 50% better than your normal goals require. Go and see if you can surprise yourself with an amazing performance. Using this strategy is the first step to reaching goals you didn't even think about!

Further reading: Great mission, vision and strategy are the foundation of an organization. The reason for the existence of any organization is based on one goal: mission and vision. Based on this goal, the organization designs a plan on how to achieve its mission and vision: strategy. Drucker: OKR is a simple and direct goal management method

9 Cultivate a growth mindset (growth mindset)

In 2004, Musk called a supplier to get the price of a brake . The vendor quoted $120,000.

Starting from first principles, Musk broke down the required components and asked Steve Davis, now SpaceX's senior program director, to build one from scratch for under $5,000. Build a component. Davis spent nine months designing and building the $3,900 actuator that successfully carried Falcon 1 into space.

Elon Musk has never been satisfied with his current situation. His company has achieved great things, but Musk knows there's always room for improvement - in every area. There is always a better, faster or cheaper way to do things

"You should take the wrong approach. Your goal is to make fewer mistakes."

This is called a growth mindset , this important skill separates successful people from others. When you have a growth mindset, you know you can learn anything if you put in enough effort. If that fails, you approach the problem from another angle until you find a workable solution. You iterate until you get it right.

In the words of Musk:

"Failure is a choice. If things don't fail, then you're not innovating enough."

On the contrary What's more, it's a fixed mentality that rarely challenges the status quo. It's always been that way because "that's how we do things around here." Preconceived notions are accepted as universal truths rather than questioned. So people stagnate.

On the other hand, developing a growth-oriented mindset will lead to progress in our personal and professional lives. Even if the small gains you manage every day are insignificant, they will add up over time. Growing 1% every day, almost 38% in a year.

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Growth comes from solving puzzles, problems, and challenges. In order to succeed, you need to train your brain to see failure and hardship as progress, getting closer to the solution.

Here’s how you can start developing a growth mindset:

Continuous learning: Keep your brain full of fresh knowledge by expanding your library of knowledge, learning from personal challenges and others; Empowering you to come up with new ideas and solutions that add value to your work and life.

Perseverance: Change your perspective to see failures as small setbacks and learning experiences in larger plans; adjust and iterate your ideas so you can succeed on your next try.

Live for challenges: If you have two choices, choose the harder one; see challenges as opportunities to expand your skills and grow

Embrace failure: In life Everyone fails at some point; learn from your failures, understand your mistakes, how to improve, and apply those lessons to your next attempt.

Open to feedback: Effective and timely feedback on areas for improvement is key to success; be more receptive to feedback, even if it is unconstructive.

Celebrate Others: “No man is an island”, so start supporting other people’s successes as they will not undermine your successes. When you shine, they will celebrate with you.

10 Build a broad knowledge base

According to his brother, Musk read two books a day when he was very young. In other words: he devoured knowledge. This leads to a broad understanding of many sciences, such as physics, mathematics, engineering and computer science.

One of my favorite quotes is about how he described knowledge:

“The important thing is to think of knowledge as a semantic tree – make sure you understand the basic principles (i.e. the trunk and big branches) before getting into the leaves or details, or there’s nothing to hold them in”

Even running a company, Musk is constantly learning from the people around him who are knowledgeable about specific topics. There is more to know. Here's a passage from the book: He would trap an engineer in a SpaceX factory and set out to design a valve or special material for him. "I initially thought he was challenging me to see if I knew my stuff," said Kevin Brogan, one of the early engineers. "Then I realized he was trying to learn stuff." He will ask you until he knows ninety percent of what you know.

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Over the years, Musk has developed T-shaped skills: a lot of knowledge in one specific field, and a lot of knowledge in many other disciplines and topics. This makes him world-class in one area (business) , but also uses his extensive knowledge to innovate, find different solutions, be more creative, and collaborate effectively with experts in other fields

Use this productivity secret

Let's start with a practical example: you want to be healthy. To be healthy, doing just one exercise will not cut it. You need to know a lot of skills: you need to learn the basics of a good diet, how to develop muscles, flexibility. , different aerobic exercises, conditions, etc. While you have great knowledge in a specific area (sport), you also develop broad knowledge in many other areas, which is the basis of health. This is the T-skills approach. .

Here's how you can develop T-shaped skills in your area:

Draw a T and list primary skills, secondary skills, and fundamentals. Please help. Set an example for successful people in your field and their expertise

Now see where you stand in each area

Improve your expertise by reading books, taking courses, Understand your industry and learn from others

Constantly re-evaluate your abilities in the field and adjust your learning style to become T-shaped

"I think the average person May choose extraordinary. -- Elon Musk"

Free guide: How to prompt productivity in the company, successfully embrace goals, try to implement OKR, click more to visit the Tita official website, make an appointment with an OKR product consultant, and get the solution : Scenario plans, enterprise cases, best practices and attention guides.