“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is a disaster.”

-Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the most influential entrepreneur of all time. Be it solar power, underground boring, neural implants or banking, Musk has revolutionized the most challenging and stagnant fields-space exploration and automotive industry.

Love him or hate him, you cannot deny the fact that Elon Musk is known for his productivity. He has a unique philosophy to pump up creativity and make things done – even on an incredibly busy schedule.

As John C. Maxwell has said “It’s said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others’ mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others’ successes.” 

So, Elon Musk is a living example in front of us who happens to be smarter than average humans with immense drive and ambition. Want to know his secret to cosmic productivity? Want to incorporate these tips into your lives? Then scroll down!

 We have summed up some ruthless productive tactics that Musk has been following all his life.

Let’s get started.

1. Start with getting the most critical work done first.

“Focus on signal over noise. Don’t waste time on stuff that doesn’t actually make things better.” -Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the CEO of three companies namely SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink. You can imagine the massive work pressure that Musk must have every day. His secret to run three companies with ease is to set a priority on tasks to be done throughout the day. Start your day by getting the most critical tasks done first. For instance, checking the mails! The main goal is to remove any roadblock and keep things moving for you and others as well. This is one of the best productivity tips you can learn from Elon Musk.

The key to success here is to identify the most critical tasks and focusing on important items. You can start by making a note of things you have to get done in a day and then triaging the most important stuff and start working on it.

2. Speed up the process.

“If the schedule is long it’s wrong, if it’s tight it’s right.” — Elon Musk

Time and metrics run a successful business. Musk does not believe in “Good things take time.” If a process is taking time, Elon seeks for a faster process to build things. Endless planning is not gonna get you anywhere, success begins when you get up and make things work. The idea is not to be perfect, but improve with every attempt. So, a quick lesson for you is to devise the best and fastest method to get to your output. Anything that is time-consuming must be terminated at once. 

3. Communicate!

Musk has incredible ways of working things out in his company. His main mantra is to communicate, no matter the hierarchy. In an “email sent to the Tesla staff” obtained by Inc., Elon said “You can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else’s permission” when addressing his employees. He believes communication should not be bound with “chain of command” it should be direct and that is how you get the job done in minimal time.

4. Embrace failure.

“There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” — Elon Musk

Elon Musk has been advocating the importance of risk-taking and embracing failure. Like James Clear has said “Rome was not built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour ” and that is your tip to succeed. You must be a work in progress, keep on trying and improving till you succeed. Failure should be perceived as a stepping stone to success and not a dead end.

5. Take Feedbacks 

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”-Elon Musk

According to Elon Musk, the best way to get out the best from yourself is to constantly question yourself. Reiterate even if you think you are done. Find loopholes in your work, seek for windows of improvement. And that is how you produce a perfect outcome. 

He believes that negative feedback is the secret to improvise. Musk’s words, “Don’t tell me what you like, tell me what you don’t like.” are clear enough to show the importance of feedback loop in his work. This is the greatest secret to increased efficiency, better-finished product, and faster implementation.

6. Follow logic, not rules

Musk believes that the worst thing you can do to your company is to make it rigid. Your company should follow logic instead of rules. Every situation is different and logic is the best way to get out of situations rather than sticking to some set decree.

7. Manage your time with Time Blocking!

Musk is quite a busy man, his working days are pre-planned. All his tasks, occupations are already scheduled and there is no room for uncalled interruptions. However, some of the time blocks are left unscheduled. Musk intentionally plans his day with a gap of small-time blocks. Most of the executives use this productivity tool.

These time blocks can be used to perform certain activities and tasks, as simple as responding to emails! It is a great way to use free time to perform small yet important tasks. If you add time blocks in your day instead of making a to-do list, you can definitely stop procrastination and definitely become more productive.