Top 10 Elon Musk Productivity Secrets for Insane Success

I read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future over the summer. It’s a fantastic read and a detailed account of the ups and downs of one of the biggest visionaries of our time.

It also gives you a sneak peek into Musk’s work ethic and productivity secrets he uses to run multiple companies.

Now, Elon Musk is a smarter than average individual and has enormous ambition and drive. But I think that us–mere mortals–can incorporate some of his productivity secrets into our daily lives.

Here are the top 10 productivity secrets of Elon Musk and how you can apply them:

#1 Start the Day with Critical Work

As the CEO of three companies — Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink — Elon Musk has a lot of things to stay on top on a day to day basis.

That’s why he starts his day with his most critical work. For Musk, this means dealing with important emails that he needs to address in order to unblock other people’s work and progress.

He typically starts the day at 7 a.m. and replies to critical emails for at least half an hour. Musk is careful to filter anything that is not deemed critical, focusing on only the most important items.

In his own words at the USC Commencement Speech:

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

Apply This Productivity Secret

Find your most important task (MIT) for the day and tackle it first. Your MIT should be the one thing that creates the most impact on your work.

For example:

My most important task is writing awesome content. That’s why I always start the day by sitting down and writing. I won’t move on to the next task before writing at least 1000 words.

What’s your most important task? Use the 80/20 rule to help you figure it out and get in the…