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Elon Musk’s 8 Killer Productivity Hacks: How the World’s Richest Man Runs a $1.6 Trillion Empire (And How You Can Copy His Blueprint!)
February 2025
Read time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds
I have been a huge fan of Elon Musk 🚀 for many years now. I’ve read every legitimate book written about him. I’ve given away a Tesla in a referral contest, own a Model X, and even invested in his latest company, X.ai. 🤖 Over the past few weeks, Musk and his team of 20-somethings have been taking Washington, D.C., by storm 🌪️ and finding what I think anyone would expect: massive waste in Washington. You’ve likely heard about this in the
In my years of studying Musk, here are some of the key patterns I’ve observed in his leadership and time management style that I believe contribute greatly to his ability to accomplish what others say is impossible quickly. ⏩ 🚀 Bold Vision and First-Principles Thinking: Musk inspires teams with audacious visions (like colonizing Mars 🪐 or accelerating sustainable energy) and often uses first-principles reasoning to solve problems. This approach encourages innovative solutions and aligns all ventures with a larger mission. For example, at SpaceX, he pushed
news or on social media. 📱 To be clear, this isn’t going to be a political post. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I’m not interested in
engineers to rethink rocket design from scratch to cut costs, which led to innovations in reusable rockets. 🏗️ 🔥 Autocratic but Passionate: Insiders note that Musk can be intense and directive — making unilateral decisions and expecting fast execution — yet his passion and willingness to work harder than anyone tend to win respect. He is known to make quick decisions (sometimes pivoting projects overnight 🌙 ) and demands a
attempting to change anyone’s mind. What I am interested in, though, is how Musk is accomplishing so much in such a short period. Care of the
world’s richest man 💰 , we are all getting a peak into what is essentially a masterclass in efficiency and speed of execution. 🏎️ Musk isn’t a stranger to taking massive action. 🎯 At the end of last year, in only 90 days, he built a data center for X.ai with a supercomputer 🖥 and added 100,000 GPUs only a few weeks after the data center opened. 🔥 I won’t bore you with the technical details, but trust me when I say that it is impressive, to say the least.
sense of urgency across all teams. ⭐ High Standards and ‘Lead by Example’: Musk sets extremely high-performance standards and is known to lead by example. During Tesla’s Model 3 production
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crisis, he famously slept on the factory floor 🏭 to work around the clock and show solidarity with his team. He explained that he did this to save time ⏰ and because he “wanted to suffer more than any other employee” during the intense production ramp-up. ⏳ 5-Minute Time Blocks: Musk often breaks his calendar 📆 into 5-minute chunks , allotting each segment to a particular task, meeting, or topic By micro-managing his schedule this way, he can switch contexts rapidly and address issues across different companies on the same day. 📦 The ‘Batching’ of Tasks: He batches similar tasks together to stay in the right mindset 🧠 . For instance, Musk often sets aside specific days of the week for specific companies or functions. At one point, he structured his week roughly as: • Mondays and Thursdays at SpaceX in LA • Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Tesla ⚡ in Austin, and often • Split Fridays between both (with weekends as needed) 👥 Empowering Key Leaders: Each Musk company has strong executives who head important divisions or run daily operations. A prime example is at SpaceX, where President and COO Gwynne Shotwell handles much of the day-to-day management 🎛️ . Shotwell has 21 direct reports (vice presidents and managers) under her, whereas Musk only has 4 direct reports, illustrating how much operational authority she carries 🤝 Delegating After Initial Setup: Musk often micromanages in the early stages of a project and then delegates more as things stabilize. He immerses himself when a product is in a critical development phase — for example, personally refining the design of the Tesla Model S or the SpaceX Raptor engine 🔧 — and once he’s satisfied the team has a clear path, he hands off a lot of the execution to the team. 📢 Direct Communication and Flat Structure: Musk also encourages a relatively flat organizational
structure to speed up execution. In an email 📧 to employees, he told staff to avoid bureaucracy and communicate directly across departments rather than through layers of management. One of his productivity “rules” was that anyone should be able to talk to anyone to solve problems — if following the “chain of command” slows things down, he explicitly says to bypass it to get work done 🚦 . Love him or hate him, as the richest man in the world and currently running five companies with an estimated combined value of over $1.6 trillion 💵 plus the newly formed DOGE for the U.S. government 🇸 , it is hard to argue he isn’t the G.O.A.T 🐐 in being a visionary in time management and entrepreneurship. ⚡ Which of these eight points could you implement to get more done? The ability to work smarter and execute more quickly will be one of the most important differentiators for entrepreneurs over the next five years. 🚀💡
“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.” —Psalm 90:17 –Shaun
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HAVE A LAUGH
L ife has a way of presenting us with moments where conventional wisdom suggests we should give up. I’ve learned through experience that these moments are often our greatest opportunities for transformation. When I became a father at 16, nearly everyone told me my life was over unless I walked away. Society’s script was clear: The Power of Persistent Belief: How Your Mindset Creates Your Reality Read time: 3 minutes
Teenage fathers don’t succeed. But I chose to write my own story.
Success isn’t about ignoring reality — it’s about understanding that reality is more flexible than most people believe. This became crystal clear during my entrepreneurial journey. Walking away from a six-figure salary and guaranteed advancement at AT&T in 2000 seemed crazy to many. The “safe” path was clearly laid out: Become the youngest store manager, then regional manager. But I had a different vision, one that started forming when I was just 10 years old. The key to transforming your reality lies in understanding the power of consistent, principled action aligned with your deepest commitments. In 2020 during a custody battle, I faced seemingly insurmountable odds. My relationship with my children was strained to the breaking point — they barely spoke to me during my custody time. Instead of trying to force immediate changes, I focused on showing up consistently. I knew I had to engage with them where they were. So, I downloaded Fortnite to play with them, jumped alongside them at trampoline parks, and maintained unwavering love through the turbulence.
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This approach reminds me of the tortoise and the hare. Life isn’t about sprinting toward quick wins; it’s about maintaining steady progress toward your vision, even when immediate results aren’t visible. Your mindset doesn’t just influence your reality — it creates it. But this isn’t about positive thinking alone. It’s about combining unshakeable belief with consistent action. When I decided to start my own business, I wasn’t just dreaming about success — I was taking daily steps toward it, even when those steps felt small or insignificant. The truth is that most limitations exist primarily in our minds. Society’s scripts about what’s possible — whether about teenage parents, career changes, or family dynamics — are just that: scripts. You have the power to write your own story, but it requires something more than just belief. It requires the courage to act on that belief, day after day, even when results aren’t immediately visible. Remember, success rarely happens in a straight line. Just like a failed marketing campaign or two doesn’t determine the success or failure of your business, temporary setbacks don’t define your journey. What matters is your commitment to showing up, making adjustments based on feedback, and maintaining focus on your long-term vision. Your reality will ultimately align with your deepest- held beliefs and most consistent actions. The question isn’t whether this principle works — it’s whether you’re willing to hold onto your vision long enough to see it materialize.
PUTTING THESE PRINCIPLES INTO ACTION For those ready to push beyond their current level of success, here’s how to implement these reality-shaping principles in practice: 1. Write down your next quantum leap goal. Not the logical next step — the goal that makes your inner voice say “that’s impossible.” Look for the opportunity that exists beyond conventional business wisdom where breakthroughs live in the space between crazy and genius. 2. Reverse engineer your breakthrough moments. Map the critical inflection points that will transform your business, not just grow it incrementally. These are the game-changing moments that require you to operate from your future reality rather than your current circumstances.
3. Create weekly action plans that
honor both your vision and your time constraints. As entrepreneurs, we’re all busy running successful operations. The key is identifying the 2–3 high-leverage actions each week that specifically advance your quantum leap goal while maintaining your current success.
Think bigger than you ever have before. Your past successes have proven you can achieve what others consider impossible. Now it’s time to redefine what’s possible again. Remember — breakthrough results often come right after the moment when most would quit. Your next level of success isn’t about working harder; it’s about operating from a different reality entirely.
–Shaun
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