Elon Musk’s 7 Rules for 100 Hours of Effective Weekly Work
Elon Musk is a widely known business persona. He works around 100 hours a week, while managing 3 companies at once. How can he still be alive and well? He follows these 7 simple rules.
- Big company meetings are a waste of time. Avoid them at all costs.
- Meetings should be an exception, not a rule.
- Attend meetings only when it’s absolutely necessary.
- Express yourself precisely.
- Always make contact with the right person.
- If you want to contact someone, do it face to face.
- Don’t blindly follow the company’s rules.
“I haven’t read any book about time management. Not ever, not really. I want to optimize things during a day or a week, though” — said Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, Boring Company and Space X during an interview with Mashable.
“If an employee has vital information for the CEO, he needs to be able to get a hold of the CEO, not talk to a manager. If he’s got a lot on his plate, don’t let him waste 20 minutes on meetings, let him work”, Musk adds.
This is the mindset of a winner. Despite what you may think of him, he knows his way around. Lately he has been following a new routine — a “more tolerable” 80–90 working hours per week, but it’s still a lot. He also multi-tasks email, to be able to remain efficient even when playing with kids.
Is it healthy and safe, heart-attack-proof? Probably not. Are his rules for efficiency reliable? Can you and your marketing team apply them for higher performance? Definitely, and here’s how.
1.Meetings can be a real pain in the behind. They are unproductive, they wander off topic, not every person present is essential… There are quite a few sins regarding this portion of company life, but there is one that is utterly amazing — meetings don’t make sense, most of the time. They are distractions that could be avoided my simply writing better emails (like Musk does). According to a TED talk from 2010, executives spend 40 to 50 of their total working hours in meetings. The cost? $37 billion a year in the U.S. alone.
2. Meetings can be avoided. We have emails, Basecamp, Trello, JIRA, Confluence, Avaya, Zoom and other services, both free and paid. Why on Earth would you want to waste time by booking a conference room, going from one building to another, meeting a few people on the way (and every one of them has an “urgent matter”) only to discover that all you had to do was talk to a person via a screen on your desk?
3. OK, meetings can and are useful. Sometimes they cannot be avoided, but should YOU be a part of them? Always? Really? Even if meetings are useful, or better yet useful for your team, they can’t always be productive for you. In a modern world of professionals with multi-disciplinary skills, some information sink in for all. And then you’re faced with one or two important lines that you drop on everyone’s head during an hour-long meeting. Two phrases, your contribution to the project. An hour wasted. You could talk more next week. You could talk a lot, because progress will be more substantial then.
4. If you’re resigning from a meeting, need something to be done, are waiting for a budget, can’t do something right now — always speak plainly. In journalism, there is a simple rule — imagine that your audience just finished elementary school. All of them. They are back after an 8–12 hour job and they’re tired. Sitting down on the couch, watching the evening news. Do you want them to fall asleep or misunderstand your message? Your wording must be simple, but respectful. Professional enough to build trust, simple enough for everyone to understand. Treat your co-workers that way, because one of the most important things any of us can draw from life is that none of us can think like the other person. That’s why we have to speak freely and precisely. That’s how epic tasks are done. And company retreats effective.
5. I have a topic to discuss and the only one who can help me/understand me/has the necessary expertise to give me a correct answer is a manager 2 steps up the company ladder. Do I contact my manager? His or her manager? An employee that meets this person for a beer after work? Nope — the only person that can help you with your problem is one person that you have to contact. There is no way around it. Be bold, knock on the right doors and don’t be intimidated by “I don’t have time”. The person in question does have time, since it’s the nature of their job. Even if you’re outside the team. Even if your area of expertise is different. The best company I have ever worked for had a simple motto for all employees. “One [company’s name], one team.” It doesn’t get any better than that.
6. This is contradictory to at least one previous statement, isn’t it? Not quite. Emails and online tools are great but sometimes you just have to meet a person, use a whiteboard, go to a business lunch. This actually should be worded as “If you want to REACH someone, do it face to face.” Contact can be done in various ways. If it’s necessary to smooth the way for a new project or discuss difficult problems, just meet.
7. Rules are not made to be broken, not corporate rules, at least. Or are they? We can talk all we want about A.I taking over, smart this and future that, but if we really want to make a statement about a company’s flexibility, we must give people the opportunity. They know what they are doing… and by letting them step up, you limit the chances of ever going down.
Conclusion
It’s all about saving time and increasing effectiveness. If you want to perform in marketing you need a few things:
- People with the right mindset and expertise
- Tools
To increase performance, save time and be like Elon Musk, use this online platform for landing page creation.
