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Productivity Tips from Elon Musk

Elon Musk has to a certain extent reinvented the way in which we generally perceive entrepreneurs. The unorthodox style in which he has managed his companies SpaceX and Tesla has provided other entrepreneurs with a template as to how they should run their business.

If you follow his actions and speeches closely, you will observe certain techniques that he follows to keep his productivity high:

Don’t Bother with Business Plans

Musk recently explained that he is not a very big fan of business plans. He leaves the operational details to others and chooses to work at the visionary level instead.

This is in clear contrast with the way most CEOs go about their business planning process that sometimes go to the extent of micromanaging it. It can be argued that the best use of a business plan is to get funded and that once the business receives the funding you do not really need a plan. After that point you will be better off setting ambitious goals and improvising your techniques to reach there.

End Pointless Conversations Right Away

Musk believes that when he thinks that people are talking with the intention of wasting his time, he cuts them off right away, even if they find it rude. According to him what is rude actually is to make others listen to pointless conversations that do not really lead anywhere and are of no good use to anyone.

At a financial update meeting, some analysts had asked him questions and he responded back saying that the questions were bonehead and moved onto other questions. He may have received flack for this, but the events that followed proved that Musk was right.

By refusing to suffer fools gladly, Musk definitely manages to free up many hours in a week which he can invest in doing something that is more useful and productive. In this way he manages to have a decluttered mind as a result of blocking irrelevant nonsense.

Walk Out of Useless Meetings

Each time a meeting begins to touch upon irrelevant subjects, Musk refuses to put up with the meeting any further and simply walks out of the meeting. But he doesn’t do this alone and also gives permission to his staff and employees to leave the meeting room and resume their work.

Musk actively refuses to be a part of a captive audience as he believes that meetings are the biggest source of time wastage in any business. By doing this he frees up many more hours to do something amusing and useful.

Avoid Foolish Consistencies

Musk also doesn’t fear contradicting what he says. In wanting to keep up appearances people often waste time defending what they already know cannot be defended.

For instance, Musk ate his own words when he said that Model 3 factory will not be completely automated as he had previously announced but would also make use of human labour.

Most CEO’s would have refrained from making a public announcement such as this and would have gone about implementing it quietly to avoid bad PR. But sometimes covering up can cause a significant wastage of time and cause additional mental burden potentially resulting in a bigger PR disaster.

Decide Rather than Deliberate

Most entrepreneurs tend to overanalyze and overthink before taking a particular action. From the way it seems, Musk never acts out of ignorance and it is obvious from the rate at which he takes decision. It is clear that he prefers to take decisions quickly rather than waste an eternity in contemplating over whether or not he should take the action. Hypothetically speaking, he wouldn’t ponder endlessly about how much does a Will cost but get it written right away.

This practice is evident from the incident when he fired all the Tesla contractors who did not have a single Tesla employee to vouch for them.

In his position most other CEOs would have taken months even after assuring their directors and stakeholders that they would act with all due speed. By doing difficult things in a single day and not wasting many days on it, Musk saves himself a lot more time than other entrepreneurs.

Employing the above practices may not mean that they will be as successful as Elon Musk but they will definitely be better off than they would be if they wasted their time on unnecessary practices.

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