Elon Musk’s Productivity Secret: How He Runs 7 Companies (And How You Can Run Your Life the Same Way)

You may not be running seven companies like Elon Musk, but you are running seven different parts of your business and life.

Strategy. Operations. Marketing. Sales. Finance. Family. Household.

The principles Elon Musk uses to run seven companies—including the most valuable company in the world—can be used to run the seven different parts of your life.

Elon Musk is probably the most productive CEO in modern times. He runs Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), xAI, Neuralink, Boring Company, and Starlink simultaneously—all pioneering, world-changing companies.

His achievements include landing humans on the Moon through SpaceX’s Artemis programme, revolutionising the car industry with Tesla’s self-driving vehicles, and launching the first successful brain-computer interface through Neuralink.

The secret isn’t superhuman discipline or 80-hour weeks. It’s three systematic principles that work even better when applied to your reality as a parent entrepreneur or business owner balancing multiple life domains.

Let’s look into Elon Musk’s productivity secrets.

What is the secret behind Elon Musk’s productivity?

While most CEOs or entrepreneurs struggle with prioritising between different areas of one business, and even between family and work, CEOs like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Jack Dorsey somehow manage multiple companies successfully.

So how does Elon Musk do it? Where does his focus lie? X,Tesla, Starlink, Solar City, or SpaceX? Marketing or Customer Service? Product or Technology? Hiring or Fund Raising? 

As a husband and father as well, what is more important – time with his family or working on his business? 

When you look at a to-do list that includes tasks from across the spectrum of all areas of your work and life, it is almost impossible to prioritise. Trying to prioritise tasks from across multiple projects is guaranteed to overwhelm you.

There are three systematic principles that underlie Musk’s productivity – and they will work for you as well.

Principle 1: The Five-Step Algorithm

Musk runs a disciplined algorithm that he describes as a “mantra” because he’s made these mistakes “more than I care to remember.”

What shocked me most? This isn’t natural genius. It’s systematic learning from repeated failure.

Step 1: Make Your Commitments Less Dumb

Every request that lands on your desk. Every commitment you make to clients. Every task you add to your list. Every project someone suggests.

They’re all probably dumb.

Not because you’re incompetent. But because nobody questions them.

A client asks for a feature you know won’t move the needle. A team member suggests a process “because that’s how we’ve always done it.” You commit to a networking event because you feel obligated.

You capture these commitments without resistance. Good. That’s the first step.

But then you need to question them ruthlessly.

Who actually needs this? Why does it matter? What happens if we don’t do it? Is this moving us toward our goals or just keeping us busy?

Critical rule: Every commitment needs a clear owner and a clear reason. Not “the business needs this” but “this specific outcome requires this specific action.”

Musk applies this relentlessly. In his biography, he shared: “Your requirements are definitely dumb. It does not matter who gave them to you.”

Smart people are particularly dangerous—you won’t question them enough.

This is where most productivity systems fail. They help you organize your commitments but never help you eliminate the dumb ones.

Step 2: Delete the Commitment, Task, or Project

If you’re not occasionally adding things back in, you’re not deleting enough.

Example: Fiberglass mats in Tesla’s Model 3 battery. One team said “fire safety,” another said “noise reduction.” Neither was true. Deleted. Saved $2M in automation costs.

The 10% rule: If you’re not forced to restore 10% of deletions, you’re being too conservative.

Most business owners are carrying 30-40% of commitments that shouldn’t exist. Legacy promises to clients. Processes that made sense when you had three employees but not fifteen. Tasks you do because you’ve always done them.

Weekly status update meetings that everyone attends but nobody reads. Monthly reports nobody uses. Client deliverables that made sense two years ago but don’t anymore.

Delete them.

Step 3: Simplify or Optimise (Third, not first!)

“The most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize the thing that should not exist.”

You’re probably spending hours perfecting a client onboarding process that’s fundamentally broken. Or optimizing a reporting system that nobody needs.

Everyone’s trained to execute better. Nobody’s trained to question if the execution should happen at all.

This is why you feel busy but stuck. You’re getting really good at things that don’t matter.

Step 4: Accelerate Cycle Time

Only after working on the first three.

You can always go faster—but speed applied to waste just scales waste.

Step 5: Automate

Dead last.

Musk’s confession: “I have personally made the mistake of going backwards on all five steps. Multiple times.”

You’re probably running the algorithm backwards right now.

Automating email sequences for leads that shouldn’t be in your pipeline. Optimizing delivery of services that should be simplified. Adding AI tools to speed up processes that should be deleted.

I see this constantly with business owners hitting revenue plateaus: Sophisticated CRM systems managing leads that shouldn’t exist. AI tools accelerating processes that should be deleted. Teams executing commitments nobody can explain.

Principle 2: Serial Tasking, Not Multitasking

Musk doesn’t multitask. He focuses INTENSELY on one thing for about an hour, then completely switches context.

“Context switching is the mind killer.”

One night the Twitter board accepted his offer. He went straight to Boca Chica and fixated on a methane leak valve in a Raptor engine. Complete mental shift.

This works because his teams handle everything else while he focuses on one thing.

Not multitasking—serial tasking with fierce intensity.

The Science Behind Single-Tasking

Research shows that even brief context switches of 2-3 seconds can more than double error rates.

Those who context switch experience a 40% decrease in productivity compared to those who don’t.

Yet most business owners try to stay on top of every part of their business all the time.

Marketing, sales, operations, finance, customer service—all constantly competing for attention.

You check email while on a client call. You think about the proposal while trying to solve an operations problem. You’re never fully present anywhere.

Musk’s Problem-Solving Approach

Marc Andreessen revealed on Joe Rogan’s podcast that Musk has a systematic approach to problem-solving.

Each week, he identifies the biggest problem each of his companies is facing and focuses intensely on fixing it immediately.

By applying the concept of manufacturing bottlenecks to all aspects of his businesses, he constantly identifies and addresses the main constraint holding things back.

What makes this unique is his selective micromanagement. While he delegates almost everything, he micromanages the solution to the current biggest problem.

He bypasses management layers and speaks directly with engineers or workers who understand the technical nature of problems.

This hands-on problem-solving approach allows him to solve the 52 biggest problems in each of his companies every year.

Principle 3: Time Segmentation Across Domains

This is the secret that powers everything else.

Learning from Steve Jobs

My eureka! moment came when I was reading Steve Jobs’ biography. Steve Jobs would spend one day with the product team, one day with the marketing team, one day at Pixar etc. 

Elon Musk shared in his biography that he spends two days a week at Tesla, two days at Solar City, and a day at SpaceX. (and although he didn’t mention it, I’m pretty sure he works throughout the weekend too). 

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey splits his day in half, spending his mornings at Twitter and afternoons at Square.

The exact facts aren’t important. And the secret has little to do with drive and motivation, as most may think. 

It’s the concept of ‘Time Allocation before Task Prioritisation’ which powers Elon Musk’s productivity. 

Musk’s Critical Morning Hours

What many don’t realize is that Musk tackles the most critical tasks early in the morning, setting the tone for a productive day. He typically wakes up at 7 a.m. and immediately checks for any emergencies across his companies. This early start allows him to address the most challenging and important issues when his mind is fresh.

Marc Andreessen recently revealed on Joe Rogan’s podcast that Musk has a systematic approach to problem-solving. Each week, he identifies the biggest problem each of his companies is facing and focuses intensely on fixing it immediately. By applying the concept of manufacturing bottlenecks to all aspects of his businesses, he constantly identifies and addresses the main constraint holding things back.

Musk’s Management Style

What makes Musk’s approach unique is his selective micromanagement. While he delegates almost everything, he micromanages the solution to the current biggest problem. 

He bypasses management layers and speaks directly with the engineers or workers who understand the technical nature of the problems. 

This hands-on problem-solving approach allows him to solve the 52 biggest problems in each of his companies every year.

Communication and Meetings

Musk’s approach to communication is equally strategic. He prefers written updates and email over phone calls to maintain focus and create records of decisions. 

He’s notorious for discouraging unnecessary meetings and is known to leave if he feels his time is being wasted. When meetings are necessary, he keeps groups under eight people to maintain productivity and ensure everyone’s voice can be heard.

Entrepreneurs, CEOs or anyone who want to manage multiple projects or departments without getting overwhelmed, need to embrace these concepts. 

This is even more relevant for entrepreneurs who have to split their time across their business, family and kids.

What’s the big picture?

Which parts of your life do you want to focus your energy and time over the coming week?

I’m a freelance consultant with 2-3 active clients or projects at any time. For me the split could look like this:

• Project # 1 – 25%
• Client # 1 – 15%
• Project # 2 – 10%
• Client # 2 – 10%
• Networking/ business development – 15%
• Personal admin/ finance/ family stuff – 15%
• Business admin/ replying to emails etc – 10%

Depending on the nature of your work, this split could be across companies, projects, marketing, finance, customer support, HR, business development, product, technology, etc. This split is not static either. It should change from month to month or even week to week as priorities evolve.

This pre-determined allocation of time across various areas of work is the secret sauce enables Elon Musk’s productivity.

Allocating time to your priorities

I allocate 2-3 blocks of 2-3 hours per week, to each major project or area of life, and schedule them in my calendar. Another term commonly used for this is “time blocking”. These blocks aren’t fixed every week. I’m very open to switching them around if something interesting or urgent pops up.

Here’s how I could split this work across my week:

• Monday for Project #1 and a bit of networking,
• Tuesday for Client #1 and get some business admin out of the way.
• Wednesday for Client #1 and Client #2.
• Thursday is for Project #1 and Project #2.
• Friday for personal and family stuff, and some spillover from that week’s client or project work.

This system of “Time Allocation before Task Prioritisation” works because of 2 concepts:

1. Parkinson’s Law – “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

2. Batching – i.e. grouping similar tasks together to increase your efficiency.

Task prioritisation also becomes much easier within these pre-allocated categories and time blocks. When it’s time to work on a project, I review tasks that I’ve dumped into this project list while processing my inboxes. As I’m reviewing, new ideas pop into my head. Once I’m working within the confines of this one project, I can be way more creative and productive.

Advanced Productivity Techniques

Musk is a master of task batching, grouping similar tasks together to reduce context switching and improve efficiency. He’s also known to use an intense version of the Pomodoro Technique, working in short, focused bursts with minimal breaks. 

His commitment to continuous improvement means he consistently seeks feedback and engages in self-reflection.

When it comes to personal habits, Musk is equally disciplined. He often skips lunch or eats quickly during meetings to maximize work time. And while he’s intensely involved in critical problems, he knows when to delegate tasks, working with large teams of experts across his companies.

The Key to Musk’s Success

The key to Elon Musk’s extraordinary productivity boils down to:

1. Theming his days to focus on different companies
2. Delegating ruthlessly
3. Focusing on solving one critical issue at a time
4. 4. Attacking the most important tasks early in the day

This approach has enabled him to achieve remarkable feats: revolutionizing the electric vehicle industry, making space travel commercial, creating a global satellite internet network, developing breakthrough brain-computer interfaces, and transforming social media – all simultaneously.

Now that you understand how Elon Musk uses this concept to boost his productivity, you too can use this concept to be more creative and productive, and send your own rocket to space!