It is no secret that Elon Musk has an insane work schedule working more than double the hours of the average full-time worker .Regular people work for 40 to 50 hours per week and often get irritated due to this hectic schedule. But do you know that Elon Musk works for 80 to 90 hours every week and he is repeating the routine years after years? If you are a fan of Elon Musk- then read this post till the end, as we will delve into Elon Musk's life and will explore how he spends a day.
Elon Musk is the CEO of electric car maker company Tesla. He is also the founder of the spacecraft company SpaceX through which Musk aims to populate Mars and conquer the Moon. This 49 years old tech genius is a co-founder of the electronic payment firm PayPal as well. Being a tremendously successful business magnate with a net worth of 167.7 billion USD, Musk always attracts people's attraction, and people want to know how he spends his everyday life.
Morning
Elon Musk starts his day early and fresh. He sets his alarm at 7 am and never delays waking up. Musk considers more than 8 hours sleep is a waste of time and typically doesn't sleep more than 6 hours a day. But Musk does put importance on the quality of sleep. He said in 2015 that sleep is excellent, and if he doesn't get enough sleep, he becomes quite grumpy and would get less done because his mental acuity is more affected.
The first thing this entrepreneur does in the morning after waking up is checking his critical emails. Though most of us make time to have breakfast or do exercise at the first hour of the day, he spends his first half-hour of the consciousness to check essential emails instead. Musk needs to go through them in the early of the day to confirm daily meetings and project milestones which is necessary to finalize his to-do list for the day. Musk said this habit helps him to manage the amount of time indulging in the project.
So, are you thinking this is the time for eating breakfast for Musk after checking emails? No, you're mistaken. Though physiologists always advise, having healthy breakfast is crucial for human beings, and successful people also are seen to give importance to the first meal of the day, Musk is different here from other successful and wealthy people. He usually skips his breakfast to save time. But some days, he may grab a coffee and an omelette. Though eating breakfast doesn't bother Musk, but he doesn't ever skip showering in the morning. He even believes showering has the most considerable positive impact in his life. Taking a shower is included in his daily morning routine as it gives him a quiet, distraction-free and private time that helps him to get meaningful ideas. Elon Musk said he gets a lot of his ideas during long showers or late at night pacing around the house.
The first task of Elon Musk after getting out of the house is to drop his children to school. It can sound surprising . But Elon Musk, one of the most successful entrepreneurs, does the school run himself every day. Just like any other regular parents. But your wonder will lessen when you find out that Musk co-founded a new school at his SpaceX campus for his five boys. Musk doesn't believe in the current schooling system in the US as adequate or useful. so he took back his children from private schools in 2014. After that, school run got into his daily routine. The school Musk's children attend, has just 30 students where mostly SpaceX employees children study. Musk designed this school with his unique ideas and calls it Ad Astra School that means "to the stars" in Latin.
After finishing checking emails, morning shower, and kids' school things, now it's high time Elon Musk's busy working day started on full swing. To make his working weeks more manageable, he chooses to part his time into 5 minutes slots. He says many people would be surprised at how much they could achieve in such a small amount of time. But he believes, breaking a schedule into smaller portion can uplift one’s productivity. With the help of this routine split by 5-minute slots , Musk stays on task throughout his busy day and ensures that none of his time goes to waste, and performs better. Musk once said, he considers that the single best piece of advice is always to think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself. Tech CEO Musk divides his workweek between both of his companies SpaceX and Tesla. He spends Mondays and Fridays at SpaceX, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are dedicated to Tesla.
Afternoon
After a busy morning at the office, Musk takes lunch at around 11.30 am. Maybe you are thinking , lunch is consequential for Musk as he skips his breakfast. But you're mistaken again. Lunch is as insignificant as breakfast for Musk. He still sticks to the 5-minute slots and mostly eats during his meetings. Musk usually eats whatever his assistant brings to him. Though once Musk said, his favourite foods are French food and BBQ. There are more interesting facts about Musk's food habit you might like to know.
During the time of launch of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla CEO used to work 100 hours per week. To keep himself energized, he used to consume eight cans of Diet Coke and several large coffees in a day. But Musk said recently; he doesn't consume this massive amount of caffeine anymore. Nowadays it's only 1 or 2 cans of diet coke and only 2 cups of coffee he drinks.
While working in Tesla and SpaceX, meetings and planning of meetings take a large proportion of Musk's day. So, he fixed some rules for meetings such as no large meetings , and he includes 4-5 people in each meeting at a maximum. The second rule is, if you are not adding value to a meeting, just leave and don't waste time. Another rule is, a meeting should be reserved for high priority issues, and once the matter is resolved, meetings should be done as Musk doesn't want to waste even a second on unnecessary activities. Besides meetings, Elon Musk keeps working on both generating ideas and applying the thoughts. It is reported that Musk spends the majority of his time physically working on his ideas like designing and engineering to make his projects successful. Musk is also known for interviewing job seekers personally in his companies. So, Musk's daily grind consists of only work and work.
Maybe you are now curious to know what Elon Musk does at the end of a busy week. The answer will surprise you. Though we, common people, crave for a weekend after a hectic week, there is no traditional weekend, interestingly, for this business magnate. Musk usually spends time with his five children by building model rockets or going to watch movies when he takes a day off. But still, he keeps checking emails and works through phone despite being with boys. Musk said a few years ago, he bakes cookies every Sunday morning and loves to play video games when was asked about hobbies. He spoke about his favourite games that he tends to like FPS with a story, like Bioshock, Fallout or Mass Effect but was also a big fan of Civilisation, a Real-time Strategy Game and Warcraft. He also mentioned that a space simulator is fantastic.
But nowadays, Musk doesn't talk about baking or gaming. Maybe it's harder for him to find time for hobbies lately . Not only for hobbies but also for exercise, this tech genius can't find the time. He admitted that he even doesn't like to exercise. He said he wouldn't exercise at all if he could. But when Musk goes for a run on the tread mill , he likes to watch TV if there is a compelling show that pulls him in. Besides running, Musk lifts weights on his own though he has a personal trainer.
Night
After a busy, tiring day, Elon Musk comes to bed around at 1 am and sets his alarm at 7 am, which ensures 6 hours sleep for him. Musk wrote in a Reddit AMA in 2015 that his sleeping time is measured with his phone. He avoids alcohol and food at least two to three hours before bed as he believes it improves the quality of his sleep as well as his general health. Elon Musk’s daily life can be summed up by only one word- work.
In the middle of working, he finds a few hours to sleep and a few minutes to eat. He is such a work lover that he checks emails even being in the toilet. He also has been criticized for sending emails to his employees even at midnight. But he must enjoy his daily life despite having this hectic schedule. For him all this hard work and disciplined daily routine are worth it. If it wouldn't be worth it, Elon Musk, the scientist behind the entrepreneur, couldn't have been one of the most successful entrepreneurs of history .
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