Elon Musk Uses This Simple Time Management Technique For Optimal Productivity

You would be an alien if you don’t know who Elon Musk is. It’s no secret that he has an insane work schedule. Between his companies like SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, and a wife and five kids he is the busiest person to juggle all these responsibilities.

He works 80–90 hours per week, more than double the average full-time worker.

So how does he manage all these responsibilities and stay productive and top of the game?

The answer is by scheduling his day by Timebox technique.

Timeboxing is a well known time management and productivity technique. It’s been used by other successful people like Bill Gates and Cal Newport as well.

What Is Timeboxing?

Time-boxing is the practice of setting a fixed amount time for each task and integrating the resulting time blocks into your schedule.

Often when we start working on a project we focus on the task and don’t give much thought to the time it would get to complete said task.

Timeboxing is different because it encourages you to focus on ‘time’ instead of ‘tasks’.

Timeboxing is a time management technique that limits a task to a fixed timeline. That timeline could be minutes, hours or days long depending on the complexity of a task.

With timeboxing, you have control over your daily schedule. You decide in advance, which tasks are important to you and how much time you need to spend on those tasks.

How To Use The Timeboxing Technique

1. Create a to-do list

Start by creating a list of your daily tasks then estimate how long it’ll take you to complete each task. Remember to include time for breaks and unexpected interruptions.

Be realistic when you do this, more often than not, tasks take longer to complete than you anticipate.

For example, this is my to-do list with estimated time looks like

— Write Medium article (2 hours)

— Answer emails (1 hour)

— Build a raised bed for my vegetable garden (1.5 hours)

2. Set a timer

After you’ve successfully created your to-do list with a time limit, set a timer to alert you as to when you should take a break or move on to the next task. And then start working.

For example, I can focus on a task for 45 minutes at max, after that my mind starts to wonder. So I set a timer for 45 minutes and start writing. No other distraction, no multitasking, just focus on the writing. After my timer goes off I stop.

3. Take a break

Be sure to take a short break between each timebox. You might want to skip these breaks if you are absorbed in the task, and that’s ok once in a while but try avoiding that too often.

Because stepping away for a few minutes can help you work with a fresh perspective.

For example, after my 45 minutes writing session, I take a quick 5 minutes break. I stretch my legs or grab a cup of coffee. Then I get back to my next 45 minutes of a focused writing session. I repeat this cycle until I reach my assigned 2 hours mark.

4. Reevaluation

After completing each timebox take a look at your progress and analyze your work. If you completed your task successfully within time, ask yourself, are you happy with what you have achieved? what can you learn and apply for your next schedules?

If you didn’t complete the task then ask, why not? what went wrong? How will you schedule your tasks differently next time?

Benefits of Timeboxing

1. Boost Motivation

Big tasks can be overwhelming. You need to work for too long to see the desired result, you can get demotivated if you don’t.

By timeboxing, you divide a big project into small tasks that can be done in a certain time period.

After successfully completing a timebox you get a visible sign of progress. And that can motivate you to keep going.

2. Improve Focus

Studies show that an average person gets distracted every 12 minutes by their screens. When you set a deadline for your task it improves your focus, even enhances your creativity.

For the procrastinator like me, the time limit factor forces me to ignore distractions and set my focus on the task at hand.

And if you are a pro multitasker, you lose time and focus switching between tasks. Timebox narrows your focus to one task as a time.

3. Avoid Perfection

Some people overwork on every detail of their project. Doing your work to a certain perfection is a good thing, but unnecessary perfectionism does more harm than good. Here using a time limit for each task is a good way to avoid that trap.

If you set a strict time limit for each task, you are forced to do the important things first and avoid tweaking small unnecessary details.

4. Prioritize Tasks

Not all tasks on our to-do list hold the same priority. It often happens that we spend too much time on certain tasks and not nearly enough time on others. But with timeboxing, you are forced to prioritize and do the work that matters most.

As a human, we tend to do the easy task first and prolong or totally avoid doing harder but important tasks. Timeboxing ensures you to strike a balance between important tasks and minor chores.

5. Track Progress

How many of you take time at the end of the day to access their work. And if your to-do list contains more unchecked tasks than checked you get discouraged.

But with timeboxing, you get the opportunity to step back and assess your progress at each session. After you finish your timeboxing session you can quickly look back and see how much work you have done and what needs to be done next time.