Every Monday night, Elon Musk boarded a plane. It was not a vacation; it was the commute that began Tuesday’s work.
Dividing Two Companies by Day and Place
In January 2013, Elon Musk took the stage at the American Computer History Museum.
At the time, he was leading the electric car company Tesla and the space company SpaceX.
The interviewer asked about running two companies simultaneously.
The interviewer also asked how he divided the week between Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk explained the order in which he usually moves.
On Mondays, Musk worked at SpaceX.
On Monday night, he flew to the San Francisco Bay Area.
He spent Tuesdays and Wednesdays there working at Tesla.
On Wednesday night, he flew back.
The move was to spend Thursday and Friday at SpaceX.
The first and last days of the week were spent at SpaceX, and the middle two days were spent in the area where Tesla is located.
The week he described in the interview went like this.
Monday is SpaceX. Tesla on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are SpaceX again. Flights between the two companies took place on Monday and Wednesday nights. Weekends weren't always empty either.
A Schedule That Extended into the Weekend
At the time of the interview, Musk said he had been traveling back to the Bay Area on Saturdays in recent months.
Some weekends went entirely to Tesla. On others, he spent Saturday at Tesla and Sunday at SpaceX.
Although the two companies' work was divided by day of the week, the other company's work did not come to a complete halt.
Work That Continued Between Locations
Musk explained that smartphones are a great help in running both companies.
He could check messages from both Tesla and SpaceX on one device.
He also handled email between scheduled work, including while in transit or walking.
Why Less Sleep Did Not Produce More Work
The interviewer asked him if he was sleeping well.
Musk responded that sometimes he doesn't get enough sleep.
But constantly cutting back on sleep wasn't the way to get more work done.
He said that if he slept less than a certain amount of time, his judgment was impaired even though his waking hours increased.
Although he could stay awake longer, he found that he accomplished less.
The amount of sleep he found suited him was an average of 6 to 6 hours and 30 minutes per day.
The schedule that Musk revealed did not feature any special, unknown time management skills.
The schedule covered which company he worked at each day, when he traveled, and how much sleep he needed to keep working.
Monday night's flight marked the end of the week to the next task.
It is difficult to say that a schedule of going back and forth between two companies and working until the weekend is suitable for everyone.
Still, the shape of the week he revealed was simple.
Different work had its own days and places. Travel was not squeezed into spare time; it was part of the schedule.
Even in our week, things of different nature come into our lives all at once.
If you juggle everything, you'll have to constantly re-determine what you should focus on now.
By dedicating a specific day or time to one type of task in advance, what you need to do next becomes a little clearer.
You also start to see the time needed between actual tasks, like traveling and preparation.
For two different kinds of work this week, which days can you give to each?
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