Elon Musk: 5 tips to become more productive

The pressure is on at Tesla. Elon Musk has a herculean task ahead but he doesn't have a lot of time. With hundreds of thousands of Model 3 reservation holders waiting for their cars, Tesla needs to ramp production at an ever-increasing rate. Sure, robots play a role but Tesla staffers need to work harder (and smarter) to hit aggressive company targets. Can Team Tesla level up during crunch time? 

Above: Tesla's CEO Elon Musk (Flickr: TED Conference)

To accomplish this, Elon Musk gave some unusual advice to Tesla staffers. Business Insider (via Jalopnik) distilled Musk's teachings from an internal email recently uncovered. What did they find? Let's examine five key tips that anyone can use to be more productive. A word of caution though — Musk's advice here is (somewhat) radical and could ruffle some feathers. If you're at a traditional, conservative company: proceed with caution. Quotes below are directly from Elon Musk...

1. Don't confuse

"Don't use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don't want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla."

2. Take shortcuts

"Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the 'chain of command'. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere."

3. Use common sense

"In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a 'company rule' is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change."

4. Don't waste time

"Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time."

5. Be anti-meeting

"Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time.... [so] keep them very short. Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved."

Above: Elon Musk has also publicly discussed his anti-meeting stance and Tesla's policies surrounding internal meetings (Youtube: Elon Musk Sound Bites)

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Source: Business Insider via Jalopnik