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Why I Only Do 3 Things Per Day | Elon Musk | Future Focus | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Why I Only Do 3 Things Per Day | Elon Musk
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Before we start, tell me where you're
listening from in the comments. Maybe
you're stuck in traffic, overwhelmed by
your to-do list that never seems to get
shorter. Maybe you're at your desk right
now, surrounded by sticky notes and open
browser tabs, wondering why you feel
busy all the time, but never feel like
you're making real progress. This
conversation is going to change that.
I'm going to tell you about the most counterintuitive
counterintuitive
productivity system I've ever
discovered. It's not about doing more.
It's about doing less, much less. And
it's the reason I can run multiple
companies, launch rockets, build
electric cars, and still have time to
think about the future of human
consciousness. Most people think
productivity means cramming more into
each day. They're wrong. Productivity
means creating more value with less
effort. And after running companies for
over 20 years, after building Tesla from
zero to the most valuable car company in
the world, after taking SpaceX from a
crazy idea to regularly launching
astronauts, going to I've learned that
the secret isn't doing everything. It's
doing the right three things. By the end
of this video, you're going to
understand why your current approach to
productivity is probably making you less
effective, not more. You're going to
learn the exact system I use to identify
what actually matters. And you're going
to walk away with a framework that can
transform not just your days, but your
entire trajectory. But first, let me
tell you about the day that changed
everything. It was March 2018. Tesla was
in what I called production hell. We
were supposed to be manufacturing
5,000 Model 3s per week, but we were
stuck at around 2,000. The media was
calling it a disaster. Short sellers
were betting billions against us, and I
was working
120our weeks trying to solve every
problem myself. I was sleeping on the
factory floor three nights a week. I was
personally troubleshooting robots at
3:00 a.m. I was in meetings about
battery chemistry in the morning,
production line optimization in the
afternoon, and software debugging at
night. My calendar looked like a game of
Tetris played by someone having a
seizure. 15-minute meetings back to back
from 7:00 a.m. to midnight. Every
problem became my problem. Every
decision had to go through me. I thought
I was being productive. I thought that's
what leadership looked like.
being involved in everything, available
to everyone, solving all the problems. I
was wrong. One morning, I woke up on
that factory floor and realized I
couldn't remember what I had
accomplished the day before. I had been
in 30 meetings, answered 200 emails,
made 50 decisions, but I couldn't point
to a single thing that had actually
moved us closer to our production
targets. I was busy, but I wasn't
effective. I was reacting, but I wasn't
creating. I was managing problems, but I
wasn't solving systems. That's when it
hit me. Most of what I was doing every
day was noise. Necessary noise maybe,
but noise nonetheless. And while I was
drowning in noise, the few things that
could actually transform our situation
weren't getting the attention they
deserved. So, I did something radical. I
canled every meeting for the next 3
days. I turned off my phone. I locked
myself in a conference room with a
whiteboard and asked one question. If I
could only do three things this week,
what would move us closest to our goal?
The answer was clear. Uh, fix the
bottleneck in our battery pack assembly
line, simplify our production process by
removing unnecessary steps, install the
tent structure to create additional
production capacity. Three things, not
30, not 300, three. I spent the next
three days working on nothing else. I
didn't check email. I didn't take
meetings about other issues. I didn't
get pulled into the daily fires that
felt urgent but weren't important. By
the end of those 3 days, we had
increased our production capacity by
40%. Within 2 months, we hit our 5,000
cars per week target. Not because I
worked harder, because I worked on what
actually mattered. That experience
taught me something that changed how I
approach everything. The highest
leverage thing you can do is identify
the few activities that create
disproportionate results, then
ruthlessly eliminate everything else.
The three things philosophy. Here's what
I've learned after two decades of
building companies. Most people fail not
because they don't work hard enough, but
because they work hard on the wrong
things. They confuse motion with
progress. They mistake being busy for
being productive. They think that doing
more things means creating more value.
But value doesn't come from quantity. It
comes from focus. Think about it this
way. If you do 20 things at 50%
effectiveness, you create 10 units of
value. But if you do three things at
100% effectiveness, you create three
units of value that are actually
finished, actually impactful, actually
meaningful. Which approach moves you
closer to your goals? The math is
simple, but the psychology is hard.
We've been trained to believe that busy
equals important, that full calendars
mean full lives, that saying yes to
everything makes us valuable. It's the
opposite. The most valuable people I
know, the ones who actually change
industries, who build lasting companies,
who solve meaningful problems, they all
have one thing in common. They're
ruthless about what they say no to. Um
Warren Buffett puts it perfectly. Um the
difference between successful people and
really successful people is that really
successful people say no to almost
everything. But here's where most
productivity advice fails. It tells you
to prioritize, but it doesn't tell you
how. It tells you to focus, but it
doesn't give you a system for deciding
what deserves your focus. That's where
the three things system comes in. How do
I identify your three things? Every
morning, before I check my phone, before
I look at my calendar, before I dive
into the chaos of running multiple
companies, I ask myself one question.
What are the three things that if
completed today would make the biggest
difference in moving toward my most
important goal? Not the most urgent
things, not the loudest things, not the
things that will make other people
happy. The three things that actually
matter. Here's how I think about it. Uh,
level one, maintenance.
These are things that keep the lights
on, answering emails, attending status
meetings, reviewing reports. Important
for daily operations, but they don't
create new value. Level two,
optimization. These are things that make
existing systems better. Improving
processes, reducing costs, fixing
problems, valuable but incremental.
Level three, transformation. These are
things that change the game entirely.
New products, new markets, new
technologies, breakthrough innovations
that create exponential value. Most
people spend 80% of their time on level
one, 15% on level two, and 5% on level
three. And then they wonder why their
careers feel stuck, why their companies
grow slowly, why their impact feels
limited. I flip that ratio. I spend 5%
of my time on level one, 15% on level
two, and 80% on level three. That's only
possible if you're ruthless about your
three things. Let me show you how this
works in practice. Real examples from my
day. Yesterday, my three things were
review and approve the final design for
Starship's heat shield tiles. This
affects whether we can safely land
humans on Mars. Level three, transformational.
transformational.
Make the final decision on Tesla's next
Gigafactory location. This determines
our production capacity for the next
decade. Level three, transformational.
Record this podcast to share these
productivity insights.
This could help thousands of people work
more effectively. Level three, transformational.
transformational.
Notice what's not on the list. Reviewing
weekly sales reports. Level one,
delegated to my team. Approving
marketing budgets. Level two, I trust my
CMO. Attending the quarterly board prep
meeting. Level one, I'll read the
summary. Each of those things is
important, but none of them is
transformational. None of them moves us
closer to our biggest goals as much as
my three chosen focus areas. This isn't
about ignoring everything else. It's
about being clear on what gets your full
attention versus what gets handled by
your systems and your team. Last week,
my three things were personally test
drive the latest full self-driving beta.
If I'm going to put this technology in
customer hands, I need to understand
exactly how it performs. Level three,
design the structural changes needed for
Starship to carry 100 passengers. Mars
colonization requires scale. Level
three, finalize the acquisition strategy
for the lithium mining company. Tesla's
future depends on battery supply chain
control. Level three, three things. Each
one could change the trajectory of our
companies. Each one required my specific
expertise and decision-making authority.
Each one moved us significantly closer
to goals that matter. But here's the
key. I didn't just identify these three
things. I protected them. The protection
protocol, identifying your three things
is only half the battle. The other half
is protecting them from everything else
that'll try to steal your attention.
Here's my system. Time blocking. Each of
my three things gets a dedicated block
of uninterrupted time. Not 30 minutes
between meetings. Not multitasking while
on calls. Dedicated focused deep work
time. Communication boundaries. During
my three things time, I'm unavailable.
My assistant knows not to interrupt me
except for genuine emergencies. My phone
is off. Slack is closed. The world can
wait. Decision pre-commitment. Before I
start working on my three things, I
decide in advance how I'll handle
distractions. If someone asks me about
X, I'll schedule it for tomorrow. If Y
problem comes up, I'll delegate it to Z
person. Energy management. I do my three
things when my energy is highest, not
when it's convenient. For me, that's
usually between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Everything else gets scheduled around
these blocks. measurement. At the end of
each day, I measure my success not by
how many things I did, but by how much
progress I made on my three things. Did
I move the needle on what actually
matters? Uh, this system requires
discipline. It requires saying no to
smart people with reasonable requests.
It requires uh disappointing people who
think their urgent issue is more
important than your important work.
But that's the price of creating
something meaningful. That's the cost of
having real impact instead of just being
busy. The multitasking myth, let me
address something directly. The idea
that multitasking makes you more
productive is not just wrong, it's
actively harmful. Every time you switch
between tasks, your brain has to
refocus. That refocusing takes time and
energy. Studies show it can take up to
23 minutes to fully concentrate on a new
task after an interruption. If you're
constantly switching between things,
checking email while on calls, while
thinking about your next meeting, you're
never fully present for any of them.
You're operating at partial capacity all
day long. But it gets worse.
Multitasking doesn't just reduce the
quality of your work, it reduces the
quality of your thinking. When your
attention is fragmented, you can't make
the kind of deep connections that lead
to breakthrough insights. The best ideas
I've ever had, the ones that led to
Tesla success to SpaceX's innovations to
Neurolink's breakthroughs, they all came
during periods of deep focused work on
single problems, never while
multitasking. Your brain is not a
computer processor. It can't run
multiple programs simultaneously without
performance degradation. It's more like
a spotlight. Incredibly powerful when
focused, but weak when spread across
multiple targets. This is why the three
things system works so well. It gives
your brain permission to focus. It
creates the conditions for your highest
quality thinking. It it allows you to
operate at full capacity instead of
partial capacity. what this looks like
for you. You might be thinking, "This
sounds great for a CEO, but I'm not
running multiple companies. I have a
boss. I have deadlines. I have meetings
I can't skip." I get it, but the
principles still apply, even if the
execution looks different. If you're an
employee, your three things might be
complete the analysis that will inform
next quarter's strategy. Have the
difficult conversation with your
underperforming team member. prototype
the solution to the customer complaint
pattern you've identified. If you're
starting a business, your three things
might be talk to 10 potential customers
to validate your product idea, build the
minimum viable version of your core
feature, research and reach out to
potential investors or partners. If
you're a student, your three things
might be master the concept that will be
most important for your upcoming exam.
Uh work on the project that showcases
your abilities to potential employers.
Build a relationship with a professor
who could become a valuable mentor. The
specifics change, but the principle
remains. Identify the few things that
create disproportionate value. Then
protect your time and energy for those
things. Even if you can't control your
entire schedule, you can probably
control some of it. Maybe it's the first
hour of your day. Maybe it's your lunch
break. Maybe it's the time after dinner
before you watch television. Find
pockets of time when you can work on
what actually matters and guard those
pockets ruthlessly. The compound effect.
Here's what happens when you
consistently apply the three things
system. Week one, you feel weird because
you're not as busy as usual, but you
notice you're making more meaningful
progress. Month one, you start seeing
results from the things you've been
focusing on. Problems get solved,
projects get completed, skills get
developed. Month three, other people
start noticing your increased
effectiveness. You're not just busier,
you're better. Month six, the compound
effect kicks in. The progress you made
in months 1 to three creates new
opportunities which create more progress
which creates more opportunities.
Year 1, you look back and realize you've
accomplished more in 12 months than you
did in the previous 3 years combined.
This isn't theory. This is what happened
when I applied this system consistently.
Tesla went from near bankruptcy to the
most valuable car company in the world.
Not because we worked more hours, but
because we focused on the few things
that actually mattered. Battery
technology, manufacturing efficiency,
and autonomous driving. SpaceX went from
exploding rockets to regularly launching
astronauts. Not because we tried to
solve every problem at once, but because
we focused on the three core challenges: propulsion,
propulsion,
guidance, and recovery. The same
principle applies to personal
productivity. Small improvements in
focus compound into massive improvements
in results. Advanced strategies. Once
you've mastered the basic three things
system, here are some advanced
strategies I use. Weekly three things.
Beyond daily three things, I identify
three things for each week. These are
bigger projects that might take multiple
days but still create disproportionate
value. Monthly three things. Even bigger
picture. What are the three major
initiatives that will define this month?
These guide my weekly and daily choices.
Quarterly three things. The three major
goals for the quarter. Everything else
is measured against these. The 8020th
analysis. Regularly ask yourself what
20% of what I'm doing creates 80% of my
results. Then do more of that 20% and
less of everything else. The regret
minimization framework. When choosing
between options, ask, "Which choice will
I regret least in 10 years?" This helps
distinguish between what feels urgent
and what actually matters. Energy
mapping. Track your energy levels
throughout the day and schedule your
three things during your peak hours.
Don't waste your best energy on lowv
value activities. The two list strategy.
Warren Buffett's method. Write down your
top 25 goals. Circle the top five. Then
avoid the other 20 at all costs. They're
not your second priorities. They're
distractions from your real priorities.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake one, choosing three small things
instead of three important things.
Solution: Ask yourself, if I only
accomplished these three things this
year, would I be satisfied with my
progress? Mistake two, letting urgent
things override important things.
Solution, remember that urgent rarely
means important. Important things rarely
feel urgent until it's too late. Mistake
three, not saying no to good
opportunities. Solution, good is the
enemy of great. Every yes to something
good is a no to something great. Mistake
four, trying to do three things simultaneously.
simultaneously.
Solution, focus on one thing at a time.
Three things per day doesn't mean
multitasking. Mistake five, not
measuring progress. Solution, track how
much time you actually spend on your
three things versus everything else. You
might be surprised. The deeper
philosophy, the three things system is
really about something deeper than
productivity. It's about intentionality.
It's about living a life designed by you
instead of dictated by circumstances.
Most people let their days happen to
them. They respond to whatever seems
most urgent, whatever makes the most
noise, whatever other people think is
important. But when you choose your
three things, you're taking control.
You're saying, "This is what matters to
me. This is how I want to spend my
finite time and energy. This is how I
want to move toward the future I'm
trying to create." It's a form of
personal sovereignty. Instead of being a
victim of your circumstances, you become
the architect of your results. This
philosophy extends beyond work. I apply
the same thinking to my personal life,
my relationships, my health, my
learning. In every area, I ask, what are
the few things that create
disproportionate value? For health, it
might be consistent sleep, daily
exercise, and stress management. For
relationships, it might be regular deep
conversations, shared experiences, and
acts of service. For learning, it might
be reading first principles books,
learning from direct experience, and
teaching others what I've learned. Three
things in each area. Not because more
isn't better, but because focus creates
better results than diffusion. The time
scarcity truth. Here's something most
people don't want to confront. You have
less time than you think. If you're 30
years old, you have about 17,000 days
left. If you're 40, you have about
13,000. If you're 50, you have about
9,000. That sounds like a lot. until you
realize how many of those days will be
spent sleeping, commuting, eating, doing
maintenance activities that don't create
lasting value. Your actual time for
meaningful work, for creating something
important, for building towards your
biggest goals, that's probably two to
three HRs per day on average. That's 700
1,000 hours per year. That's your entire
allocation for changing your life,
building your career, creating your
legacy. Do you really want to waste that
time on things that don't matter? The
three things system isn't just about
productivity. It's about honoring the
limited time you have by spending it on
what actually counts. Building your
system. Here's your action plan for
implementing the three things system.
Week one, observation. Track everything
you do for one week. Every meeting,
every email, every task. Categorize each
activity as level one, maintenance,
level two, optimization, or level three, transformation.
transformation.
You'll probably be shocked by how much
time you spend on level one. Week two, identification.
identification.
Start each day by identifying your three
things before you do anything else.
Write them down. Be specific. Make sure
at least two of them are level three
activities. Week three, protection.
Begin protecting time for your three
things. Block calendar time. Turn off
notifications during focus work.
Practice saying no to requests that
don't align with your priorities. Week
four, measurement. At the end of each
day, rate how well you executed on your
three things. What percentage of your
time went to activities that actually
matter? What got in the way? How can you
improve tomorrow? Month two and beyond,
refinement. Continuously improve your
system. What patterns do you notice?
What obstacles keep appearing? How can
you design your environment to make
success easier? The ultimate question.
Let me leave you with the question that
changed everything for me. If you could
only work 3 hours per day, what would
you work on? Not what you should work
on. Not what your boss wants you to work
on. not what feels most urgent. What
would you work on if you only had three
hours to create value? Whatever your
answer is, that's what deserves your
focus now, even if you have more than 3
hours available. Because here's the
truth. More time doesn't make you more
effective. Better choices do. The three
things system isn't about doing less so
you can be lazy. It's about doing less
so you can be legendary. It's about
choosing progress over activity, impact
over effort, results over busyiness.
Your three things are waiting. The
question is, are you brave enough to
ignore everything else? Subscribe to
this channel if this changed. How you
think about productivity.
Share it with someone who's drowning in
their to-do list. And most importantly,
go identify your three things for
tomorrow. The world doesn't need another
busy person. It needs more people who
create extraordinary results by focusing
on what actually matters. Your three
things, not 30, not 300, three. That's
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