Timeboxing: Elon Musk's Time Management Method 

Another thing I've noticed about not being able to follow plans to the letter -- It really doesn't mean that you've wasted your time on planning or that planning doesn't work. I've noticed that I always manage to get a LOT more work done when I follow a plan, even if imperfectly, than if I hadn't planned at all. And like Thomas said, you can always look at what went wrong and improve on your planning skills thereafter. Great video!

We used to be bullied at school because we are nerds, but now we are taking over the world.

I know some people think it’s crazy but I even block out time to be spontaneous...like recess when we were in elementary school. No plan, just a block of time where I set my time and just go. This makes it much more enjoyable because I’ve given myself permission!

Here's my #1 tip for saving time when watching youtube videos... Go to settings, click playback speed, choose 1.5 or any faster speed where you can still comprehend the speach. That's it. It seems like every YT video I watch these days is over 10 minutes and many over 1 hour. @ 1.5 speed I can watch a 60 minute video in 45 minutes, saving 15 minute of my valuable time.

4:55 _"You and me both are human beings"_ 2:10 _"You humans"_ I'm on to you Thomas the Frank engine!

Love timeboxing! Just finished a 15-hour work day and my entire day was blocked out. I don't agree that it makes you a robot. In contrast, it gives your mind the freedom to think critically!

This is so perfect as a person with ADHD I tend to start many projects and never finish them cause I get bored and want to move on....trying to find a way to implement this into my life

I’ve been doing timeboxing for such a long time and I didn’t even know it had a name!😅

That smooth batman editing tho

"you humans... we humans**" ZUCCCCC

For me, timeboxing comes like natural. When planning, or you know how long a task will take and can plan accordingly, or you don't know or aren't sure, you timebox the work and re-plan depending on the results. This also makes sure you do all your tasks. I even started timeboxing game time lately. I work as R&D software engineer where this is also used a lot.

I mean... I like thomas videos and all but... I tryied planning my routines like this... using apps and everything... I find I'm way less productive, because I spend so much time on the actual planning.

Whenever I DON'T plan my day, I waste my day. Thank you for this video.

Time Boxing! You know what? I like it. That's what I've been doing, just didn't know how to label it. Works great. I got an oven timer from the dollar store. Wrote 'GAME TIME' across the top of it! The constant, 'tic-tic-tic', keeps me focused. I'm a writer (if that's useful to anyone) and most of my job is to use my imagination. I love my job, but, dang it's so easy to lose track of time and think about totally unrelated stuff. Any one who's like me and waits last minute to write a paper and for some reason when that adrenaline kicks in, you find yourself a freak genius. All of a sudden you get flooded with info you had no idea you knew. Get an A or B, like, "WTF, why couldn't I do that sooner." Anyway, an oven timer can help with that, helps jolt that "NOW" sensation. To bad my family doesn't see the same beauty in it that I do. But the term, TIME BOXING, is also useful, because it makes me feel like a boxer. I love the gym, I understand physical training. Despite the stereotype that jocks are stupid, learning how to exercise my body, helped me learn to exercise my brain. Oven timer helps gauge the intensity to build mind endurance. Helps me know when it's okay to relax or, no, get my mind back on track, I"m slacking (like right now). That term alone helped me immensely. Anyway, because most are here for self improvement, good luck to everyone. God Bless.

time is like a strong horse, it must be controlled to be beneficial. we agree or not, time management is a first skill to be learned in order to make great accomplishments.

I like using GCal for time-blocking since it lets me track my previous months and see how I used my time (I color-code my tasks according to project), including rests and non-work activities. It’s also pretty easy to revise along the way but only when necessary. Aaand that cross-platform sync is a plus

Actually, people are robots when they don't box their time. Think about it: everytime someone didn't plan how to spend his time will end up doing again the same 4 or 5 things, for example using facebook or play games ect depending of his habits. There is no choice in that, we just follow mechanically an old program, exactly like a machine. If something stops that program, it will trigger another or maybe because of this new impression we can be able to ask ourselves "am I doing something useful for myself?". I'm not just talking about bad habits but all of our habits, for example the way someone brushes his teeth or stays on the sofa. During the execution of a habit we don't really realize what is happening, why we are acting in that way. When Musk tells his employees "I want you to think until your head hurts" I believe he deeply understands these things and wish his staff don't act mechanically.

Elon Musk is truly inspirational, I wish someday I will be like him I don't know why but I feel like you've done a video on him before on the same topic or some sought. Love your videos Thomas I always learn something new.

Hi. I'm director of operations (SE Asia) for Mr.Musk's engineering and design concepts and we use Elon's time management methods. He calls this 'Time poaching' or 'Poaching'. It's never referred to as boxing or blocking. Thanks for such an enthusiastic piece. Namaste.

I love the music, and slight changing of scene to keep interest. Green hand while writing the schedule, change on monitors to spongebob, batman mask. Those are the ones off the top of my head. Great video!

Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

how many apps does this guy even have in his phone?

This is one of the MOST practical and informative videos on the internet about scheduling. Thank you so much for your work putting this together!

01:26 Time Boxing Definition 01:36 Timeboxing Explained 01:59 Why Timebox your Schedule 03:11 How to Use Timeboxing 04:48 How to properly Estimate how long task are going to take you to Complete 06:21 Tracking Your Time 07:12 Time Boxing Myth 07:52 Reactionary Time

That's why I left my assignments till the last hour, so that I can spend that hour efficiently and not waste any more time on them.

I've been learning so many things on your channel! I love all of your videos from Japan!

NO, HE DOES NOT USE THIS METHOD... there is lots of bs about him in the media... "I definitely don’t do this 5 minute thing. Need to have long uninterrupted times to think. Can’t be creative otherwise." ~ literally Elon fing Musk on Twitter...

What a super video. I've tried time blocking for a few years now, and my little tweak re: distractions is identifying which one can be moved for the next day (otherwise, I may never sleep LOL). It has helped me with prioritizing tasks as well. And Thomas, I subscribed because Bryson's book is also one of my all-time favourites. Keep up the good stuff!

I love time blocking. It’s just so helpful even to see what you CAN accomplish in a day, so as not to overschedule.

I remember when I scheduled every day of my weeks to the minute. I was going to college full time, working part time, sleeping plenty, working out, illustrating my comic, and playing video games. I was a raging locomotive of productivity. I need to go back to doing that.

Personal summary. Correct me, if I'm wrong. One of the best things to accomplish more is time-boxing. Time-boxing is a technique, where you separate your day time into blocks of time, where each block is assigned a specific task. This techique works for several reasons: 1) The effect when a task takes as much time that you allocate for it. So if you allocate 2h for a task, it will take 2h. If you allocate 3h, it will take 3h. etc. Time-blocks give you constraints (which I'm not entirely sure why that works better). 2) It gives you clear focus on what you need to work. There're several struggles with the technique: 1) Bad estimations of time for each task. You can either with time learn how to allocate time better or you can use toggle. 2) How to deal with interruptions. One way is you can allocate specific time for interruptions. Another way is you can simply rewrite your schedule after an interruption occurs.

I really like all the different categories of your content. I found your content to be pretty effective and it's really working for me. Thank you so much for existing to us. You made it clear for my 2020 visions.🧠💪

Considering I woke up at 3:02PM today, I need this ....Elon boy you'd better save my unproductive self

(I don't stand by my comment from 5 years ago, but thanks for liking anyways:)

I tried Elon Musks schedule and HES def a crazy hard worker

This is the best explanation of how to use time blocking I’ve seen. Other explanations have left me feeling like it’s just too difficult and undoable. After watching your video, I think I can adapt this technique and add value to my day. Thanks, Thomas!

Thomas you look fresh af in that shirt

Thomas, I have to say your editing skills are getting better and better with each video! It's awesome to see how your editing has changed from the beginning! I hope at some point you make a video about your book collection, from paperback to audiobook to ebook. It would be nice to see literally all the books you have and how your interests vary from non-fiction and fiction. I guess you can make it a special video for your subscribers? Either way, thanks a lot for all the work you put in into each upload!

It says 30/30 is not available in the U.S. 😢

I'm doing the set a timer for 20 to 25 minutes thing lately and its working great! Gives a lot of variety to my day.

Green hand?

Just when I think your editing can't get any better, you prove me wrong x)

The appropriately placed, non-cheesy, bits of humor in this video make this a five-star production. 8)

I LOVE the "unpredictable" Batman mask!😂

Hey Thomas, can you advertise your podcast channel more please? Most people don't actually know about it and I think it would be a great find for most people

Thanks Thomas for sharing this with us. Truly appreciate your hard work and efforts.

(This is a Message to Thomas that made this Video.) I know this Video is Quite Old now sense it was made Three Years ago but I like it very much. I'm a Average Person who has a Awful Schedule and I admit I for the Most Part don't have One with Enormous amount thing's I have to do as well as to many unpredictable interruptions Through Out My Day's. I felt this was a Example with Good Explanation and Amazing Advice for Anyone that might need a Schedule in their life and I Hope it'll help Anyone with Your Knowledge on this Subject. It's a Amazing Video and I love it. ❤ 😂 I wasn't Looking for something like this and was Searching what My Type of Books I Read mean in My Personality but I feel Happy to Come Across this and Thank You for the Learning Experience.

DUDE! Ima make it a point to watch your content. I love Toggl now! Thanks for the plug. So cool with the color-coded projects + hashtags. Everything I do going forward I'm going to time. I did it with popcorn so I never leave the thing to burn, now I never burn my popcorn.

*Watching this video at **3:50** AM* It was not in my schedule, honestly!

The small book "30 Days to Overcome Procrastination" by Corin Devaso is a nice book to have on hand. It uses a mindfulness and inquiry approach.

Great. Now I know more about scheduling shifts and thus I can work more efficiently, effectively, and maximize my income.

What is more important than time efficiency is deciding what is important, what is valuable, what is sustainable what helps the most people. Being efficient at things which are not beautiful, wholesome, healthy and fun, might make you money but not make you happy.. Organize if you want but remember to dream beautiful dreams the 'chunks' of time may well and better follow

Loved the humor in the video - and the info is very useful. I remember Thomas talking about how he spent a lot of time trying to make his videos funny by writing a joke or referencing something during his explanations, and I think he nailed it on this one. Great video, really good pacing!

The production value of this video is extremely well-executed. Well done!

That part of the average time vs best case scenario time was really important. I've tried this method several time through out my life and always lost to it and became discouraged. I Appreciate that I learned I wasn't so broken and that I could give it another try.

Great video Thomas. Started to see your videos to share with my daughter in college but found these very useful for me. I think you have great tips not just for students but all knowledge workers.

Great video with huge value! Thank you very much for it! One of the only videos that I will watch again at regular intervals. Thank you for this content!

You have the most well integrated sponsor segments I've ever seen.

I love how we can see your green hand writing on the white board as if it was supposed to be cgi'ed out but you didn't have an extra 5-min of time to block.

First I thought you are one of those millions guys in RU-vid that talk to much, interrupting crucial advice/interviews from interesting people such as Elon. But everything is on the point, short without excessive talking. Thank you 👍👍 Subscribed. Wish to have more time management tips especially for irrational creative personality types.

Hey, How are you? This was fab as usual! Love from England 😊💖

I just blew through two blocks watching this video! Thanks a lot!!!

Here is another way to "Time Block" which i have used since the early 1990s. I call it Game Day and what is different is that i make sure and schedule time for practice (to get better) an off season and days to do the work. All of this is designed based upon professional sports teams and how they are always getting better at what they do. We should get better at what we do as well. It does not look at estimated time for doing a task (we all suck at that). It does say how much time each day can be spent on a particular activity and that time constraint and the routine (such as knowing that Thursdays always have a large block of time for learning) makes you more productive..

If I was applying the time boxing technique instead of scrolling aimlessly through RU-vid from time to time (like now) I wouldn’t have come across this great video on time boxing. Irony? Call it what you like but it proves that aimlessly wasting time from time to time can get you to places.

Wow Thomas, you nailed this content to the point you got my like, my sub - and as soon as you mentioned a brief history, you've sold me on finally pulling the trigger on audible and I will use your code. Scored the hatrick mate, great job. I'm half way through hard copy of Bill Bryson's 'the body' right now. keep up the great work!

Ive been fine tuning being a Renaissance woman, this is great info!

I see much confusion in the vid and in the comments. Calendar Blocking is a technique for planning a day or week. Time Boxing is a technique of saying „I will spend not more than X hours on this task“ while the time you run this box is flexible. Pomodoro just says that you spend X minutes of concentrated work and then take a break. You could combine all methods, but you could also use them individually.

Hi Thomas and everyone, Patrick here from Mind Life Flow. Interesting video on time management - we can all benefit from new ways to manage our time to allow us to spend more time on things we enjoy! Thanks

Hey Thomas!🙋🏻 I absolutely love all of your videos but this one's my favorite. 👏🏻

I'm happy both consider this topic in our channels... Thanks

Another trick for dealing with bad estimates: before you make your prediction consider the best case and the *worst* case. Then think about which things are most likely to go wrong. After all three of those steps you can make a most likely case somewhere between those two. This process helps to keep you from lying to yourself by forcing you to think about some of the things that can go wrong. It's like a tiny risk assessment exercise. Combining this with data I collected about how long things actually took. Then, comparing it to my best and worst case estimates while considering what went wrong that I didn't anticipate has helped me to get better at estimating.

"Time bloxing" adorable portmanteau joke, cute time travel pun, and /r/totallynotrobots humor all in the first few minutes ... I fell hard for this channel a while ago, but with every new video, I'm even happier that I did! XD

"TOM the secret service wants you again." "again?" lol

Continue making awesome videos!!!

Hard working and patience are the keys of any success

Amazing video! I've actually "watch it" before, but last time, mainly only heard it. This time you crack me up with the little snippets on the middle of the video. Batman was very cool :)

Yes and you make this kind of planning for 5 hrs and work 19 hrs.

Really good tips!! Also your gf is adorable ❤️❤️

4:20 And you can also use clock on your phone it's free by the way

Thanks a lot for choosing to help us. 🙏

"You humans" made me laugh mid-stretch, thank you for making such great and entertaining videos.

I wanted to learn how to manage my time And for this I've been passing time watching videos on time management 😅😅

The concept of blocking and all the other time management ideas shared here are great. Thank you. However, putting everything into 'Apps' and using this to schedule and connect to other calenders, opens a whole array of personal security issues. For one, all your daily tasks are known by the App creators, regardless of what they tell you in their fine print (they are data-mining). While this might not be such a huge issue for mundane activities, its a massive problem in the long run (20-30 years). Sorry, not trying to detract from the time management techniques points here, but the good old days of privacy are gone... and we must be mindful of this.

Love this video! Time blocking is a great idea for managing your time and staying on schedule. Cheers!

This is REALLY difficult to do with code. Today I had 3 hours and my goal was to write these 3 methods I had planned, I didnt even finish (the easiest) one. That being said, I did do alot of other work, writing test cases writing the constructors for other methods I know I will need... but still, at 4pm I thought that 3 methods in 3 hours is a pretty lowball target. Anyway it looks like I will have to write another class for the other two and parse some strings I was hoping not to. My point is simply that it is very difficult to do a time estimation when you haven't done the task before, which is the case with all code. Even if you know the language really well, and have the logic mapped out, there can be things that change your plans.. as you said.

Great video! I think that you should have mentioned that blocking allows you to have more high-density fun, it would give a big boost to the "ups" of using this method. Another thing is, could you change the topic (or maybe the description) to "Time Blocking: The Method Elon Musk Uses to Manage His Time" (or in reverse), just so this video will be easier to find for people who are looking for time blocking videos? It also helps me a lot when just looking over the videos that I watched and thinking which one might be worth a re-watch.

Very helpful video+ the humourous style used for presentation=amazing!

This is a no-brainer. I came up with this years go by myself, but it didn't work out, because LIFE comes in between, sneaks in, people, unplanned things to do, and then everything fell apart..

"You humans- I mean, We humans..." Lmao

Im really liking the colour job you are making here

great point about how we tend to be overly optimistic in planning - which can negatively affect our time management. I know I tend to be overly optimistic when it comes to planning. Now I'm going to be more aware of it! :)

I saw this video in April tried follow the management but it didn't work at that time 😐. I saw this video in December and now its working quite fine. Idk how but its great 😄.

OOH THIS IS GOING TO BE A GOOD ONE

Man, Elon's work schedule is so crazy! But I love watching his interviews- he's always so real with the interviewer. I watched one last week where he was admitting he'd over-automated the Model 3 production line and was changing it. He's not afraid to admit he was wrong- he just wants to get it right.

I tried this method and I admit my productivity has increased.

Thanks for the helpful video! Had to watch this before planning my day and week to make sure I follow some best practices out there. 👍🏼

I cannot emphasize enough how USEFUL this video is. Thank you, Thomas. - Subscriber since 2017 :)

Great video. I'll try the time boxing technique.

Time boxing only works when you have buffer margins. But the really valuable conversations are the unofficial ones so don't forget to build in time for that. Today I had a long unscheduled call with a wise person that helped hugely. Worth wrecking my schedule. So be ready to wreck your schedule.

great content, presentation, and love the lighting, very nice