According to Forbes, he's amassed a fortune worth $198 billion, making him the world's third-richest person. Musk said he didn't get there by working 40 hours a week. The billionaire is known to have a strenuous schedule that he said has demanded 120-hour workweeks in the past.
Still, the South African mogul has similarities to the average Joe in his routine. Like many of us, Musk has a sweet treat in the morning and spends time scrolling social media.
Here's how his days go, according to interviews and posts by Musk himself over the years.
Musk wakes up around 9 a.m. and has said he starts every morning with a doughnutDoughnuts seem to be a big part of Musk's daily diet.
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Musk told The Wall Street Journal in 2023 that he usually goes to bed around 3 a.m. and sleeps for six hours. So, he's typically waking up around 9 a.m. each day.
He might've been trolling when he wrote a response to a doctor that same year on X saying he eats "a donut every morning," but a quick search of Musk's posts reveals he's quite a fan of the pastry.
But, it's all about moderation, according to Musk.
"I only have 0.4 donuts at a time, because my brain neural network quantizes it down to 0 donuts," he posted to X in October.
His mornings usually start with his phone in his handMusk is active on X almost every day.
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Musk said in 2022 that he was trying to break the cycle of checking his phone as soon as he woke up. While on the Full Send Podcast, Musk described it as "a terrible habit" he hoped to escape.
But as of last year, he still wakes up and immediately looks at his phone for emergencies, the Journal reported.
If his posts on X (formerly Twitter) are any indication, the habit persists. He's been active on Twitter since before he bought it in 2022.
It's unclear if Musk slots in time to post and respond to others each day, but it certainly looks like he rarely takes a day off from the app.
"Some days I wake up and look at Twitter to see if it's still working," Musk told Walter Isaacson in the "Elon Musk" biography.
Showering is an important part of his daily routineMusk has at times lived in the places where he worked.
During an AMA session on Reddit in 2015, a user asked which of his daily habits impacted his life the most.
"Showering," Musk responded.
He decides which Tesla to commute to the office inElon Musk first revealed the Cybertruck in late 2019.
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As the CEO of one of the leading EV makers, it's no surprise that Musk has more than one option for his daily commute.
When an X user posted a meme about deciding between driving a Cybertruck without autopilot or Tesla Model S with self-driving technology, Musk responded that it's a choice he faces "every day."
It's unclear if Musk is keeping up with the daily lifting routine he spoke about in 2023Musk has expressed his distaste for working out in the past
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Like many, Musk appears to have had ups and downs in his relationship with physical exercise over the years. In 2021, he told Joe Rogan that he'd avoid it altogether if he could.
"I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids & throwing them in the air," he said on X in June 2023.
Sometimes, his work days can last all nightSpaceX is Musk's rocket-manufacturing company.
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Musk has admitted on several occasions that running more than one company isn't easy. He splits time between his companies depending on the "crisis of the moment," the 52-year-old said in 2021.
One X user pointed out in January 2023 that Musk had testified in a lawsuit in the morning, attended an event at a Nevada Tesla factory in the evening, and worked with Tesla on AI at night — all in one day.
Musk responded that he'd also spent time at "Twitter HQ past midnight."
And then was at Twitter HQ past midnight. Very long day.
"I go to sleep, I wake up, I work, go to sleep, wake up, work—do that seven days a week," Musk told the Journal in 2023. "I'll have to do that for a while — no choice — but I think once Twitter is set on the right path, I think it is a much easier thing to manage than SpaceX or Tesla."
On the Tesla earnings call in April 2024, Musk said: "Tesla constitutes the majority of my work time, and I work pretty much every day of the week. It's rare for me to take a Sunday afternoon off."
Musk goes to bed around 3 a.m. and gets about 6 hours of sleep every nightElon Musk is veering away from all-nighters, he told CNBC.
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Although he's not getting eight hours a night, Musk has upped his sleeping schedule from being nearly nonexistent in the past.
In May 2023, Musk told CNBC that he's no longer pulling all-nighters. Instead, he said he tries to get at least six hours of sleep.
According to Isaacson's biography of Musk, the billionaire has spent many nights awake and pondering the issues his companies face. His former partner Claire Boucher — known by her stage name Grimes — also told Isaacson that Musk once stayed up all night playing the "Elden Ring" video game when it first came out.
After purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk all but moved into its San Francisco headquarters. He said there's a couch in the library that he would crash on from time to time.
