Automation: where to start (and what to avoid)

01Start with the dumbest task

The right candidate isn't the most complex one, it's the most repetitive: the one done several times a week, always the same way, requiring no judgement.

Copying a form into a spreadsheet. Sending the same confirmation email. Chasing an unpaid invoice. Creating a client record from a signed quote. That's where the lost hours are.

02The calculation that decides

Multiply how long the task takes by how often it happens in a year. Ten minutes, three times a week, is twenty-six hours a year.

Compare that with the one-off cost of automating it. If it doesn't pay back within a year, it probably isn't the right first task.

Then count the errors avoided. Manual re-entry goes wrong regularly, and a forgotten invoice costs far more than the minutes it takes.

03The classic mistakes

Automating a broken process. If the sequence is wrong, automating it just produces the same mistakes faster. Tidy first, automate second.

Automating everything at once. A contraption nobody understands gets unplugged the first time it jams.

Forgetting the failure case. What happens when a tool doesn't answer? An automation with no alert is an invisible automation the day it stops.

04Your current tools are usually enough

Your mailbox, calendar, invoicing software and CRM can nearly all talk to each other. Most of the work is wiring them properly, not replacing them.

Changing tools while automating is the surest way to fail at both.

05Where to start, in order

Write the task down as it happens today, step by step. Writing it down alone usually reveals two useless steps.

Automate one task, let it run for two weeks, check it produces no surprises. Then move to the next.