No More Busywork: Tips and Tools to Automate Tasks

Imagine it’s Wednesday and you have a big assignment due at the end of the week. You plant your bottom at your desk, iced coffee at the ready, with every intention of buckling down and doing the work. But as soon as you open your laptop, there are dozens of tasks begging for your attention. There’s new data you need to copy-paste into Excel; team members who need to schedule meetings and are asking for your availability; and a notification reminding you that you’re due for a computer back-up.

Instead of letting simple tasks steal your time away from what matters most, automate them! When you automate a task, you program a computer (or other machine) to do it for you. Whether you’re a freelancer or the CEO of a large enterprise, automation tools can truly transform your workday and even your personal life.

If you’re interested in spending less time on the mundane and more time on the meaningful, then keep on reading.

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The benefit of automating tasks

The most obvious benefit of workflow automation is time saved. How much time do you spend on run-of-the-mill tasks like updating spreadsheets, uploading social media posts, and scheduling meetings? 

Even better, what would you do if you had more time?

You might engage in more deep work, be more present with your loved ones, or follow more creative pursuits. Our society has long praised the hustling, busybee archetype, but we’re now waking up to the idea that busywork isn’t necessarily valuable. And it certainly doesn’t help our stress levels.

When you automate your work, you streamline your day and create room for more of what you love.

Other benefits are that automation reduces human error (especially when it comes to tasks involving data entry), it can help prevent burnout, and it can help you be more productive.

Examples of tasks that can be automated

Let’s take a look at the types of tasks that are perfect candidates for automation. Which of these would you be happy to move off your plate?

• Repetitive tasks: Smartsheet found that workers are most eager to automate repetitive tasks like data collection, approvals, and updates.
• Social media posts: Struggling to post consistently? Use an automation system like Hootsuite to plan your content and upload to all your channels at a scheduled cadence.
• Administrative tasks: Many activities can count as administrative work, but the most common are data entry, scheduling, and email — simple tasks that add up when you do them manually.
• Spreadsheets: Got more important things to do than put together that spreadsheet? Automate it. Popular spreadsheet apps like Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel have a plethora of shortcuts that automatically format your cells, make calculations, create reports, and more.
• Project management: If you use a project management software (e.g. Asana, ClickUp, Trello), take full advantage of its automation features. For example, you could automate notifications and reminders, reviews and approvals, and bottleneck identification. You could also create templates that serve as the framework for your most common project types.

How to find out which tasks should be automated

When figuring out which tasks to automate, think about your Genius Zone. Your Genius Zone (also called your Zone of Genius) is the space where these two things overlap: 1) the things you love doing; 2) the things you’re good at doing. Put another way, they’re high-passion and high-proficiency activities.

Your goal is to spend more time in that sweet spot — and to automate, delegate, or eliminate all the tasks that aren’t in your Genius Zone. Pull out a paper and pen, or open a fresh document, and start to list out your daily activities. Walk yourself through a typical day.

Take all the tasks that land outside your Genius Zone — these are the ones you can automate using tools like the ones we’ll cover in the next section. We suggest that you automate your work first, then revisit this exercise with your personal tasks.

Tools for workflow and task automation

Now, let’s get to the good stuff! Below, we’ll cover our favorite task automation software that’ll streamline your day — whether you’re a small business owner or a contributing member of a large enterprise!

Zapier

Zapier is a no-code automation platform that connects over 5,000 apps. Since it’s compatible with so many apps, from productivity to CRM platforms, you’re certain to discover an automation that works for you. If you’re someone who uses an overwhelming number of apps, Zapier is great because it’ll bring cohesion to all your tools.

Zapier calls their automations Zaps. To create your own Zap, start with an app, then choose a trigger and action. For example, maybe you want to automatically send an email to people who fill out the online forms on your webpages. You’d start with Typeform, then set your trigger as “new Typeform entry” and your action as “send email in Gmail.”

It’s a simple way to get your apps talking to each other without any manual data entry. Just note that this “talking” isn’t real-time. Depending on your Zapier plan, Zapier transfers data between your apps every one to 15 minutes.

IFTTT

IFTTT stands for If This Then That. Like Zapier, it lets you automate tasks through the power of integration. IFTTT is compatible with about 700 apps and services, notably less than Zapier’s selection. The plus side? You pay less for similar features. Zapier charges at least $19.99 per month for 20 automations, including multi-step automations. IFTTT charges only $2.50 per month for the same.

Since Zapier and IFTTT both offer free trials, we suggest trying out both task automation tools. You might discover that IFTTT has all the functionality you need. Or, you might find that Zapier is worth their pricing!

Slack

Zapier and IFTTT are both considered IPaaS solutions, which stands for Integration Platform as a Service. However, you don’t need a third-party service to automate your workflows. Many apps have built-in automations that you can start taking advantage of today! Let’s start with an app you likely already use — Slack.

Here are a few examples of things you can automate in everyone’s favorite workplace communication tool:

• Send information to a Google Sheet (no more copying and pasting required)
• Schedule recurring messages
• Streamline the onboarding process by sending key information to anyone who joins their team channel
• Automatically turn on Do Not Disturb mode when you’re in a meeting

That’s just a snippet of how Slack lets you optimize your day with workflow automation, either through Workflow Builder or Slack API. Check out Slack’s tutorials and knowledge base to discover even more ways you can automate daily tasks.

Gmail

Out of all the administrative tasks, email is the most universal, the most mundane, and the most time-consuming. Thankfully, Gmail has several native features that let you bring the power of automation into your daily email workflow.

Our favorite way to automate our Gmail inboxes is by using filters. You’re probably already familiar with the filter that automatically weeds out junk mail and labels it as spam. But, there are so many more ways to filter your inbox, without having to do it manually.

Here are a few examples:

• Automatically forward any emails you receive from Person X to Person Y
• Add “Receipts” label to any email with the words “order confirmation” in its subject line or body
• Mark any emails from Person Z as important

Be sure to check out our full blog post all about Gmail filters here. We’ll break down everything you can do with filters and how to create one in a few simple steps.

Google Calendar

Want the perks of hiring a personal assistant without having to pay someone? Clockwise is a time orchestration platform that does all your scheduling, so that you don’t have to.

Just connect it to Google Calendar, input your preferences, and watch as Clockwise:

• Frees up uninterrupted time for you to focus on whatever matters most
• Reschedules meeting conflicts without the dreaded back-and-forth
• Optimizes your calendar to reflect your preferences (e.g. what time of day you prefer to have your meetings, when you like to take your lunch break, etc.)

Asana

Not only is Asana one of the best project management apps out there; it’s packed with features that let you automate your workflows. In Asana, automated workflows are called Rules. And get this — teams who use Asana report that Rules help them save over 70 steps every week. That’s a lot of time saved!

Here are a few examples of what you can automate in Asana:

• Update dependencies when deadlines shift
• Create custom project templates so you don’t have to start your projects from scratch every time
• Standardize the process of submitting and accepting work requests

Along with Asana’s Form Builder, which lets you create custom Rules, there’s also a selection of pre-made Rules and third party integrations that you can start using immediately! Just to save you even more time.

Moving forward

Work smarter, not harder — with automation. Chances are that there are several manual tasks in your workload that you can automate today. 

To take back your time, start by taking inventory of your daily routines, business processes, etc. Automate all the tasks that don’t fall within your Zone of Genius. We recommend starting with scheduling, data entry, and emails. Use task automation software like Zapier or IFTTT, or use the automation features that are built into the tools you’re already using.