Automate Your Busywork

Automate Your Busywork is a step-by-step guide to getting rid of your most dreaded tasks, fueled by the simple but sophisticated “Automation Flywheel,” which will help you reduce stress, get more done, and find time for your most meaningful work.

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice gets lost, then asks for directions — but without a destination, the Cheshire cat can only tell her: “It doesn’t matter which way you go.” Similarly, to eliminate tedious tasks, you must know what’s annoying, dull, and repetitive vs. what’s meaningful, impactful, and fun. If you don’t see clearly, you will stay lost in the forest of busyness.

To find this clarity, take 15 minutes to write down your most dreaded tasks. Your gut will already have an idea, and this initial “Fix It” list is a great starting point. In the second half of those 15 minutes, discern meaningful work with 3 questions:

What do you enjoy doing the most? What would you like to save your brain power for? What delivers the most impact?

Next, do a “busywork audit” to figure out what to automate first, using whichever time frame feels easiest:

Hourly – Pause after every hour of work to write down how valuable the activity was and how you feel about doing it. Periodic – Stop at 3-4 inflection points throughout your day to note down frustrations, how much time you spent in flow, and which unexpected tasks popped up. Daily – Take 10 minutes at the end of your day to write down whether you accomplished what you set out to do. Comparison – At the end of the day, take some notes on how you planned the day would go vs. how it actually went.

Tracking your busywork vs. important work for a few days will give you automation ideas for weeks — and that’s when you get rolling!

Once you have a list of tasks to automate, you can get to work with Tank’s “Automation Flywheel” model. (Image taken from the book) The model has 3 phases consisting of 2 steps each: Divide & Conquer: First, you identify why and how you feel overwhelmed, then you break down the task into a series of steps, a workflow that can be automated. Design & Implement: After drawing a visual map of your workflow, you implement your automation using the latest technology that fits your criteria. Refine & Iterate: Once your automation is up and running, you define relevant metrics to measure its success, then continue to test, change, and improve as you go. There’s a lot to this model, which Tank refined over decades, but for now, let’s remember that, first, automation is an ongoing process. This reflects the…