You’re bogged down with repetitive tasks. How can you automate your work and get more done?

If you aren't automating it, you are doing it wrong. If you have any task that is in any way mechanical 'Do this, then do that, copy over here, then do that' then you should investigate ways to automate the process. Many products include some form of automation capability and others can be connected together depending on what operation system you are using. You shouldn't ever feel that you are doing a repetitive job, if you do, then you should look at automation (before someone else does!).

Understanding how automation can help is simple. Start by looking at the tasks you do. How long do they take, and how often do you do them? Then, think about which tasks are most important. Imagine putting all these tasks on a chart. You can see which tasks take up the most time and which ones are most crucial. This helps you figure out which tasks to automate first. Some tasks are easy to automate and save a lot of time right away. Others might take longer but will save time in the future. I learned this from working with software. It's important to know what you're doing and why it matters. Once you understand that, you can focus on automating the right things. This saves time and makes everything run smoother.

Automation reminds me of an old fashioned " time and motion study " for those who can remember the process or methodology. Basically map out the process you are carrying out ensure it covers all requirements, then time each element within the process, this will also give you an estimate of how long each element takes and when it comes to the automation an estimate of time saved or the productivity achieved and costs saved. Once you have calculated the time and effort saved and therefore the cost savings it's a good idea to then work out your ROI and see if the automation makes sense in the first place. Don't automate for automation sake there needs to be a business value.

It's pretty simple to understand the potential impact of automation by listing tasks with the time to complete and number of times to complete within a period of time. By visualizing the total time cost of a task with respect to it's priority, one can estimate the time to automate the items to identify the low-hanging fruit (easy to automate / high time savings), as well as the longer-term goals (harder to automate / large time savings). This what working in software development taught me: understand your workflows and processes (bugs and features), find the value in automation (fixes / patches) and prioritize the automation (dev) efforts. It all starts with an honest understanding of both: what you really do and how important it is.

Regarding the tools/platforms, first analyse the tools capabilities, if they have all the functionalities to automate your tasks/processes. Second, you should consider the pricing models and licensing costs, so that you are able to calculate the ROI.

1) Be 100% certain you've documented workflows and assumptions with stakeholder support. 2) Implement in parallel to existing processes so that you have a paper / manual process to fall back to in downtime or if your solution does not work as intended. 3) Pilot automation with select super users and test, test, test EVERY scenario. 4) Obtain approval prior to cutting over the live automation solution to minimize business impact.

Analyzing the problem is the first step towards solving it, so first analyzing the challenges you face. Then prioritize them based on its impact on process , collaborate with team members and try to come up with optimized solution and monitor the performance.

Any change in a process including automation should include input from the users of the process you are automating. This has 2 major advantages 1. You engage with your staff or users early to ensure any changes to the process are seen as positive. 2. Your staff or users can also provide insights into the existing process that you may not be aware of and this can be built into the automation to increase productivity and time to design and test.

Once an automation process has been deployed and is in use there should be a continuous evaluation of the process to include improvements, testing and to encompass additional areas linked to the original automation. Evaluate, redesign or refresh, test, deploy and Evaluate again providing a circular process for improvement. You should consider automating the process of evaluation of an automated process.