When to automate repetitive tasks?
There are so many repetitive things I'm doing in my IH journey.
Here's the thing: I could either continue doing them (around 20 mins a day) or spend 3-4 hours automating them.
I was wondering: At what point do you decide to automate repetitive tasks in your workflow?
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There is this wonderful xkcd for it: https://xkcd.com/1205/
In your example: It's worth to invest about 5 weeks into automation of your daily 20-30 min task on a timespan of 5 years.
This is super cool! Thanks for sharing the xkcd :-)
I set aside perhaps 10–45 minutes per day to improve my internal processes, including automating repetitive tasks. In some ways, this means I don't have to think too deeply about "when" to automate any given repetitive task. Instead, when it's process improvement time, I identify the most painful repetitive task and find ways to make it less painful.
For context, I should probably mention that I'm a highly systems-oriented knowledge worker, so it's possible that my approach wouldn't apply to people who like to work in more intuitive, unstructured ways.
I think it really depends on how long this task will stay and your goals and time.
If you have complete free time and it doesn't cost you anything -> automate
If you plan to sell your product -> automate
If it makes the business more independent from you -> go for it
These are some cases on the top of my head where I'd do it. I like automating things but just if the time is really worth it :)
Convert it to money.
Eg. How much does it cost to do it yourself/hire someone? How long will you repeat the tasks? (1 year, 5years, etc)
Then, see check the cost of building the automation flow/bot. If automation is a lot cheaper, probably go automation. By converting it to the money, you will immediately know the answer.
Sounds like this would pay off in... (3 to 4 hrs) / (⅓ hour/day) = 9 to 12 days . After that, your automation would be time profitable 🙂
Seems worth automating to me!