In the age of AI, there’s no reason not to automate time-consuming tasks in the workplace. Yes, it takes a little legwork upfront, but you free up time and energy that you can use on other priorities.
“When you automate tasks that can be automated, you free up your brain to focus on the highest ROI tasks. Oftentimes, the things that can be easily automated are things that drain you anyway and do take up quite a bit of time,” says Alexis Haselberger, a productivity, time-management and leadership coach. According to her, relieving yourself of tedious, time-consuming tasks not only helps you work faster and reduces demands on your time, but it also allows you to use more of your brain for creative pursuits.
Not to mention decreased stress. “Both automating personal and work tasks can increase efficiency and reduce anxiety by eliminating manual errors and saving time,” according to Diana Lepilkina, Marketing Lead at data analytics and automation platform Coupler.io. “With automation, we can forget about the tedious tasks under the hood and be more productive and less stressed.”
From lead generation software to social media scheduling tools, there are plenty of solutions to automate some of your daily responsibilities, regardless of your role and industry. As Lepilkina puts it, AI technologies have evolved rapidly in recent years and “are poised to play an increasingly important role in automating routine tasks across a wide range of industries.”
For example, Hive Automate allows users to create automated workflows and access a growing library of “workflow recipes” created by others. And with countless other automation software solutions on the market, the possibilities are endless.
Beyond custom processes, there are many other time-consuming tasks that every professional should automate moving forward. Here are some common workplace tasks you can start tackling today.
1. Inbox management
Lepilkina recommends using email filtering to manage your inbox. From filtering out high-priority emails – say, messages from your boss – to sending industry newsletters straight to a separate inbox category, auto-filters can help you easily sift through emails and prioritize accordingly. You can also automatically delete or archive messages to stay at “inbox zero.”
2. Scheduling
Think of the hours wasted every year going back and forth to sync everyone’s availability in an attempt to book a meeting. Scheduling is one of those time-consuming workplace tasks that you should most definitely automate. You’ll breathe a sigh of relief. “When you use a tool like Calendly or even Google appointment slots you eliminate a lot of wasted communication effort,” says Haselberger.
3. Data collection and reporting
Data collection is another time-consuming workplace task that should be automated. Granted, automating data reports can be a little more complex than giving someone access to your Calendly – but it’s worth it considering most teams use data in some way, shape or form. The first thing you want to automate is manual data entry. Again, a platform like Hive – or Zapier or Pipedream, or LinkedHelper – can make your job easier on that front as it allows you to consolidate data from different tools in one place.
“With the average company using over 100 apps, collecting data from different sources can be a time-consuming process. By gathering all the data in one place and building auto-updating reports, you can save time and improve the accuracy of the data. This can be especially useful for data-driven industries, such as finance or marketing,” says Lepilkina.
Using a web scraping API tool, such as ZenRows, is another way to save time when extracting data from websites using a simple API call. This can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as gathering data for market research, competitive intelligence, or product development.
4. Bookkeeping/invoicing/budgeting
You may not be an accountant, but if there are any financial tasks on your plate, such as bookkeeping, invoicing, or maybe even managing a team budget, it’s a good idea to automate them. “These tasks involve a lot of manual data entry, which can lead to errors and wasted time. This can also help with budgeting and forecasting,” adds Lepilkina.
There are tools like Wave and Quickbooks that you can customize to meet your needs. But even learning Excel hacks can help if you’re responsible for your team’s budget. Figuring out how to leverage Excel doesn’t have to be boring either. Thanks to creators like Miss Excel, there are fun ways to get to know your way around a spreadsheet.
The beauty of all this automation is that these days, there is no need to know how to code or have developers on your team to be able to tap into the benefits of automation. Even individual contributors can benefit from automating tasks, saving precious time and boosting their personal productivity in the process.
