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📖 Table of Contents
https://www.loom.com/share/41a5880484974ded97d29b90e2e16f1f?sid=40394d3d-49b5-4972-8a6e-c57fdfb79748
It’s really easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of things on your plate. Unfortunately, you may just need to hunker down and get your hands dirty… but that doesn’t mean you can’t automate some things to make it easier 😉
Here is my guide to start automating right away:
📍How To Start Automating
1. 🧠 Start with understanding the problem and identifying the task you repeatedly encounter.
- The tasks you are looking to automate should be ones that you run into on a regular basis, cause quite a bit of pain, and that you put more energy into doing them than you receive in the result or outcome of completing them.
- Often times we have something that we have to do occasionally and is painful, but is manageable, these are the types of tasks that for right now, you most likely do not want to automate.
- Remember that there is a setup time to automate a task, so the set up time must require a significant amount of less effort than the lifetime of doing the repetitive task or tasks.
2. 📜 Outline the steps involved for the entire project or task
- Run through the process and take notes of each individual step. To make sure my notes are detailed enough, I like to imagine if someone only had these notes if they could walkthrough and complete the task on their own with out any questions. (You will see why I do this later)
3. 🤖 Identify which parts of the task can be automated.
- At times it is hard to determine what capabilities some automation sites have. You can Youtube the task or project you are trying to automate and oftentimes they have a tutorial or template for you to go off of. Check Reddit, Quora, and the tools’s FAQ or Forums to see if there is any guidance there as well.
- If you still can’t find an answer, you can reach out to someone who specializes in automations and integrations from LinkedIn and ask them for advice. (Those who attend my workshops will have access to my guy that I use for all my automations and learn more in depth about what can and should be automated.)
- For the Linked In search, under people, go to talks about section in the advance search settings, and type in a tool such as Zapier, or IFTTT or #API integrations and it will show people that you can connect with, once you have connected with them you can write a message to them with your question.
- Additionally, you can search under the services section for Integrations and potentially find a coach or someone who will help you do that. You can send a message directly to the person when you search through Services, so you can write the message asking for sincere help and potentially offer some value add yourself.
4. 🛠️ Leverage the appropriate tool.
- Dive into the world of automation with tools like Zapier, Work (formerly Integromat), and IFTTT. These platforms seamlessly connect different apps to create smooth workflows, ensuring you work smarter, not harder.
- After reviewing the videos and sites for these tools, if you feel that this is something you might not be cut out for that is totally fine! You have already written out the training for how to do the task in STEP 2 so now you can always hire someone on Fiverr or inquire via LinkedIn for someone that specializes in one of these tools mentioned above! (see the above suggestion for how to find people on LinkedIn that provide these sort of services)
5. 🧪 Test your workflows periodically and be ready to tweak them for optimal results.
- Make sure that for the first couple weeks you are continually checking to make sure that everything is being triggered and handled right.