When you hear the word “automation” what comes to mind? Robots in an assembly line making cars? A server farm? A combine running through a field? Yeah me too.
I bet things like laundry, communications to management and car maintenance did not come to mind. Guess what, you can automate those things too and when you put a little effort into automating routine activities, you can save time, money and most importantly sanity in the process.
Almost a year ago now, I made what seemed like a strange decision for a technofile who works at a company entirely focused on bringing new technologies to market.
I bought a paper planner.
Now this isn’t any paper planner and in fact, the planner is just part of the benefit that the company who makes them, Inkwell Press, offers. When my planner arrived in the mail, I was impressed by the branding, the color palette and the way it made me feel.
It was as if I was about to embark on a great adventure in 2017. Even before I received it, I was getting a good dose of brainwashing. Messages regarding delivery but furthermore, an entire video series dripped out week by week before the beginning of the year, to help me properly use this planner.
Inkwell Press is a master at customer intimacy and providing benefits way beyond the product. It’s a great lesson for any marketing professional. But I digress.
One of the videos had to do with automation and the host and Inkwell Press business owner, Tonya Dalton, described how it works. On top of that, she provided tools, like worksheets, on what you can automate and lists of things like annual chores. Warning: it’s a bit overkill but take what you like and leave the rest.
However, if you are maniacal about time management like I am, you might just eat this stuff up for breakfast.
Need More Time? Automate
So here is what I did to help automate routine tasks. I created a spreadsheet with each sort of thing that repeats itself (not daily, that would be a habit). I noted the activity, general category and frequency. Then I took a stab at either the day of the week (for a daily task) or when during the month or during the year something needs to happen (see below for a visual). Then I loaded up my schedule with these things and got started.
So does it work?
When you use “planning” skills instead of “to do list” skills where at all possible, it helps relieve the brain. I learned through some research that your brain is just two percent of your body weight yet consumes a full 20 percent of your calories. This is why we are more likely to yell at our children, send a scathing email or eat chocolate at the end of our day. Our brains are cognitively spent. And when that happens, our caveman brain takes over.
And for me it does work but not perfectly. For example, I have carefully scheduled out things that tend to pile up but I never get to. These thing cause me stress so by “automating” them the stress is relieved. However, it also means I need to keep my end of the bargain and actually do the activities set out for me. Or delegate them or whatever.
Final Thoughts About Automation
What I am finding after doing this for a month or two is that even if I don’t get to those thank you cards each and every week, it’s on my schedule and I am more likely to do them at least a couple of times per month. I plan to continue honing my skills here but I will say it has taken much of the clutter out of my head – less caveman brain is good.
Automation is one way I have found helps conserve those brain calories. It might help you too.
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