In contrast, those who have already taken this step could not even imagine life without automation. These are usually people who have the ability to spot routine, repetitive tasks within a company and devise ways in which a computer system could perform those tasks, saving them a great deal of time each week. But this is something that does not always happen spontaneously.
Automation is a habit you must develop
To achieve this, you must get into the habit of regularly reviewing your daily workflows, paying attention to what could be automated, and automating it. If you do this on a regular basis, you will be surprised at how often you can detect new optimizations to be made. A habit, by its very definition, is not something that is acquired by theory, but by practice, and at MasterBase® we know this from experience. Every employee who automates a process comes back to create more automation solutions.
Typically, each week they write an update that, while focusing on priorities, also includes a list of tasks that have already been completed and a list of to-dos, which means that there are two points at which they are following up on completed tasks. A very good example of a task that could be automated is this: information that one application delivers needs to be moved to another.
It can be considered that automation already starts to become a habit when you have learned to detect the tasks that can be automated. We will go deeper into this with some examples.
Step 1: Detect a repetitive task
This can be the most difficult aspect: realizing when to automate a task. It is common to get caught up in the daily work routine and never question whether things could be different. In other words, it is easier to complain about the drudgery than to do something about it.
The trick is to pay attention to the activities you do every day and ask yourself which of them could be done by a computer, without the need for you to intervene. You will conclude that you can automate a task if:
- It's something you have to do regularly or on a set schedule.
- It involves moving information between one application and another, manually.
- It is boring and does not require further reflection or application of judgment.
- It takes you away from what you really want to do.
If you regularly work with a computer, chances are you perform tasks that align with at least two, if not all, of these points.
The nature of these tasks will vary depending on the type of business you are in.
For example, if the goal is to collect customer information from various online forms and add them to your CRM and email marketing platform, it is perfectly possible to copy, one by one, the contact information from the form responses and paste it into other applications. But when your business grows, this becomes an unnecessary waste of time.
Another frequent case is social media optimization. You can manually post a photo to Instagram, Twitter and your company's Facebook page. But you can also set up an automation that captures all Instagram photos and publishes them to any other social network simultaneously.
Step 2: Investing time to solve the problem
Once you have spotted a task that could be automated, the most entertaining phase begins: setting up the automation.
No wonder you end up procrastinating indefinitely, getting so bogged down in your workflows that you can't stop to set up time-saving automations.
The first thing we advise in this regard is not to pretend that automation, at least in this first stage, solves everything. In other words, don't think of automation solutions that are too ambitious, don't want to be all-encompassing.
At MasterBase® we are proponents of working with the spiral methodology, which consists of starting small, automating a few tasks. The result you get will give you a broader support and will demonstrate the value of this approach: The success of a first simple automation, will guide you to the next steps, will show you how to continue with another automation, and then another... until you reach higher levels of complexity, but always in a gradual and progressive way:
- Always go from less to more, from the simple to the complex.
- Identify the really urgent, most critical need for automation.
- List the steps that will make up the solution.
- Select the Quick Win Process (QWP) as the starting point.
QWPs are those processes that achieve immediate success in automation and create a wow factor. The key is to show early results, which accelerate the digital innovation initiative and motivate to continue on that path.
- They solve the critical process and facilitate further escalation.
- They can be part of several solutions (as a wildcard).
- They are quick to implement, as they must deliver results in the short term.
If you are just learning how to create automations, this may seem overwhelming. But don't be intimidated because at MasterBase® it all starts with a complete, absolutely free course that will teach you how to automate processes as simply and completely, easily and quickly. This certified course is called Discover Automation and you can learn more about it and register for it. here .
Step 3: Repeat your automations (and get rid of what doesn't work).
You might think that everything ends in step 2, because you have already automated, but this is not the case. Everything is perfectible and it is common for automations to require some tweaking after they are set up. Again this means backing up and examining your process. Does automation make your life easier? How could it contribute even more? How do you expand your range of action and possibilities?
Getting into the habit of automation will save you time, but only if you invest some time first. You must be able to detect when a task can be automated, spend time automating it, and iterate those systems once they are set up. This must be something you do intentionally, expressly. In the medium term, you will be amazed at the amount of time you and your organization can save and the efficiency your services will achieve.
Making automation a habit will directly benefit your productivity levels, but it can also help you get a job, because automation acumen is a highly valued job competency.
