How To Start Automating Repetitive Tasks

Pat Walls

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Updated: September 12th, 2024

What Is Task Automation?

Task automation refers to the application of modern technology to minimize or eliminate the need for human involvement in order to complete the task. Automation tools are one of the most effective ways to increase productivity and scale your business.

Think about all the redundant tasks you complete in a day. You would save a huge amount of time by using automation tools to eliminate the need for your involvement.

In this post, we look at task automation and tell you how you can automate repetitive tasks. . further, we will share an example of how automation has worked for our business. Let us jump straight in!

Task Automation Key Takeaways

Task automation can help you save up to 30% of the time you spend working on repetitive tasks daily.
Task automation enables brands to utilize least amount of human effort completing routine tasks
As many as 45% of activities individuals are paid to perform can be automated by adapting modern technologies

How Task Automation Works

Task automation utilizes software to reduce manual handling of simple or complex repetitive tasks. The goal of tasks automation is to make processes more efficient and ensure your employees are productive. It does this by reducing the amount of time and energy required to complete different repetitive tasks.

Ideally, task automation minimizes the amount of manual process labor required to complete the workflow or to deliver quality results.

Organizations deploy task automation software in order to simplify and speed up workflows. By using effective task automation tools, these organizations alleviate the burnout and fatigue associated with completing the same tasks.

Benefits of Task Automation

Minimizes Likelihood of Error: Automating processes and tasks reduces the chances of making errors since the automation tools do not experience fatigue
Enables organizations to utilize employee time better: Automating your tasks means your employees are not bogged down with repetitive admin tasks.
Opens up business opportunities: Tasks automation provides you the ability to support and configure assets in fields that would not be feasible when using human resources
Cost reduction: freeing up man-hours means you will pay lower salaries while increasing the level of output.
Gain insight into business processes: computerizing tasks enables organizations to collect meaningful data that can provide insight into your processes.

What Tasks Can We Automate?

Appointment scheduling
Reports creation
Bill payments
Email response and signatures
Customer care tasks
Filling of application forms
Social media management
Data mining
Invoicing and accounting

Real World Examples: Start Automating Repetitive Tasks

Over the last year, I’ve done a bunch of work automating stuff for Starter Story. One of the bigger automation I shipped was social media.

Today, my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts are 100% self-sufficient, posting daily content without any work from me :)

As a solo founder, I believe it’s important to automate as much as you can. Freeing up your time is crucial to getting more done. Also, as a programmer - automating things is fun and it’s a pretty cool feeling to have code working for you while you sleep!

I’ve had a few people ask me about this on Twitter, so I figured I’d write a quick blog post about why and how I did this.

Note - this post is about automating my business social media accounts. I think automating stuff on your personal accounts or using bots is bad.

Why I automated social media

As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to having an automated system. First I'll talk about the advantages:

Save time!

I publish new articles on Starter Story every day, so reposting those stories on three different social media platforms is time-consuming!

Let’s say that it takes 5 minutes to publish each post on social media… With 7 articles a week on 3 platforms, that’s a couple of hours of work per week saved.

No longer think about it

You know when you’re working on something important (and unrelated) and you then realize you need to do something else that is time-sensitive (like a post on social media)?

For me, that is extremely disruptive to productivity. Little things like that can derail my focus and lead to getting way fewer things done.

Now, I no longer think about social media. I turn notifications off for those accounts and I rarely check them. It’s one less thing I have to think about.

Computers are loyal

Humans are forgetful and lazy.

For me, it’s hard to do simple repeatable tasks over long periods of time unless I can turn them into habits.

If you don’t have clear systems for tasks, I will probably forget about them or be too lazy to take action.

But... computers are not forgetful or lazy!

A computer doesn't make mistakes - it always shows up on time, and it never complains :)

There are some downsides to automating

Let’s be honest - the main downside to automating social media is less audience engagement (likes, comments, etc). Because it's automated, you have less room to be creative and spontaneous in your posts - and your post likely won’t go viral or something like that.

Your followers will also likely catch on that your content is automated in some way. If they perceive this, they may be less likely to like, comment, or engage with it.

So, I think you need to weigh the pros and cons.

Is social media your main marketing channel?

If it came down to a question of automating or not - I think this is the question that can help answer it…

Is social media your main marketing or acquisition channel?

If not, then I think you should just automate it and forget about it. If it is, then you should probably not automate and put a lot of work into your posts.

For Starter Story, my main acquisition channels are Reddit and search engines. I get, maybe, 10% of my traffic from social media, so for me, it makes sense to just automate it. Automation is an iterative process

Here's something that I don't hear people talking about enough…

Automation is a slow, iterative process (at least for me).

I didn't have my social media automated in one night. In fact, it probably took me months to have the thing fully automated.

Start with a manual process - then slowly work towards automation

My process always starts manually.

I want to see what works and get a feel for the work involved. Then, I work (slowly) towards automation.

For example - how do hashtags work on Instagram? I had some trial and error there and learned some things by manually testing it out.

Seeing what works and what doesn't is important and can later inform you on what to automate.

Building automated systems are complicated

A truly automated system is not built overnight (at least for me).

There are many moving parts and I often can't code it up in a couple of hours session. So I'll usually start by automating the most time-consuming thing.

For example, the first thing I automated was the image assets, this is what they look like today:

Before I had these automated, I was manually creating these assets in Canva! This was a process that took at least 10 minutes, but I felt it was important, especially for social media link previews.

So, this was the first thing I automated - it would save me the most time and it was clear what I needed to do.

Step 1: I designed that image with HTML/CSS and then just started manually taking screenshots of it which saved 10 minutes per post.

Step 2: I set up a screenshot service to automatically do the screenshotting.

Step 3: I wrote the code to generate the copy for the social media post, etc, etc.

And I did this over a longer period of time. Breaking it up into smaller tasks allowed me to save time with each task, but also not get overwhelmed with the project.

2. Dell leverages RPA To boost Enterprise HR Productivity With Workday By Up To 85%

Dell technologies focuses on delivering essential infrastructure for organizations to build a digital future, transform IT, and protect information.

Dell's transactional HR processes were high-volume and repetitive.

They found out that introducing Robotic Process automation would help improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness while freeing up HR employees for higher-value, strategic work.

Moreover, Dell technologies wanted to remove the transactional work for end-to-end processes like open requisition assignments, onboarding processes, and status updates.

Their IT department laid the infrastructure and groundwork for automation.

They implemented the RPA that automated the following processes:

Open requisition recruiter assignments
Offer status management
Onboarding process reminders
Job reference letters
Talent acquisition

The complete automation was a game-changer for the company.

With nearly five million followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, the museum wanted a solution that would automate social media engagement and help in delivering its multi-channel publishing strategy.

Therefore, they turned to Hootsuite with an aim of increasing online reach and engagement and delivering digital-first customer service to strengthen relationships with their customers.

As part of the new strategy, the team identified opportunities to develop channel-specific content that makes the best use of each social media channel.

The museum saw the fastest overall social media audience growth a year after automating its social media strategy using Hootsuite.

How To Get Started With Tasks Automation

Define your automation target/goals
Create a task sequence
Define the problem areas
Build/pick an automation tool (see examples below)
Set an initial scope
Monitor and measure the results
Grow the project over time
Maintain the automation implementation

Examples of Task Automation Tools

Hootsuite: Social media automation tool
Dropbox: Automated data backup
Google Analytics: automate web traffic analysis
Wordpress: Blog post scheduling
Mailchimp: Automated email responses
Zapier: moves info between your web apps automatically
Flow: Streamline repetitive tasks and paperless processes with Microsoft Power Automate—so you can focus your attention where it’s needed most.

Hootsuite

Manage and schedule posts to multiple social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more.

Free for 30 days
Professional: $49/month
Team: $129/month
Business: $739/month
Pricing: Paid
Twitter: @hootsuite
Website: https://hootsuite.com/

Businesses using Hootsuite:

127 successful businesses are using Hootsuite ➜

Get Hootsuite ➜

Dropbox

A modern workspace designed to reduce busywork-so you can focus on the things that matter.

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @dropbox
Website: https://www.dropbox.com/

Businesses using Dropbox:

673 successful businesses are using Dropbox ➜

Get Dropbox ➜

Google Analytics

Measure your advertising ROI as well as track your Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications.

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @googleanalytics
Website: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/

Businesses using Google Analytics:

1561 successful businesses are using Google Analytics ➜

Get Google Analytics ➜

WordPress

Free and open-source content management system based on PHP and MySQL.

Free to use/open source but you will need to pay for the hosting.

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @WordPress
Website: https://wordpress.com/

Businesses using WordPress:

872 successful businesses are using WordPress ➜

Get WordPress ➜

MailChimp

A marketing automation platform and an email marketing service.

The free plan, up to 2000 subscribers - what you get

Send up to 12,000 emails per month
Up to 2,000 subscribers
Email support included for 30 days

"Essentials" plan Plans start at $10 per month

Up to 5,000 subscribers $50 per month
Up to 10,000 subscribers $75 per month
Up to 25,000 subscribers $150 per month

Standard plan Plans start at $15 per month

Up to 5,000 subscribers $75 per month
Up to 10,000 subscribers $99 per month
Up to 20,000 subscribers $189 per month
Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @MailChimp
Website: mailchimp.com

Businesses using MailChimp:

878 successful businesses are using MailChimp ➜

Get MailChimp ➜

Zapier

Connect the apps you use everyday to automate your work. 1000+ apps and easy integrations.

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @zapier
Website: https://zapier.com/

Businesses using Zapier:

382 successful businesses are using Zapier ➜

Get Zapier ➜

Automate Systems

Automation tools are one of the most effective ways to increase productivity and scale your business.

Think about all the redundant tasks you complete in a day. This can be anything from:

Emails
Following up with customers
Posting on social media
Paying bills/collecting payment

... that's a lot of time, and that time could be spent on other aspects of growing your business.

One example of a great "all in one platform" for automation is Hubspot. Their platform can automate pretty much anything from task reminders to workflows to social media posts.

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