Small Automations, Exponential Outcomes
Automating feels slower before it feels faster.
That's the trap. You spend an hour automating something that takes ten minutes manually. Feels like a waste. So you stop.
But you missed the math.
The Real Calculation
That ten-minute task happens twice a day. That's 20 minutes daily. 100 minutes a week. 86 hours per year.
Your one-hour automation investment? It pays back in less than a week. Then it keeps paying. Forever.
But it felt slower at first. So most people quit.
The Emotional Dip
I've been there. Building a workflow that seems to take longer than just doing the thing.
Second-guessing whether automation is worth it. Wondering if I should just do it manually "this once" (which becomes every time).
This is the emotional dip. It's real. And it kills more automation projects than technical challenges ever will.
The Compounding Visual
Let me make this concrete.
20 minutes saved per week = 17 hours per year.
If you automate one 20-minute task each month for a year, by month 12 you're saving 17 hours per week.
That's two full working days. Every week. Just from small automations.
This is how people find time for strategic work. Not by working harder. By letting automations handle the repetitive stuff.
Where to Start
Look for tasks that are:
- •Done regularly (daily or weekly)
- •Mostly the same each time
- •Not requiring complex judgment
- •Annoying enough to motivate you
That last one matters. Automation is easier when you hate doing the thing manually.
My Rule
If I do something three times, I look for a way to automate it.
Not always possible. But asking the question surfaces opportunities I'd otherwise miss.
Here's a real example: I used to manually review search term reports every morning. Open the account, filter for the last 7 days, sort by cost, scan for problems. Twenty minutes, minimum. Now an AI script does it overnight, flags only the anomalies, and sends me a summary. Three minutes instead of twenty. That's 14 hours per year - from one small automation.
The time you invest in automation is an investment, not an expense. The returns compound. The savings stack.
What 20-minute task could you automate this week?
Start there. Watch what happens over a year.