Where to start if you want to automate? Keep notes for a week
‘We would like to automate, but we do not know where to start.’ We hear that in almost every intro call. Here is the exercise we recommend doing before you even ring us.
Five days, one grid
Download the grid, print it out and keep it to hand for five days. One line every time you catch yourself thinking ‘this again’. Three columns are enough there and then::
- the job, in one line
- how long it takes
- how many times a week it comes round
If you have a team, give everyone a grid of their own. The jobs that turn up on several grids are your best candidates.
Scale it up over 45 weeks
At the end of the week, fill in the fourth column, the yearly total: time x frequency x 45 weeks. That is what makes the exercise useful.
The job that comes out on top is almost never the one that annoys you most. The big, tiresome task comes round once a quarter; the invisible little one comes round every morning.
One last column: who does it?
The last column on the grid asks who looks after each job. The ones that turn up on several grids weigh twice as much as they appear to, and they are often the best candidates.
A job with a big yearly total that ties up several people: that is where you start.
This grid is yours
With us or without us. Some people fill it in and find that all they were missing was a setting in the software they already have. So much the better. And without the time and the frequency written down, nobody can honestly tell you whether an investment pays for itself.
A second pair of eyes on your list?
A 45-minute intro call, free and with no obligation. We look at what your week turned up and tell you where to start.