The promise of automation is to lighten your current load. To give you more time to focus on the things that matter most. However, you have to give up precious time now to get more time later. For already time poor, busy people, that’s just too much for them to automate today.
The tomorrow never comes syndrome is everywhere. For companies, we see them tripping over short term revenue wants when struggling to meet long term value needs. Or at home, sacrificing retirement investments to literally survive today.
But you have to make a call. And it’s your call. Do you want to be in the same place next year, or somewhere else? If the latter, then invest the time. Automation is supposed to make things better in the long run. However, we don’t know how much better. So we hesitate, and many never take that essential first step towards progress. It’s time to get out of your own way.
Automate today example
I’ve been a long time user of Things. It’s a task-based tool that runs across all my Apple devices. I never forget stuff because Things remembers and reminds me. It’s by task brain. This weekend I got notification that Things had integrated with Apple Shortcuts to better automate tasks. I was excited at first, and then sighed. But instead of parking the task and kicking that learning downstream, I took the time to educate myself today.
After a couple of hours of reading and testing, I had converted my micro tasks into macro actions. This equates to a 30 minute saving every day. That was definitely worth the two hours upfront investment time. I gambled and won.
The automation returns for organisations are literally off the scale. But you have to give to get. Don’t believe that tomorrow never comes. It always does. And when it does, be better than the day before. Otherwise, what are you doing?
