Automate Your Way Through The Chaos

Tom Shaw

Software Developer and Digital Storyteller

Automating tasks can save you loads of time, helping you navigate through life’s messiness. Join Tom and learn how to apply it in real-world scenarios and discover how a small effort now can save you many hours of your time!

Creating Value with AI Tools

Automate Your Way Through The Chaos

9 mins 13 secs

Key learning objectives:

Understand when to automate a task and identify the key factors to consider
Outline the benefits of automating tasks in both your personal and professional life
Learn how to create a basic automation using no-code or low-code tools

Overview:

Automation is a great way to solve recurring problems and save us plenty of time when used wisely. This Step covers how to assess automation opportunities by looking at factors like time, frequency, and cost. Using a restaurant example, Tom shows how a simple automation can save time and boost efficiency. He demonstrates how learners can set up automations with low-code tools and ensures they understand the importance of legal compliance in the process.

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Summary

What is automation and when should it be used?

Automation is when machines or software applications are able to perform tasks without human intervention. This is perfect to do simple tasks that need to be completed multiple times, which allows us to then focus on other aspects of our life or work. However, it’s important not to automate everything automatically. We have some important factors to consider before automating tasks.

What factors should you consider when deciding to automate?

When deciding if a task should be automated, you should consider five things:

How long the task takes to complete manually
When the task needs to be completed
How often the task is done
How long it will take to set up the automation
The cost of running the automated task

If the time or cost involved in creating an automation is greater than the time you would save by automating, then it’s not worth automating. On the other hand, if automating saves you time overall, it’s a great solution.

Every automation starts with a trigger - an event or reason that initiates the automation. Triggers can be easy to identify, just think and ask yourself "What causes this task to need to be done?"

There are many similar automation tools available, each having different features. We need to explore which one works best for your scenario.

How can automation be used in a non-tech industry like hospitality?

In the hospitality industry, automation can be used to make the most of customer data. For instance, if a restaurant collects customer feedback via Google Forms, they can automate the process of adding customer email addresses to a mailing list. By setting up an automation, the restaurant can automatically send offers and marketing material to customers based on their feedback.

What is the benefit of automating a task like collecting customer emails for a mailing list?

Automating the process of adding customer emails to a mailing list saves a significant amount of time. If you were to manually log in and add new emails each day, it would take a couple minutes of your day, adding up to hours over time. By setting up a simple automation, you spend just about 5 minutes initially, but save yourself hours in the long run.

How does GDPR affect automating tasks involving customer data?

In the UK and EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ensures that an individual’s personal data can’t be processed without consent. For example, when automating tasks such as adding customers to a mailing list, you must ensure they’ve consented to receive marketing material.

The opinions and viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the creator and do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliated organisations.

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Tom Shaw

Tom Shaw is a software developer with the mission to inspire as many people as possible to get into tech. He is also a content creator and has amassed a huge following on social media by providing practical and engaging tips on how to use code to further your productivity and career prospects. Tom focuses on making coding fun and shows how you can build efficient and fun solutions by showcasing how he builds his projects, what he gets up to as a developer. He has worked as a freelance software developer, building products and systems for clients all around the world that range from innovative startups to some of the biggest companies.

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