Ep 49: How to Save Time with Productivity Automation with James Rose

Problem: How to manage your time and productivity

People are working harder, when they need to be working smarter instead. Jimmy Rose works in productivity automation. He helps people and organizations become more productive by automating tasks that we shouldn’t be spending time on. Today he shares some of his automation productivity secrets with us.

The Steps to Automating Your Productivity

Jimmy shares some of the tasks he prefers to have automated, as well as how to put yourself into a position that can make the most out of these tools.

Step 1: Get in the right mindset

You might be thinking, “Well, you’ve automated that one small task. Overall, that only saves about 15 minutes a week,” but those 15 minutes add up. Just think of what you can do with an extra hour each month. Instead of focusing on the time you didn’t save, think about it like this: “Now that’s one less thing I need to worry about.” You can now put that effort into something else that should be taking more of your time and energy.

Most workflow automation tools have a trigger and an action. And that means, when “this” happens, do “that” thing.

I think that time management and personal productivity are really big components to this.

Step 2: Keep track of what you do

Take a look at what you do each day, each week. Make a note of how long each task takes. You’ll get a better picture of how you spend your time and what you can do to be more productive. Do you spend too much time answering emails that can be easily answered with automated responses? Do you spend too much time getting ready for certain tasks? A lot of these mundane, repetitive tasks can be automated. 

Look at your tasks and ask yourself, “Should I really be doing this? Can I automate this?”

To me it all stems from doing the wrong work or not being very productive with their time.

Step 3: Squash entrepreneurial guilt

Remember why you started your own business? Part of the reason why most people become entrepreneurs is because they want to work for themselves, make their own schedules, or be able to spend more time doing what they want. While you might love what you do and your business, you shouldn’t spend all of your time immersed in that. Coming up for air is healthy for you and your business.

[Saving time with automation] like investing. You put money into something and you expect to get a return and eventually you get back your initial investment plus more. 

A few resources on automation which Jimmy suggests:

Zapier: “The easiest way to automate your work”

IFTTT: “helps everything work better together”

The One Thing:The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan