Automation: My Ultimate Guide to Productivity
A recently launched group project started by Ben at the Instigator Blog aims to collect the web’s most comprehensive list of productivity tips. Everybody can chip in with their secret productivity tips. In the end, we’re going to compile one huge list (and hopefully publish it in a downloadable e-book) that anybody would find immensely useful.
What’s my secret?
One word: automation.
Let me elaborate on that a bit:
By automation, I mean putting an end to manually doing those nasty repetitive tasks that kill your productivity by wasting your time and sucking up your energy. I’m talking specifically about the tasks we do as we interact with our computers.
Why automation?
Two reasons:
- Less work
- Less distraction
With every little or big repetitive task you automate, you win back a chunk of time better spent doing creative work.
Also, with automation, you have better chances at maintaining a steady flow of creative state. In other words, those little tasks won’t be responsible for interrupting your train of thoughts, anymore.
How do I identify those repetitive tasks?
Oh boy, they’re everywhere!
The problem is, we’re so used to doing them we don’t even recognize their impact and the potential of automating them. They can be as simple as minimizing a window, pushing a freaking button, to more complex ones like keeping up with news, blogs, etc.
What do I do about them?
Simple: look for and get a software to automate the process of achieving them.
To this end, there are two categorizes of such software:
- One that can generally automate any task
- One that is meant to automate specific tasks
Software to automate any task
In the “any” category, there’s one amazingly useful tool I use called: AutoMate (bet you didn’t see this one coming)
AutoMate tasks are assembled via drag-and-drop, without writing a single line of code. This allows automated tasks to be developed really rapidly. It includes over 140 available actions and triggers, enabling you to build tasks that automate a wide variety of network and computing operations, such as: windows manipulation, automated FTP backup, job scheduling, data or file replication, application testing, data entry, etc.
Software to automate specific tasks
This is a bit tricker. There are lots of tools out there that aim to help you achieve specific tasks. For example, my favorite program launcher, ENSO, helps me launch any program I want with few keystrokes from any application. For reading news and blogs, my favorite RSS reader, Google Reader, helps me keep up with all the cool stuff happening on the internet.
Tasks I automate
To give an example, here is a (hopefully) complete list of every task I can think of which I automate by utilizing certain software and the reason of automation:
Minimize, Maximize, Close Windows
Reason: Faster and more natural.
Push annoying buttons and dialogs
Reason: Very simple to configure and works like magic!
Aggregate latest news and blog posts
Reason: Fast, lots of keyboard shortcuts, integration with Firefox.
Locate files
Reason: Again fast, easy to use (double-tap the Ctrl key).
Launch applications
- ENSO Launcher (read my review and here is why I bought it)
Reason: Unobtrusive, relevant, pretty.
Play music
Reason: Lightweight, easy, global keyboard shortcuts, lots of plugins.
Conclusion
The point to take home is this:
To improve your productivity, try to spot the tasks that you do repetitively which you think can be automated. Chances are, there’s a piece of software out there that can configured to accomplish this task. I have a knack for always discovering such pieces of software, so if you’re in doubt, let me know and I’ll try and offer you some advice.
Further Reading
Here are more great posts by various bloggers regarding their productivity secrets:
- Productivity Tip by Jenn Givler
- Productivity Tip – Just Start by Andrew Garrett
- My Key To Productivity by Matt McDonald
- How Productive Are You? by Tish
- Time management for graphic designers by Rob Cubbon
- Productivity Tips 2.0 by Stephen
- My Most Powerful Productivity Tip by Ellesse
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Ian McKenzie
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by GTD Wannabe
- The ultimate productivity tip by Matthew Cornell
- My single best tip for productivity by Brett Kelly
- My Key to Productivity by Andrew Barbaccia
- Blog Even More Efficiently by Scott Hartshorn
- The Greatest Productivity Tip in the World by Gary Vaughan
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project by Joy Slaughter
- Single Best Productivity Tip by Leo
- Join the Ultimate Guide to Productivity by JC
- My top productivity tip by Steven Aitchinson
- Phil Gerbyshak
- Virtual Assistants and Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Key Business Partners
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity (My First Meme) by Geoff R.
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity – What’s your secret? by Mary Ann Copson
- Continuously Increase Productivity by Embracing the Optimization Mentality by John Wesley
- Increase Productivity by Conquering Procrastination by Gia Combs-Ramirez
- Ultimate Tip To Reach GTD Nirvana by Andrew Flusche
- Productivity Secrets Project by Lisa Sabin-Wilson
- Maximizing Productivity by Ah Pek
- Thoughts on Productivity by Rowan Manahan
- Being more Productive with your Marketing Efforts by Chris Brown
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Don The Idea Guy
- 5 Productivity Tips That Help by Brett Evans
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Sue Olson
- Productivity Tip for Students (From the Other Side of the Fence) by ispf
- There’s only one secret to increased productivity by Colleen Wainwright
- 8 Productivity Tips to Take Control of Your Life by Krista
- Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide – Productivity Tips by Jonathan
- Secrets to Productivity by Randa Clay
- Up Your Productivity and Profits too! by Andrew Wee
- Meme Tagged, Meme Slayer…I Give In by Wayne Porter
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Janet Barclay
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Lorraine Pirihi
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Kathie Thomas
- 14 Tips to Get More Done in Less Time by engtech
- Work-Life Balance and Productivity by David Bohl
- My Contribution to the Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Harrison
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Wendy Piersall
- How Productivity Comes From Clarity by Adam Kayce
- How To Stay Focused For Greater Productivity by Dawud Miracle
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity – Wanna Share One Big Secret? by Ponn Sabra
- My Productivity Secret – The Joy of Flow State by Chris Garrett
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity – MomGadget Style by Gayla McCord
- If you don’t have passion and purpose, greater productivity won’t help you! by Alister Cameron
- Building a Home Business One Weekend At a Time by Tony Clark
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project by Jennifer Louden
- Be Aware, Make Choices by Alex Fayle
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Digging into the Blogpond
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity meme by Doris
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by KM
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity for Adult ADD Sufferers by Deborah Petersen
- How to become a Productivity Super Hero who Rights Wrongs, Saves the Environment, and Rescues Cats from Trees by Aaron Potts
- Zugunruhe Ultimate Guide to Productivity: Time Budgets by Tara Robinson
- Are Your Secrets For Personal Productivity by Lisa Mills
- Blogging Productivity & Criticizing Goals by Andy Beard
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity – what’s your secret? by The Kiss Business
- Secrets to Personal Productivity by The Practical Chick
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity — What’s Your Secret? by Derrick Sorles
- Instigator Blog: Productivity Tips by Mitch Owen
- The Childlike Secret to Productivity by Kim & Jason
- Just Do Something, Already by Lorna
- Productivity Secrets by Angela Smith
- Maintaining Productivity In The Midst Of Interruptions by Lexi Sundell
- The Key to Dunking Your Doubts and Unclogging Your Optimism by Adam Kayce
- A Nice Collection of Productivity Ideas by Dan Markovitz
- My Ultimate Guide To Productivity by Vlad
- A stupidly simple way to have a productive day by Jonny
- My Secret to Productivity is Not Really a Secret by Char Polanosky
There is more where this post came from:
Would you like to..
Comments- Ultimate Guide to Productivity for Adult ADD Sufferers - Life in the Fast Lane
- The most productive way to play music on your computer at Alaeddin’s Blog
- A Final Batch of Productivity Tips : Instigator Blog
- Thoughts & Philosophies » 137 Parts To The Ultimate Guide to Productivity
- 24 ways to automate your digital life at Alaeddin’s Blog
- 137 Ways to Increase Your Productivity - Dawud Miracle @ dmiracle.com -
May 25th, 2007 at 5:17 am
WOW…I will be looking into AutoMAte – who knew?! I love finding a techie like person (you) who can tell me about easy ways to improve my day-to-day. Thanks!
May 25th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I hope they include you as they did include me (spot 17) ;-)
Why not add permanent Linky Love using my Linky Love Button? Once installed, I link you back. Talking about productive linking.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Hi Alaeddin
My kind op tip! Love things that can be made automagically ;-)
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
May 25th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Nice tip! And thanks for the link.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for the link. I enjoyed your writing style. I have to say, though, for ease in computing and associated tasks….there’s only one word…Mac.
May 26th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Yes… I agree all of you said.
Didid
http://www.pamungkas.com
May 28th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Combining GTD and crowdsourcing, neat trick. I’d look at lulu.com to get that eBook published once it is finished. It’s a pretty decent service.
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Great suggestion! Automation is a key to getting more done with less. If you can do it once, software can do it multiple times.
Interesting items you shared as well. I’d never heard of AutoMate before. Thanks for sharing that!
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Thanks for everybody who commented so far!
Seeing as how much you love commenting (hey I said thanks! :), I’ve one more automation tip to share:
Instead of filling up the name, e-mail and URL field every time you want to comment on somebody’s blog (like mine), why install this nifty little script which would auto-fill those fields for you and automatically puts the focus on the comment box so that you can start typing.
You’ll need Firefox Greasemonkey extension before you install this script.
Enjoy!
August 14th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article s Blog, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
@Daniel:
Or you could wait a week or so as I’m starting a mega series about the best of my automation tips and how to apply them step-by-step. It’s gonna be awesome!
October 24th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
What an INCREDIBLE list of resources! I wish I’d found you sooner. Definitely gonna subscribe to your feed. Thank you!
January 20th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Wow, what a list! Some of these I had not heard of. I will definitely be checking into the ones that are new for me. And that long list of other bloggers ideas looks like a great resource, too!
January 29th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
This post was a good starting point to my own post about automation digital life.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Wow, this is a very wonderful list!
And I agree with you completely: automation is the key. Yet, I haven’t got any useful tool to implement the idea. And here you tell us all those nice software. Thank you :-)
March 17th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Very nice information. Thanks for this.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I think another reason to why automate would be to reduce company costs and also increase productivity. By automated these boring manual tasks a company can put more resources in to other projects.