Is a 5-minute task worth automating?

It comes down to two things:

How repeatable the task is.
How often it’s done.

If a task is not repeatable, you can hardly automate it.
And if it’s done only once a month, it’s likely not worth the effort.

But let’s say it’s done daily and 20 days per month.

5 minutes * 20 days * 12 months = 1,200 minutes.
That’s 20 hours saved per year.

If your employees also do this task, multiply the hours saved by their count.

There’s often a multitude of small tasks that can be automated, and the time savings can add up.

However, humans are not robots, and there are other things to consider than simple time saving.

We lose energy when switching contexts and are prone to distractions.
That’s why sometimes a 5-minute task can take us much more.
It makes automation worth considering even more as it helps avoid both these issues.

Of course, it’s all sunshine and rainbows until it isn’t.
Tomorrow, I’ll share why sometimes it’s not that simple.