What is Zapier?
Zapier is a tool that helps you automate repetitive tasks between two or more apps—no code necessary. When an event happens in one app, Zapier can tell another app to perform (or do) a particular action.
What should/can I automate with Zapier?
- Tasks you have to do frequently. Example: Sending a weekly reminder to your team to fill out a meeting agenda.
- Anything where you have to move information from one app to another. Example: Adding tasks from a project management app into your personal to-do list app.
- Tasks that don’t require much thinking. Example: Copying the emails of event attendees to a spreadsheet.
What is a Zap?
- A Zap is an automated workflow that tells your apps to follow this simple command:
- When this happens, do that.
Every Zap has a trigger and one or more actions. A trigger is an event that starts a Zap, and an action is what your Zap does for you. When a Zap runs, each action it completes counts as one task.
Not sure when to automate a task? Start here.
- Chances are you’ve automated something without even realizing it.
Do you get an automatic email before calendar events start? That’s automation. Do you get a text alert when it’s almost time to renew a prescription or to remind you about an upcoming appointment? Automation again!
But if you aren’t used to building automated workflows on your own, it can be daunting to think about how you might use automation to save time for yourself. How do you decide what to automate? What can you do better by not doing it yourself? Where do you even start?
It's a task you have to do frequently or on a schedule
- When you’re trying to decide which aspects of your work you should automate, a great first question to ask is: What tasks do you perform the most frequently?Tasks that need to be done often or on a set schedule are perfect for automation because the benefits are immediate. You’ll spend less time every day on repetitive work, which can quickly become burdensome or annoying.If it’s something you have to do three times, the odds are that you’ll have to do it a fourth and a fifth. This makes it a good fit for automation.Similarly, try to identify the parts of daily work that are repetitive but also frustrating to do manually.A great example is the necessity of digging meeting links or location out Google Calendar. Create a Zap that drops the location of Google Calendar events into Slack, so it can be grabbed right there
It involves moving information between apps
- Let’s be honest: copy-and-pasting is time-consuming and dreadfully dull. So are other manual ways of moving data, like exporting CSV files from one app and then importing them into another. And if you have to repeat the process multiple times over the course of a day or week, it quickly becomes unmanageable.When deciding whether a task is a good fit for automation, ask yourself ‘Does it use software/SaaS products from start to finish?’
Tasks that involve moving data between apps are perfect for automation.
For example, you can create new leads in your CRM whenever someone fills out a form on your website or subscribes to an email marketing campaign.
It's boring and doesn't require higher-order thinking
- Another key thing to consider is whether a task truly needs a distinctly human touch. Does it require creativity, problem-solving skills, or emotional intelligence? If so, you might not want to automate it.But if it’s a boring, simple task that doesn’t require complex thinking, it could be easily handled by an automation platform like Zapier.Ask yourself….
- Is this a task I do more than once per month?
- Does it involve the same steps every time?
- Do I wish I could be doing anything but this?
It takes you away from what you really want to be doing
- And that, ultimately, is the answer for most people: They automate tasks that keep them away from what they wish they would be doing.
Sometimes, those tradeoffs are business-critical functions.
Consider how much time a task is taking away from core business functions, such as sales or talking to customers. If the answer is more than 15 to 20 minutes a day, and it’s a rules-based process that uses software from start to finish, automation must be considered.Automation isn’t just about saving a few minutes here and there. It’s about how that time adds up over the long term.
All those little time blocks add up over the course of a year. 15 minutes saved per workday, over 225 average workdays in a year, equals more than 3,000 minutes saved. That’s close to 60 hours!
Start automating with Zapier today
- Have an idea about what work you could delegate to Zapier? Schedule a 15min consultation with us today.
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