Find repetitive work first
Map the weekly tasks that consume focus without creating unique value. Repetition with clear inputs and outputs is the best candidate for automation.
Design guardrails early
Every automation needs rollback paths, alerting, and ownership. If no one owns failures, the system becomes silent technical debt.
Practical implementation checklist
- Define explicit trigger conditions and data validation rules.
- Log every run with success/failure metadata for debugging.
- Set fail-safe behaviors so partial failures do not corrupt downstream steps.
Final note
Automation should reduce cognitive load. If it adds hidden complexity, refine the underlying process before scaling it further.