AugustOfAutomation — The Automation Continuum

In January 2023, I moved entirely from Windows/Android to Mac/iOS. One of the primary reasons I made this move was to take advantage of the power of automation. In the intervening year and a half, I’ve made some strong progress. But, I want to make more. So I’m going to focus on automation in August of this year — and perhaps every year to come. There is nothing better than a little alliteration to help you focus on a theme.

As I’ve reflected on automation, I have conceptualized automation as a continuum. Before we dig into that, let’s define automation.

What is automation?

I think we tend to overcomplicate things when it comes to automation. My perspective is that automation is anything that eases the effort needed to complete a task. Many believe that unless you get something or someone else to do something for you, it isn’t automation. That is definitely automation — but it’s not where automation starts. Automation starts when you identify the opportunity for automation and take advantage of those opportunities.

Identifying Opportunities for Automation

My friend R.J. Nestor has been one of the greatest influences on my thinking about automation. R.J. pioneered the idea of Capturing Recurrence which he speaks so eloquently about in his book The Rhythms of Productivity. I’ll be talking about examples of R.J.’s Productivity Bridges in my continuum and in this series throughout August. If you…