Getting started with automation can feel intimidating. It often seems like a complex, technical world reserved for developers. But what if you could build your first time-saving automation in the next 15 minutes, without writing a single line of code?
The truth is, some of the most impactful automations are incredibly simple. They are small “quick wins” that solve an immediate, annoying problem and free up your mental energy for more important work.
Using a free tool like Make.com, you can build any of the following five automations today. Let’s get started.
1. The Automatic File Clerk
- Problem: You receive important attachments via email (like invoices or client files) and have to manually download and sort them into the correct Google Drive folder.
- Automation: Create a workflow that watches your Gmail for any new email with an attachment. If the email has a specific label (e.g., “Invoices”), the automation will automatically save that attachment to your “Invoices 2025” folder in Google Drive.
- Time Saved: 5-10 minutes per day.
2. The Meeting Notifier
- Problem: You have a busy schedule, and new meetings sometimes pop up in your Google Calendar without you noticing, leading to last-minute scrambles.
- Automation: Create a workflow that watches your Google Calendar for new events. When a new meeting is added, it instantly sends you a notification in Slack or Microsoft Teams with the event details.
- Benefit: Stay on top of your schedule with real-time alerts in the communication app you use most.
3. The Email-to-Task Manager
- Problem: An important email comes in that requires action, but you’re in the middle of something else. You leave it in your inbox, hoping you’ll remember to deal with it later.
- Automation: Create a workflow that connects your email to a project management tool like Trello. When you apply a specific label to an email in Gmail (e.g., “ToDo”), the automation instantly creates a new card in your Trello “To-Do” list with the email’s subject as the title and the body as the description.
- Benefit: Never let an important task get buried in your inbox again.
4. The Social Media Echo
- Problem: You post a great photo on Instagram, but you don’t have time to post it natively on all your other platforms.
- Automation: Create a workflow that watches your Instagram account for new posts. When you publish a new photo, it automatically shares that same photo and its caption as a new post on your X (Twitter) or Facebook page.
- Benefit: Maintain a consistent presence across multiple social platforms with zero extra effort.
5. The Simple Time Tracker
- Problem: You need to track your hours for a specific project but hate using clunky time-tracking software.
- Automation: Create a workflow that connects a messaging app (like Telegram or even email) to a Google Sheet. You can send a simple message like “start project x” to trigger the automation to add a new row with the project name and the current start time. Send another message “stop project x” to have it automatically calculate the duration.
- Benefit: An incredibly simple, low-friction way to keep accurate records of your work.
These small automations are the building blocks of a more efficient business. By starting with these quick wins, you can begin to see the power of connecting your tools and building systems that work for you.
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