What Is The Importance Of Task Automation In Productivity And Well-being?

•  97% of workers believe that automation will improve their organization’s efficiency.  
• The average employee loses around 60 hours a month doing easily automatable tasks, so the incentives for automating those tasks is quite clear. 
• Employers might want to take advantage of the opportunity to improve their organization’s efficiency and, in doing so, improve their worker’s well-being. 

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Walk into any health food store these days, and you are likely to see plenty of supplements, diets, or books marketed as “brain boosters.”  

In our day and age, our mind wanders non-stop. Social media and the internet have severely worsened our ability to hold our attention, not only to the things that matter but in general.   

Mental clarity and focus can be improved if you have fewer things that you need to do. Automating your tasks – specifically, repetitive, manual, or banal tasks – can significantly make it so you have far fewer things you need to do, thereby improving your mental clarity and focus.   

The average employee loses around 60 hours a month doing easily automatable tasks, so the incentives for automating those tasks should be quite clear. 

97% of workers believe that automation will improve their organization’s efficiency. And they’re right! The automation of banal tasks is one of the most prudent measures any worker or employer can take, as it reduces human error and clears time and energy for high-value tasks.  

The extent of what you can automate in your daily routine shows no limits. Here are some unintuitive ways you can automate your tasks to improve your mental clarity and focus, so you can clear up your time and attention to do the things that matter most to you.  

Workers spend too much time on repetitive tasks 

Among the reports on this topic, repetitive tasks are almost always those that workers say they spend too much time on. 70% of workers say that the biggest opportunity for automation is in repetitive work tasks.  

60% of workers believe that automating repetitive work could save them at least six or more hours a week, as 40% of workers state that at least a quarter of their time at work is spent doing such tasks.  

 43% of workers believe that such automation would clear the way for them to focus those  –essentially wasted – hours on more important high-level tasks.   

Some of the tasks included under the banner of “repetitive tasks” include data collection, approvals, and updates.  

78% of workers say that if these sorts of tasks were automated, not only would it clear time for them to do tasks of higher value but that they would do those tasks. They would be more motivated to do them, that is, leading to much more efficient worker output.  

Employers should take action and fast on automating repetitive tasks 

There is little to no reason why employers should not automate repetitive tasks. According to McKinsey, 45% of work activities could be automated using already existing technology.  

If your organization is not automating its tasks, it is demonstrably behind the competition. At least 65% of workers use some form of automation in their daily work routine, and 68% of workers say that their organization is in the process of developing such automation.  

Automation helps workers clear their minds and attention for more important tasks, making them greater assets to an organization.  

Insofar as an organization does not automate repetitive tasks, it will eventually fall behind its competition. For now, it might not be noticeable, but it increasingly will be in the coming years.   

Here are some ways in which employees can take automation into their own hands  

There are ways employees can do this on their own terms. For instance, journalists often use Grammarly for proofreading and smart labels in Gmail for sorting emails. 

Employees are interested in automating their repetitive tasks only partially because it will benefit their organization. In large measure, however, they want automation so they can clear up their time and attention for doing things that matter to them.  

Here are some ways workers can automate their own tasks on their own time:   

• Program your coffee maker to begin brewing right before you typically wake up 
• Use Google Calendar for all of your important events – personal and business 
• Use DropBox to organize and share your files 
• Use Python to consolidate your data 

Automating repetitive tasks is prudent because it decreases the risk of human error and clears up a profound amount of time and energy on the part of human workers to do work that matters.   

Technology now generally permits the automation of banal work tasks, and more companies are coming around to this realization. Those that do will save money, increase revenues, and will have happier, more productive workers than those that fail to automate mundane tasks.   

The data shows that this is how most workers feel about automating repetitive tasks. Employers with sense should see this as an opportunity to improve their organization’s efficiency and, in doing so, improve their worker’s well-being.