This week we’re on playing along in group exercise to see if we can make some automation improvements to our own day-to-day tasks.

Don’t worry, you won’t be called upon to present your findings to everyone. But if at any point you’d like to email me your thoughts or questions, please do!

At this point you should have a file that contains the title of your task and a bare-bones list of steps that need to be done to accomplish that task.

Here’s what I have from yesterday’s task:

Task: Write and publish a HaiQu daily email.

1. Review my idea list and the past few posts. What am I going to write about today?
2. If there are any Excel examples, build or open them and take screenshots.
3. If there are any diagrams or flowcharts, build or open them (using d2 or Powerpoint as required).
4. Write a draft of the email in markdown in my text editor.
5. Copy my draft to the Convertkit editor on its website. Read through the email and polish, while inserting screenshots in the correct places.
6. Check spelling.
7. Write the title.
8. Publish to the email list
9. Publish the link to ex-twitter. Add tags.

(As an aside, for some reason I find it easier to write drafts in the text editor, but I like polishing it up in the Convertkit editor)

Part 2: Identify our requirements

Take a look at your task. Let’s start with the inputs:

• What triggers the start of the task? Is it a date or an event? Do you need to receive an email from someone?
• What information do you need before you start your task? Where does that information come from?
• Are there other people involved? How?
• Where do you do the task? Does it have to be in your office? Or can you complete it anywhere?
• Do you need to open any files? Websites?

…and the Outputs:

• What does this task list produce? Is it a file, paper, conversation, or a ‘thing’?
• What kind of quality do you need to meet?
• Are there any other constraints on the output?
• Where does the output go? How does it get there?

While we're at it, let's think about why we're doing this and what we want to get out of it.

What is your goal for working on this task? For example, do you just want it to take less time and effort? Make the output more consistent or higher quality? Or perhaps to be able to easily delegate it to someone else? What would the ideal outcome?

How much effort would be 'worth it' for that outcome?

Until next time, thanks for reading!

– Brendan

p.s. Enjoy this message? Read more at the Hyland Quality Systems website.